ABC boss Kim Williams launches extraordinary attack on Joe Rogan: ‘Prey on people’s vulnerabilities’

ABC chair Kim Williams has launched an extraordinary attack on US podcaster Joe Rogan, claiming the popular and influential host ‘preys on people’s vulnerability’.

Williams made the comments while speaking at the National Press Club on Wednesday.

He was asked by ABC reporter Jane Norman how the national broadcaster could capture an audience similar to that of Rogan, whose long-form interviews regularly attract tens of millions of downloads and views.

‘I am not a consumer or enthusiast about Mr Rogan and his work,’ Williams replied. 

‘People like Mr Rogan prey on people’s vulnerabilities. They prey on fear. They prey on anxiety. 

‘They prey on all of the elements that contribute to uncertainty in society, and they entrepreneur fantasy outcomes and conspiracy outcomes as being a normal part of social narrative.’

He went so far as to say he found Rogan’s reach in the US ‘deeply repulsive’. 

‘I’m also absolutely in dismay that this can be a source of public entertainment, when it’s really treating the public as plunder for purposes that are really quite malevolent.’

The Joe Rogan Experience is the most popular podcast on Spotify with 14.5million followers.

Rogan signed a $200million deal with the streaming giant in 2020. 

His interview with Donald Trump was cited as a key factor in deciding this month’s election, with the Republican candidate’s vote among young men – the core of Rogan’s audience – reaching new highs. 

Williams’ comments come after Rogan told his audience that he would not move to Australia because the country put people in ‘concentration camps’ for ‘a cold’ during the Covid lockdowns. 

The podcaster said he had once considered Australia as a viable alternative to the US but his mind had since changed. 

‘I used to think Australia but then I saw how they handled the pandemic I was like ‘”oh f**, that well that’s what happens when no one has guns”,’ he said.

‘Yep the army just rolls in and tells you what to do and puts you in concentration camps because you have a cold, like it’s crazy.’

During the Covid pandemic Australia quarantined people arriving in the country for weeks before they were able to enter the community.

Most were put in hotels but some were also housed in temporary isolation camps.

Williams’ comments come after Rogan said he could never move to Australia due to the country’s Covid policy

Australia’s specialised national quarantine facility, Howard Springs on the outskirts of Darwin, hosted around 64,000 people for a mandatory two-week isolation period.

Opponents of the quarantine arrangement described the Howard Springs centre as a ‘concentration camp’. 

Williams, who took over as chair of the ABC in March, has since taken swipes at his own journalists over the quality of the news they were producing. 

He said in August that the national broadcaster was producing too much news and current affairs that was ‘filler and bland’. 

‘We tend at times to go to that which is more representative of tabloid sensibility, than what I would regard as being national responsibility.’

He inherited a ‘severely depleted’ broadcaster and largely blamed a lack of funding for the ABC’s downfall – specifically a 13.7 per cent reduction during the Coalition Government’s time in power.

He has also had to deal with Sydney staff grumbling about a shift from headquarters near the CBD to an office in Parramatta.

The move to ‘modernise’ has been widely lamented by ABC staff with the 25-minute commute from the city centre sparking logistical issues. 

The ABC plans to move some 300 staff to the new location, a project set to cost $39million, in order to improve its services in the western suburbs – which Williams has labelled ‘the nation’s fastest growing residential region’.