Podcast host Joe Rogan slammed corporate media on Wednesday for its biased coverage of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), particularly its plans to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Rogan pointed to the media’s focus on criticizing Musk’s involvement and ignoring the massive waste uncovered at USAID, which has been a central part of DOGE’s audit efforts.
Since Musk announced plans on February 3 to dismantle USAID, several mainstream media outlets have reacted with intense criticism.
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A keyword search of archived footage by the Daily Caller News Foundation found that CNN and MSNBC used the phrase “constitutional crisis” over 200 times in their reporting, a clear sign of how extensively these networks have covered the issue.
However, Rogan believes the media has neglected to address the major problems within USAID, focusing instead on sensationalist stories about Musk’s actions and concerns over data privacy.
“What’s unbelievably baffling to me is the complete absence of the coverage of all of these things that should be very concerning in mainstream media,” Rogan said on The Joe Rogan Experience.
“Complete absence. All the discussion, the negative anti-Trump discussion about USAID shutting down, is all the good that it does.”
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Rogan emphasized that while the mainstream media continues to attack Trump and Musk over their efforts to shut down USAID, there has been little to no reporting on the wasteful spending that DOGE has uncovered. Instead, coverage has focused on concerns over DOGE staffers potentially accessing private American data.
“You’re hearing the gaslighting spin is those two things,” Rogan added, referring to the media’s negative framing of the shutdown and concerns about privacy.
Rogan’s comments come in light of revelations about USAID’s spending practices, which have been under intense scrutiny by Musk and DOGE. According to reports, USAID spent millions on family planning initiatives in 2022, including 65.5 million condoms, 9.8 million injectable contraceptives, and 334,000 intrauterine devices (IUDs) aimed at facilitating family planning, particularly in developing countries.
Furthermore, USAID issued a $2 million grant to Guatemala to support “gender-affirming care” and LGBTQ activism, raising concerns among critics about the agency’s priorities.
Rogan criticized USAID’s spending on what he described as “crazy shit,” highlighting the wastefulness of these initiatives.
He accused the left-wing media of ignoring these issues, choosing instead to focus on the perceived positives of USAID’s overseas aid programs.
“It’s crazy and it’s so interesting, I was listening to a left-wing podcast today—I like to mix it up, you know, I listen to all kinds of different stuff—and it was like I was listening to a different world,” Rogan said.
“They weren’t even talking about all this corruption and all this obvious buying of influence.”
Rogan also defended Musk’s plan to dismantle USAID, arguing that the agency has been responsible for significant wasteful spending that does not align with American interests.
“It’s very strange that the media’s ignoring it, especially the left-wing media,” Rogan continued.
“It’s just too much of a win for the right, and so they’re just ignoring it and then they’re just highlighting the good things that USAID did, which I’m sure they probably did. Probably had to do some good things to at least justify its existence.”
Rogan’s criticism highlights the growing frustration with how major media outlets cover government waste and corruption, especially in cases where it involves agencies like USAID that are funded by American taxpayers.
As Musk and DOGE continue to audit government spending, the pressure is mounting for greater transparency and accountability.
However, as Rogan points out, the media’s refusal to cover these issues fairly underscores the political divide over government reform efforts.
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If you have the stomach for it, time to be a little less naive. The point of USAID when created was to be a high visibility way to do some good that looks like humanitarian aid, while being a low visibility opportunity to fund CIA operations around the world. From the same era as the Peace Corps, is that white guy here organizing a village effort to dig pit toilets to stop the spread of hookworms, or is he gathering intel on who in the village has communist sympathies? Is there a difference? Maybe it’s both. How can you tell? You can’t; that’s the point. The USAID logo was on the bags of rice, but the reality was not always nearly as pretty. Because it was always run as an operation at least partly by and for liars, it is not surprising that it attracted them and that they have been less than forthcoming about what they have been doing with the money, or that they have stolen or wasted a lot of it. In the same way that its creation was midwifed by liars, so now its disassembly is also attended by liars, on both sides.