Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald lit up CNN anchor Jim Acosta over a tweet mocking Daily Mail columnist Meghan McCain.
It all began with a tweet from McCain about the controversy surrounding podcast host Joe Rogan and attempts — from liberals on Twitter, mainstream media, and even the White House — to have his host platform Spotify take more action to limit his reach.
“I think a lot of people are really missing the point. Ask yourself why so many Americans have fled mainstream media and gone to Joe Rogan,” McCain tweeted last week. “He gets 100 million listeners a month and Jim Acosta can’t even break half a million in primetime. Why doesn’t anyone trust you anymore?”
I think a lot of people are really missing the point.
Ask yourself why so many Americans have fled mainstream media and gone to Joe Rogan. He gets 100 million listeners a month and Jim Acosta can’t even break half a million in primetime.
Why doesn’t anyone trust you anymore?
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) January 31, 2022
But in the days that followed, the woke mob continued to come for Rogan, and critics combed through his archives until they found other “problematic” comments including a number of instances in which he used the “n-word.”
Rogan apologized Saturday in an Instagram post, saying that his language — particularly around race — was the “most regretful and shameful thing” he had ever had to address.
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In addition, dozens of old episodes of Rogan’s podcast were quietly removed from the platform, as The Daily Wire reported:
More than 100 episodes of Joe Rogan’s “The Joe Rogan Experience” have vanished from Spotify as the company faces left-wing backlash for providing its services to Rogan.
JREMissing reported Saturday that 113 episodes of the show have been taken down, most of them late this week. Rogan reportedly made the decision to pull the episodes following conversations that he had with Spotify.
The news comes as Rogan apologized for using a racial slur in old episodes of the show that he says were taken out of context in an attempt to ruin him. Rogan says that he used the slur when quoting others instead of saying the “n-word.”
Acosta took that opportunity to turn the attack on McCain, quoting her tweet and saying, “I’ll take tweets that didn’t age well for 500 …”
I'll take tweets that didn't age well for 500… https://t.co/GZGSwxddyI
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) February 5, 2022
A number of critics fired back at Acosta:
- Ted Cruz: “Aged pretty damn well. 100 million people still listen to @joerogan. And nobody listens to you.”
- Ben Domenech: “Is that how many people watch your show?”
- Brandon Darby: “Respectfully, I’m not sure that you’re in a good position to start playing the ‘Tweets that didn’t age well’ game, Mister.”
- Matthew Marsden: “Jealousy is a horrible thing.”
- Meghan McCain: “Little sensitive about [how] hilariously shitty your ratings are?”
Greenwald summed it up in one tweet, saying that the mass campaign to cancel Rogan had actually done nothing to disprove McCain’s assessment.
Everything in @MeghanMcCain's tweet is still completely true. Millions of people still watch and trust Joe Rogan, while Jim @Acosta can't even attract an audience equal to a mid-sized YouTuber despite being on CNN prime-time with a giant corporation backing and promoting him. pic.twitter.com/Du38J4OFHU
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 5, 2022
“Everything in @MeghanMcCain‘s tweet is still completely true. Millions of people still watch and trust Joe Rogan, while Jim @Acosta can’t even attract an audience equal to a mid-sized YouTuber despite being on CNN prime-time with a giant corporation backing and promoting him,” Greenwald said.