Joe Rogan called out MSNBC during an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience with guest Andrew Wilson for digitally altering the appearance of Alex Pretti, the man who was shot during protests in Minneapolis.
Rogan drew a direct comparison to his own experience with CNN during the COVID pandemic.
“Did you see what MSNBC did to his image?” Rogan asked Wilson during their conversation about the Minneapolis incident.
When Wilson confirmed he had seen it, Rogan explained: “They did the opposite of what CNN did to me. You know, CNN during the COVID times turned me green and they made me ugly and look like I was dying and they made him handsome.”
Rogan described the specific alterations MSNBC made to make Pretti appear more sympathetic: “So people would be more sympathetic to him getting sh*t, which is kind of wild. Like are ugly people less valuable to MSNBC?”
The podcast host detailed the changes visible in side-by-side comparison images: “Look at the difference. They shortened up his face. They gave him a little bit of a tan. They widened his face a little bit. It seems like they just made him a little handsomer.”
Wilson agreed, noting “They gave him gave him a bit of that Chad jaw, didn’t they?”
Rogan continued cataloging the alterations: “They shrunk his nose a little, too, didn’t they? They did. They shrunk his nose. Gave him a little bit of a handsome jaw.”
Wilson observed that even the shoulders appeared modified, with Rogan responding “A little bit. Yeah. The one on the right looks like looks like he’s a little plumper.”
The most noticeable change, according to Rogan, involved Pretti’s teeth: “They changed his f**king teeth, man. They gave him veneers. Like look at the difference in his teeth. He’s a much more handsome guy. Like the one on the right is like the handsome brother and the one on the left is like, ‘F**k, why couldn’t I look like the one on the right hand?'”
Wilson used a humorous analogy to describe the difference: “The one on the right, they were twins and he took more of the protein. That was what happened.”
Rogan found the media manipulation significant enough to comment on the broader implications: “That is crazy to me.” The alterations included color tone changes and facial feature modifications that fundamentally changed Pretti’s appearance in the edited version.
