Joe Rogan Mocks AI-Altered Alex Pretti Image Accidentally Aired by MS NOW: ‘The Opposite of What CNN Did to Me’ | Video
Joe Rogan got his eyebrows all the way up on Wednesday when discussing an image of Minneapolis ICE shooting victim Alex Pretti that was mistakenly featured on an MS NOW segment which had clearly been altered to make him look “handsomer” – calling it the inverse of “what CNN did to me” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rogan and conservative commentator Andrew Wilson were discussing the weekend shooting of Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis on Wednesday’s episode “The Joe Rogan Experience” when the host segued into the obviously enhanced image.
“Did you see what MSNBC did to his image?” Rogan said in the middle of the discussion – in which he incorrectly assumed that the outlet had made the alteration.
“Yeah,” Wilson replied. “Where they gussied it up?”
Rogan consistently used the old “MSNBC” moniker for the cable news network, which rebranded as MS NOW late last year. MS NOW had no comment, but a person with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap that the image had been pulled from the internet and was not created by the network; its origin was still not clear.
The altered portrait of the 37-year-old VA nurse was used in at least one MS NOW segment — Monday’s episode of “Deadline: White House” hosted by Nicolle Wallace – and the network later acknowledged that the photo was doctored in an editor’s note.
“Basically they did the opposite of what CNN did to me,” Rogan continued. “You know, CNN during the COVID times turned me green, made me look ugly and like I was dying, and they made him handsome … so people would be more sympathetic to him getting shot, which is kind of wild. Like, are ugly people less valuable?”
“That is crazy to me,” he continued, looking at a side-by-side on the screen. “Look at the difference. They shortened his face. They gave him a little bit of a tan. They widened his face a little bit. They just made him a little handsomer.”
Wilson remarked that whoever doctored the photo “gave him a bit of that Chad jaw.”
After X users noted that the altered image had been used in the “Deadline: White House” segment, MS NOW added an editors note to its YouTube link that stated: “EDITOR’S NOTE: MS NOW swapped out the original thumbnail image for this video. The previous thumbnail used was an AI-enhanced image of Alex Pretti.”
Rogan and Wilson continued to analyze the side-by-side, noting that his nose was made smaller and his shoulders were broadened.
“They changed the tone of the color,” Rogan said. “Wild. I mean, they changed his teeth. … They gave him veneers.”
Watch the entire exchange in the video above.
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