Did Oklahoma Want To Tap Joe Rogan For An Education Committee?

CORRECTION: This story has been updated throughout to reflect that this was an assignment to someone outside the department.

Less than two weeks after Ryan Walters, the top school official in Oklahoma, came under fire for tapping the far-right founder of Libs of TikTok for an advisory committee of the state Department of Education, one of his top staffers appeared to discuss yet another committee appointee: Joe Rogan.

Rogan, a comedian, UFC commentator and host of the podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience,” has soared in popularity around the world for his brash, off-the-cuff long-form conversations with politicians, comedians and philosophers. Rogan, who has nearly 14 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) and 19 million followers on Instagram, has let anti-vaccine misinformation, conspiracy theories and transphobic and racist talking points run wild on his platform.

Internal emails HuffPost obtained via a public records request show that in early February, Dan Isett, a spokesperson for Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, sent an “assignment” to someone outside the department tasking them with putting together a draft press release announcing Rogan’s addition to the department’s Library Media Advisory Committee — the advisory body at the center of the state’s effort to purge from school libraries all books that it identifies as “pornographic” or otherwise unsuitable for children. The committee reviews and makes recommendations about books and other materials available in libraries.

“Thanks again for your attention to this assignment,” Isett wrote. “It’s not meant to be a heavy lift.”

The draft release, which the individual sent back the following day, featured a picture of Rogan and touted him as a “huge addition” to the committee. And it included a fawning quote attributed to Walters, in which he described Rogan as a “giant in the national public square” who would “supercharge” the department’s efforts.

“Joe has warned against ‘woke, guilt-ridden ideology’ in schools, particularly in other parts of the country,” the statement attributed to Walters read. “Like Joe, Oklahomans want nothing to do with that. I look forward to Joe’s candor and ideas. This is a huge addition, not just for the purposes of the committee … but also for…