Joe Rogan is backtracking after getting duped by a fake news story.
On Monday, the podcaster shared a fake story, made to look like a CNN report, claiming that actor Steven Seagal had joined Russian special forces in the war against Ukraine.
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“Intelligence agencies around the world have spotted American actor Steven Seagal among Russian special forces positioned around the outskirts of Gostomel airfield near Kyiv captured by Russian airborne troops,” the fake report claimed.
In his now-deleted post, Rogan wrote, “If I had to guess the plot of this f***** up movie we’re living through I would say we are about 14 hours from the arrival of the aliens.”
After being called out by users for sharing the fake story as though it was real, Rogan deleted the post and followed it up with another, explaining why he fell for the forgery in the first place.
“I deleted my earlier post about Steven Seagal being in Ukraine because it was parody, which isn’t surprising, but honestly it wouldn’t be surprising if it was true either. He was banned from Ukraine in 2017 because he was labeled as a national security threat,” Rogan wrote, along with a screenshot of a real Washington Post story about Seagal being banned from Ukraine.
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“I, like all of you hope the tragic situation is resolved there quickly,” Rogan added.
The walk-back comes after Rogan has faced a string of controversies, including Neil Young and a number of other artists pulling their music from Spotify over their support of Rogan’s podcast spreading COVID-19 misinformation.
