Video: Brian Stelter is distressed because Joe Rogan is 'trusted by people' who don't trust 'major newsrooms like CNN'

CNN's Brian Stelter seemed quite distressed when he admitted that the world's most popular podcaster, Joe Rogan, is "trusted by people" who don't trust "major newsrooms like CNN."

What are the details?

Stelter — CNN's chief media correspondent — appeared Monday on the network's "At This Hour" daytime program in regard to left-wing backlash against Spotify for platforming Rogan's podcast amid claims of COVID-19 misinformation.

At the end of a clip with Rogan telling his Instagram audience that he wants to show his viewers "all kinds opinions," Stelter's hand-wringing commenced as he commented to anchor Kate Bolduan:

Which sounds great, but not all opinions are created equal. You think about major newsrooms like CNN that have health departments and desks and operations that work hard on verifying information on COVID-19. And then you have talk show stars like Joe Rogan who just wing it, who make it up as they go along. And because figures like Rogan are trusted by people who don't trust real newsrooms, we have a tension, a problem that’s much bigger than Spotify, much bigger than any single platform, Kate, but that's what’s at the heart of this right now.

What was the reaction?

As you might guess, many folks out there on Twitter thought Stelter's take was rather tone-deaf:

• "I trust Bill Cosby as a bartender more than I trust anything on CNN," one commenter said.
• "Joe Rogan’s podcast is literally just unfiltered conversations with different people who have different perspectives," another user said. "Why is the left so threatened by that?"
• "Finally @brianstelter says something true," another commenter said. "This is much bigger [than] Spotify. And the BIG issue is newsrooms have proven to be very biased and untrustworthy!"
• "They are stating the wrong problem - The problem (for CNN) isn't that people are trusting Joe Rogan over 'news.' It's that people are trusting their own minds over the available 'news.' Spoon feeding ppl a certain narrative is no longer working. Ppl want to think for themselves," another user noted.

(H/T: NewsBusters)