May 29, 2024The 2020 election caught a stir among people, not just citizens but many celebrities went forward to share their opinions. One of these celebs was Taylor Swift who recalls a “moment of quiet, cautious elation and relief” in her Entertainers of the Year story for Entertainment Weekly. The worldwide famous pop star had no conflicts with politics up until 2018. In 2020, she showed her support for the Democratic Party. In a V magazine interview on October 7, 2020, she expressed her wish that her vote for Biden would begin the nation’s “healing process.” Joe Biden showed appreciation for Swifts’ support on Twitter and added: “Election Day is right around the corner — are you ready for it?” With the 2024 election slowly approaching, people bring up the question that she will again endorse Biden. This creates conflict within the other parties. Accusations stir on social media with people saying that the only way for Biden to get reelected is from the support of Swift. Media exclaims that Swift and Biden are working together, one person saying this claim is Fox News anchor Jesse Watters, who has been known for his False accusations towards the democratic party.
Who is Jesse Watters?
Fox News is frequently labeled as a conservative media platform, known for its biased reporting that tends to favor conservative political positions. The tone and framing of its coverage of specific topics, show a much different approach to political topics. Jesse Watters stepped up to become the main host of Fox News 8 p.m. EST hour after the firing of former host Tucker Carlson. He also has numerous other shows for Fox, Watters’ World, The Five, and Jesse Watters Primetime are some of the few. The controversy of Fox News comes with controversial TV hosts. States Representative Dan Crenshaw used to be close friends with Watters until an Instagram story where Crenshaw stated, “I’m sitting here trying to feed my 3-month-old, and this dirtbag millionaire at Fox is accusing me of being a criminal with zero evidence.” “Hack ”, “clown”, and “desperate for clickbait,” are some words that Crenshaw also used to describe Watters. Watter makes millions of dollars to push absurd conspiracy theories, as well as bashing people for unnecessary reasons. Watter describes his shows as “an entertaining hour with news and politics and culture, crime, tabloid — everything.” In reality, his shows are very aggressive and push information that is most likely not true. Though he will sometimes cite information, he uses a strawman vs steelman tactic to twist and turn the information he reads.
Watters has been no stranger to controversy throughout his career. Citing someone like Watters can be different due to his aggressive approach to topics. He’s very open about what he believes in, a Rolling Stones article made by Ryan Bort explores the controversies that Watters has made over the years. In 2015, Bill O’Reilly sent Watters to Penn Station to cover the homeless population. During the segment, Watters shared his personal reactions to encountering homeless individuals, sparking arguments about the perceived risks associated with the homeless. More people began to come out about Watters, one being the white house. On Sunday, November 1st, Watters put his opinions on the Israel and Hamas situation. The comments that Watters made brought up another stir in the white house. The White House representatives noted it was “[a] sickening attack on the rights and dignity of their fellow Americans.” and included that Fox News “owes an apology to every single viewer.” Fox News did not send out an apology, they haven’t said a word about any of the rants Watters goes on. Also, in the Rolling Stones article, Ryan Bort stated, “One through line through Watters’ career is the shit-eating grin that’s perpetually plastered across his face. It’s very clearly all a joke to him.”
Taylor Swift is not the Biden re-election strategy.
Slightly before this statement Watters made, he started by directly targeting the women in the white house who say that it’s good to have Swiftes, who is Swift’s fanbase, in the white house. Watters also “jokes” about how Biden wants to date Taylor Swift. Watters then adds “The centerpiece of the Biden re-election strategy is begging Taylor Swift for an endorsement.” (0:43)(see Fig. 1). A Vanity Fair article made by Bess Levin on February 15, 2024, finds that 20% of Americans Think Taylor Swift Is Part of a strategy to re-elect Biden, showing that this claim is not uncommon. We also figure out that Taylor has endorsed Biden in the past. Before 2018 she diverted out of politics out of fear of separation from her fans. After 2018 she has stayed open about her political opinions. An NBC news article made in 2020, recalls the V magazine interview with Swift. In the interview, she shared her thoughts on global health, equality, and Biden. She told the magazine, “I will proudly vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in this year’s presidential election. Under their leadership, I believe America has a chance to start the healing process it so desperately needs.” Therefore she has endorsed Biden in the past, but the way Watters explains it puts twists in her words.
