The NJ Drone Situation Is the Perfect Example of the Dangers of Joe Rogan

Prior to this morning, I hadn’t been paying much attention to the New Jersey drone situation, mainly because I’m not a conspiracy theorist, and there isn’t an actual situation. However, I did listen to a 404 Media podcast episode on the topic. A journalist who has been covering drones for years confirmed what seemed obvious: it’s nothing. There are some drones — a mix of commercial and hobbyist — plenty of commercial aircraft, and even a few stars. Thanks to the conspiracy frenzy, more people are now flying their drones to investigate, adding to the confusion.

The same thing happened in Colorado in 2019, generating significant media attention. The coverage fizzled out when a bigger story (in that case, the pandemic) came along. The NJ drone situation may follow the same pattern, creating headlines until the media shifts focus to something more captivating.

The podcast highlighted that much of the media attention is being fueled by grifters — people exploiting the hype to raise their profiles on cable news and in the podcast world. Not so coincidentally, the next podcast in my queue was today’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, entirely devoted to the New Jersey drone situation.

A few weeks ago, I listened to several episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience to better understand what I was criticizing. The criticism is warranted. I now occasionally check in, depending on the guest, because if Rogan can influence media narratives, I want to hear it firsthand. So far, the only episode I listened to in full was his interview with Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary. Surprisingly, it was dull, although Avary did spend 20 minutes at the end talking about how recklessly killing a man in a car accident affected him, without once expressing remorse or acknowledging the humanity of the deceased.

Today’s episode provided a stark understanding of why Joe Rogan is dangerous. He essentially introduced the conspiracy theory that the drones are searching for a missing nuclear bomb from Ukraine. Rogan admitted he was “freaking out this weekend” over this idea, despite acknowledging that his information came entirely from social media.

“In this day and age, with social media, there are so many narratives that get spread and retweeted. Like, ‘I know this guy. He’s an insider. And he says to get out of the East Coast and head for Nevada.’ There’s a lot of that shit going on.”

Does Rogan not realize he’s describing exactly what he does on his show —- but to the largest podcast audience on the planet?

He went on to claim, “I know that they’ve shot at least one of those down,” based on a video he saw. In the next breath, he added, “I don’t know if it was real.” (His producer later clarified that the video was of an unrelated plane crash.)

“Again, this is the problem with social media,” Rogan said. “Especially for me, someone who is just scrolling for five minutes.”

And yet, Rogan — who admits to getting his information from quick social media scrolls — goes on to amplify that misinformation on his podcast.

But, Rogan explained, in this case, he deliberately chose not to “do a deep dive” or fact-check because he was waiting for the “real story” from his guest, Ryan Graves, a U.S. Navy pilot known for reporting sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena.

Now, I’m not saying Graves is a grifter or has a vested interest in linking drones to aliens, but I am saying that Graves told Rogan about 800-1,000 drones rising from the ocean annually around the holidays and maneuvering in ways that might defy physics.

That’s about when I stopped listening.

I will say this: Rogan is so out to lunch on this topic that he’s skeptical of his close friend Elon Musk. Musk dismissed the idea of extraterrestrial drones, but Rogan thinks Musk’s involvement in the space program creates a conflict of interest that prevents him from sharing the “truth.”

Honestly, the only thing I wonder is whether these people will stop speculating about government conspiracies if Donald Trump regains control of the government. That might be one tiny silver lining.