Elon Musk reacts to Joe Rogan's remarks on "evil" mainstream media downplaying SpaceX's astronaut rescue: "They relentlessly push negative propaganda"

Joe Rogan recently lambasted the mainstream media for allegedly downplaying the Elon Musk-helmed SpaceX's role in rescuing a pair of astronauts who were stuck on the International Space Station (ISS). Musk soon responded to Rogan's comments by suggesting that certain sections of the socio-political realm were indeed downplaying his work.

As reported by The Guardian, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronauts Barry 'Butch' Wilmore and Sunita Williams were stuck on the ISS since June 2024. After Donald Trump officially took over as the U.S. President in January 2025, he reportedly tasked SpaceX boss Elon Musk to bring the astronauts back to Earth.

Musk, who's a Senior Advisor to Trump and the public face of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), subsequently got his SpaceX organization to launch a mission. SpaceX and NASA collaborated and successfully brought back Williams and Wilmore to Earth earlier this month (March 2025).

On episode #2297 of The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) podcast, Joe Rogan recently hosted fellow comedian Francis Foster and political commentator Konstantin Kisin. Rogan indicated that certain politically-motivated people were continually attempting to discredit Donald Trump and Elon Musk. He stated:

"They're trying to sh** on everything he [Donald Trump] does; hide all the good stuff. You didn't hear a peep about Elon [Musk] rescuing those people. That should have been on all of the news stories all day long. We should have had a live stream of it."

"It should have been a huge national event -- we're finally going to rescue the astronauts who were trapped in the space station for eight f**king months. And this super-genius, this Elon Musk character, is the guy who figured out how to go get them. His company went and rescued them because we can't do it anymore. We couldn't rescue them. We had to rely on his company. And you don't hear sh** about it ... It's crazy," he added.

Watch Rogan discuss the topic below (18:56):

Elon Musk responded to a video featuring Joe Rogan's aforementioned assessment on X. Musk alluded to his alleged N*** salute debacle from earlier this year and wrote:

"The goal of the left is to destroy my influence. So they relentlessly push negative propaganda about me like the fake N*** stuff and ignore anything positive. They are evil."

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Elon Musk and Joe Rogan recently reaffirmed their disapproval of "legacy media"

Over the past few years, tech billionaire Elon Musk and UFC color commentator Joe Rogan have consistently vocalized their condemnation of the supposed bias in mainstream media outlets. Musk and Rogan have time and again implied that there's an alleged left-leaning bias in legacy media.

In episode #2281 of JRE last month, Musk stated:

"Almost all the media is left shifted. So it's kind of weird if you talk to somebody who gets all their information from legacy media, they are living in a different world than if they are listening to your podcast or getting news from X."

Furthermore, Elon Musk and Joe Rogan expounded upon the allegedly false claims that some media outlets made about Musk having wrongfully fired air traffic controllers.

Watch Rogan and Musk address the topic below (41:15):