Jack Houghton:
Joining me this week to discuss, he’s chief economist at the Institute of Public Affairs, and of course, former Washington correspondent at the Australian newspaper, Adam Creighton, welcome back to the show, Adam.
Adam Creighton:
Thanks, Jack, great to be here.
Jack Houghton:
Well, this was a very funny saga, he really did charm them, but the thing I love the most is when Joy Behar is asked about having a nice, pleasant conversation off camera, you can actually see the moment her poker face returns, and she goes, “No, no, I actually really don’t like Republicans.”
Adam Creighton:
Yes, look, that’s certainly true. I think it was a political coup, the whole episode for JD Vance. He came across as the erudite, reasonable, and calm person that he almost always is, and I think he appeared in a good light in front of a predominantly very left wing audience. So, I think him and his office, he and his office rather, would be very happy about it, that appearance. It was risky as JD Vance said on Gutfeld, he was expecting it to be far worse, but it actually turned out to be very good. He’s a reasonable guy, I think Joy Behar also said that she’d like to see him up against Gavin Newsom, she thought that would be an interesting fight. But just on the content earlier too, of the supposed degradation of Black Americans, I don’t know what on earth Whoopi was talking about.
Certainly during the first Trump presidency, the socioeconomic conditions of Black Americans improved by more than they have in many, many decades, and in the most recent election that I covered there in 2024, I think Donald Trump got the biggest share of Black voters that any Republican president has ever had. So, certainly there’d be lots of Black people who would disagree with Whoopi Goldberg.
Jack Houghton:
Yeah, nothing stops the train of thought of a leftist more than just asking them for an example, that really did stop her in her tracks. Let’s move on though because there’s been this moment on Joe Rogan where he’s talking about interference from the White House back in the COVID era.
Joe Rogan:
There was presidents involved and former presidents involved that were contacting Spotify, trying to get me removed for vaccine misinformation.
Chase Hughes:
Wow-
Joe Rogan:
And it turned out to be right, all of it. Not a single apology from anybody, not a single retraction, not a single mea culpa, not a single we were wrong. And I lost a lot of sponsors, I lost a lot during those days.
Jack Houghton:
Adam, we knew that there was a lot of pressure, we work in the media, we felt a lot of pressure from some of these more nefarious forces. For former presidents, current presidents, without speculating on who they might be, I think obviously Biden’s one of them being president during a large chunk of the period of time he was talking about, how inappropriate. And by the way, how great for Spotify to hold strong and say, “No, we’re not going to be bullied by you.”
Adam Creighton:
Yes, look, it is very impressive, and certainly not surprising at all. As someone who also spoke a lot about COVID, there was a lot of pressure on me, and I can imagine the pressure on someone like Joe Rogan, of course, would’ve been extraordinarily great and very intense. And yes, thank God Spotify is a Swedish company, I believe, so they didn’t care so much for what the US government said, but there’ve been plenty of court cases in the US over the last few years that have shown the Biden administration was interfering with Facebook, with Twitter, of course, before it was owned by Elon Musk, to try to take down and censor various posts that in many cases just offering a reasonable critique of government policy. And indeed all those critiques, as it turned out, turned out to be true. And everything that Joe Rogan said, the substance of it anyway, was also true about the vaccines, they certainly failed to live up to expectations.
I think that is putting it very, very mildly. So, he should be dining out on that for the rest of his career, although he doesn’t need to, of course, he has many other feathers in his cap. But a full credit to Joe Rogan for sticking to his line, and he’s quite right. If he had of been number 90 in one country, he would’ve been snuffed out for sure. But he was popular, and he had a lot of listeners, many, many millions, still does, and probably has more now, I would say, because he was proved right during that episode. So, that was a very, very embarrassing and also very destructive period for Western elites, I would say, in terms of impact on their countries.
Jack Houghton:
Well said. Well said. Let’s take a quick look at how the media has reacted to the US-Iran deal.
Masih Alinejad:
… [inaudible 00:04:20] it’s not a surrender. So, for me and millions of Iranians, we are nervous because we know that how they’re going to use the money, to rebuild Hamas, to rebuild Hezbollah.
Bill Cassidy:
This will go down as a tremendous foreign policy blunder. Iran ends up stronger.
Richard McCormick:
This really improves their economy, it doesn’t give us assurances that they don’t have a nuclear programme that they’re going to try to rebuild.
Ted Cruz:
Sending $300 billion to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is not a good idea.
Journalist:
A wise man once said, in January of 2020, “Iran never won a war but never lost a negotiation.” That wise man-
Donald Trump:
Who said that?
Journalist:
Donald Trump.
Mike Pence:
Sanctions, waivers right out of the gate, that would essentially be a lifeline to the Iranian regime.
Kaitlan Collins:
Sir, are you okay with Iran having missiles?
Roger Marshall:
I’m hesitating. I prefer that they not, I certainly don’t want them to have long distance missiles, I don’t want them to have-
Jack Houghton:
Adam, your thoughts?
Adam Creighton:
Well, look, I’m fairly sympathetic to Trump here, I suppose, all these armchair generals criticising what’s happened, and of course the media, most of it left wing, is going to criticise him regardless of what he does. But if the US wants to impose its will completely on Iran, it’s going to have to send tens of thousands of troops there and many thousands of them will die. So, it’s all very well for Senator Cruz to say he should have gone further, but there are real consequences with that. Is it a great foreign policy failure? It’s too early to say because the nuclear negotiations haven’t started yet, they’ll start in 60 days, I believe. The strait is now open again, so oil prices will fall. Of course, as you know, the midterm elections are coming up in the US in November, so from a political point of view, I can see why Donald Trump wanted to end the war, which I might add was extremely unpopular.
I think even amongst Republicans, it barely had 50% support, and certainly more than half Americans didn’t want it in the first place. So, from a domestic political point of view, I can see why Trump’s done what he’s done. Of course, Israel’s upset, some people are upset, but you can’t have everything, and maybe it was inadvisable to start the war in the first place.
Jack Houghton:
Adam Creighton, thank you so much, really appreciate your insights.
This transcript with Adam Creighton talking on The Media Show – Sky News Australia from 19 June 2026 has been edited for clarity.