Many who believe that the strategy for Biden’s re-election is Swift think that the 2020 election was fraud. 32 percent of Republicans believe Swift is indeed in a government attempt to re-elect Biden. The other 57 percent say the effort doesn’t exist. Seth Meyers, a comedian, and all about conspiracy theories showed a poll where 18% of people who live in America believe that Biden and Swift are by some means working together. The President also showed up on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” show, where Meyers brought up the question “Can you confirm or deny that there is an active conspiracy between you and Miss. Swift?”. The president laughed, saying “It’s classified.” The people who believe this don’t see the big picture of it, they keep on adding more unusual theories about Taylor to the main statement. Not only does this catch attention it also gives Taylor and the media publicity. Stephanie Hayes whos a Columnist interviewed with Tampa Bay Times in 2020, said “Swift doesn’t need to “endorse” Joe Biden. The people already know her vote. There is no way Taylor Swift will be rooting for Donald Trump unless the Trump camp steals her and installs a sinister doppelganger. This won’t work either because Swifties will know the real Taylor is missing, the same way parents of multiples can tell their spawn apart at a glance.”
Biden knows who Taylor Swift is.
“Biden doesn’t know who Taylor Swift is” (1:26). Watters plays a clip from a white house interview done in 2023, where Biden remarks on the music artists on tour stating “It’s even harder than getting a ticket to the Renaissance concert or- Britneys Tour shes down in its kind of warm in Brazil right now.” Though this clip does have Biden confusing Swift with Spears, later on in the video Watters makes remarks that Biden does know who Swift is, saying “Biden, won’t go to East Palestine but he’ll go on tour with Taylor Swift.” Watters puts a sense of misinformation in our heads, making us think Biden doesn’t know Swift but that he does at the same time. Back when the President had an appearance on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” show, Meyers asked a question about Swift, and Biden answered with a laugh, proving he does know who the singer is.
“He can’t name a Taylor Swift song, she can’t name a Biden policy” (1:50). Again Watters makes another claim that Biden doesn’t know who Swift is but adds that Swift doesn’t know a lot about Biden either. This is false due to an article made by NEWSWEEK in January of 2024, stating “Everything Taylor Swift Has Said About Joe Biden.” It goes down the list of everything Swift has said about Biden, the article first stating “Swift’s cultural impact is undebatable, and she also has a growing influence on politics.” Taylor stated in a social media post in 2020 about her previous endorsement “I spoke to @vmagazine about why I’ll be voting for Joe Biden for president.” In a Twitter post made on May 29th, 2020, she expressed her disappointment in former president Doland Trump, “We will vote you out in November. @realdonaldtrump.” She also proves her knowledge of politics in an interview with Entertainment Weekly where she remembers the day of the 2020 election, “Biden is our next president. He’s won the election.” “It was not loud. It wasn’t popping bottles of champagne. It was this moment of quiet, cautious elation and relief.” She has been a supporter of the Biden campaign since 2020, so she knows about politics.
Taylor Swift is not a government psyop.
Many believe Taylor Swift is a government psyop: “18 percent of Taylor Swift fans will vote for whoever she votes for (2:35). ” “If Taylor likes it, they love it (0:30).” According to Vocabulary.com, psyops “influence[s] the perceptions and attitudes of individuals, groups, and foreign governments.” It is often used as a Military term and is used to get inside your head to make you do something. Watters is a full supporter of this claim and spreads it the most throughout the media. In January of 2024, the Washington Post claims, “Watters used a just-asking-questions formula to suggest that Taylor Swift is a psyop asset of the Defense Department. How so? He didn’t exactly connect the dots for viewers, but he did note that Swift, who endorsed Joe Biden in 2020, had urged her fans to vote.” Many media sources bounce off of this term “psyop” making it their own, targeting people in what seems to be crazy theories not credible to prove. In what we see in the video, people use this term without really knowing what it means.
