Sir, – Further to "Joni Mitchell to remove music from Spotify 'in solidarity' with Neil Young" (News, January 29th), it is totally disingenuous of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to be pushing for censorship on Spotify when they themselves had views which were the polar opposite to the narrative of their government during the Vietnam war and on a multitude of issues of their day, including drugs, abortion, sex outside marriage, nuclear armament, and the most glaring of all, free speech. Their views today are clearly at odds with the world where their lyrics and opinions had their own massive platform in which to flourish, make them both rich and famous, and influence a generation of people globally.
Seems like Neil only wants us all to keep rocking – if it’s in the censored world that contains his personal world view.
How sad to see that for both musicians wisdom has not come with age. – Yours, etc,
UNA NÍ CHORMAIC,
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Cabra,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – Hugh Linehan is absolutely right to praise Neil Young's decades-long, independent-minded support of progressive causes ("Spotify's bottom line means Neil Young is unlikely to cancel Joe Rogan", Culture, January 28th).
That said, the best reason to withdraw your work from Spotify is in protest at the notoriously stingy compensation it provides artists who are not part of the big corporate labels. A bad reason is to try and pressure Spotify to censor one of its podcasters.
Joe Rogan is an unconventional podcaster who has interviewed anti-vaxxers – but that’s not the reason why he has such a big audience. His millions of fans tune in because he interviews people from right across the political and cultural spectrum without favour or condescension.
If you want to hear an extended, two-hour or three-hour in-depth interview with Bernie Sanders, Russell Brand, Edward Snowden, Amanda Knox, or Oliver Stone, you turn on Joe Rogan. One of his highest rated interviews was with CNN’s chief medical correspondent and in-house Covid expert, Dr Sanjay Gupta. Similarly if you want to understand critical race theory and the Black Lives Matter movement, his interview with Black scholar and activist Cornel West is fascinating.
Censorship won’t kill off the lies and conspiracy theories about Covid. The best way to deal with them is through open and frank discussion. There are plenty of reasons to criticise Joe Rogan’s programming – and he does interview too many conspiracy theorists – but demanding he be censored because you don’t like some of his guests takes us down a dark road that won’t lead anywhere good. – Is mise,
REDMOND COMERFORD,
Manhattan,
New York.