Media comes out with new theories about this almost all the time. According to The Tampa Bay Times in 2020, “An unhinged theory flying around this country, a silly widdle country, is that the United States government has secretly installed Taylor Swift as a psyop, or a psychological operative.” Swift had so much power in different ways that the media takes this and makes it look like she’s some sort of government worker. The same source stated by Stephanie Hayes notes, “Because she can’t just be a woman with a brain and opinions and a compelling bleed-proof red lipstick attending football games, she must be a tool of The Man.” Patrick Murray, who works for Monmouth University Polling Institute expresses that “The supposed Taylor Swift PsyOp conspiracy has legs among a decent number of Trump supporters” Murray adds, “Even many who hadn’t heard about it before we polled them accept the idea as credible.” Though it’s not credible at all, real experts of psyops show that this claim is uncertain. Herbert Friedman, who used to be a sergeant major that in psychological operations for the Army says that “Most people realize it’s just baloney.” Watters himself has even explained that his show “obviously has no evidence” to support the claim. In the summer of 2024, Watters even claimed that climate change was also a psyop act, stating, “a psyop against the American people by big business and the Democratic Party to worry you into giving you more of their money.” Fox News media take the word “psyop” and make it their own, turning almost every claim made into a psyop act.
Ben Bankas (2:07)
Ben Bankas is a comedian and host but he is said to be Canada’s most controversial comedian. Typically, having no sources to back him up. A post made by Cosmin Dzsurdzsa in 2023, notes that “Venues bow to woke mob and cancel comedian Ben Bankas’ tour.” This was due to Bankas making fun of the mayor, Olivia Chow, on social media. Media mobs have come after him due to his problems ever since he ran for mayor of Canada, where he provoked aggressive policies. Bankas has also made claims like “There is no god but Allah and martyr is beloved of Allah,” in which the students of Columbia University said, “What does Allah have to do with the war between Israel and Palestine.” In interviews, he focuses on controversial topics to get him more views within the community. He knows that his humor has faced criticism at times for being perceived as offensive or inappropriate, but it doesn’t faze him.
As many venues continue to bash him, he still doesn’t care. Instead, he accuses venues of awful things, like racism, even writing on his socials, “This is completely unacceptable. I was told you were not here to censor comedy. I have online haters emailing you from not even Canada begging you to cancel my show and take money out of my pocket and my child’s dinner plate and without contacting me you immediately bend the knee.” This shows that he truly doesn’t know what he’s talking about, expressing his absurd opinions with no evidence or instead not giving the claim any backup. He speaks in the video (2:15) “If Biden wants to use Taylor Swift to get reelected. I guess he’s given up on the black vote.” Giving no backup to this claim he keeps speaking on more “issues” that aren’t relevant to what the video is claiming, instead using the sometimes-brash approach to comedy that is designed to make people “laugh.” Not to mention, Bankas grew up and lives in Downtown Toronto, Canada. However, he speaks more about politics and theories outside of Canada. Ben Bankas is a controversial comedian who doesn’t know the difference between comedy and hateful mocking.
Conclusion
Media. Formed to educate, inform, entertain, and analyze. But it hurts society, twisting words and more. You spend so much time on media that every video you see becomes engraved in your brain. You learn to believe things that aren’t true, without looking at the facts. One statement or opinion quickly becomes thousands of different people arguing over what is true or not. Media tends to use people with bigger platforms to make something feel more engaging. We see this with Taylor Swift. She’s often recognized in pop culture ever since her uprising. This makes the media excited, they see a pop star who is living her life and has a strong platform, so with this, they twist it and make “facts” to get more attention. Media plays a big role in shaping public opinion. The media has a profound impact on how we look at the world around us. It shapes and influences our society and the effects can be crucial.
SOURCES
www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/jesse-watters-fox-news-worst-moments-1282098/.
www.cnn.com/2023/11/02/media/fox-news-jesse-watters-reliable-sources/index.html.
www.newsweek.com/everything-taylor-swift-said-about-president-joe-biden-1865185.
tnc.news/2023/07/27/woke-mob-cancel-bankas/.
variety.com/2024/music/news/taylor-swift-ring-wing-backlash-conspiracy-theories-1235891772/.
www.tampabay.com/opinion/2024/02/02/taylor-swift-biden-psyop-travis-kelce-conspiracy-super-bowl/.
www.reuters.com/world/us/will-taylor-swift-endorse-him-2024-biden-says-thats-classified-2024-02-27/.
www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_us_021424/.
vmagazine.com/article/the-thought-leaders-issue-taylor-swift/.
www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/taylor-swift-endorses-joe-biden-president-n1242483.
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