January 12 Update: Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh also shut down the Fox News claim in a statement to Politico: “As for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off. But that does highlight that we still need Congress to approve our supplemental budget request as Swift-ly as possible so we can be out of the woods with potential fiscal concerns.”
Earlier: Whoopi Goldberg used the January 11 episode of “The View” to slam Fox News for perpetuating a conspiracy theory that claims the U.S. government is using Taylor Swift to control public opinion (via Entertainment Weekly).
“There are real issues impacting millions of Americans,” Goldberg said. “This is what the Fox News folks wanted viewers to be worried about during their prime-time broadcast on Tuesday.”
“The View” then cut to a clip from Fox News featuring popular host Jesse Watters questioning whether or not Swift’s enormous popularity is linked to her being a government asset. “Have you ever wondered why or how she blew up like this?” Watters asked his viewers. “Well, around four years ago, the Pentagon’s Psychological Operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting. What kind of asset? A PsyOp for combatting online misinformation.”
Watters tried to claim that Swift encouraging her fans to vote was proof of her ties to the U.S. government, as “hundreds of thousands of young Taylor Swift fans all of a sudden registered to vote. I wonder who got to her, from the White House or from wherever?”
“You know, I have to say, when we talk about snowflakes, you people worry about the weirdest stuff,” Goldberg fired back. “She got people to go out and vote, including probably all kinds of people that you’d rather not have voting. If she can get people to do that, why would you say that was a bad thing or talk about it like you’re disparaging it? What kind of bull…?”
Goldberg’s “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin claimed that Watters was just disappointed that Swift didn’t turn out to be a conservative “princess.”
“I think the Jesse Watters of the world thought that she was their princess,” Hostin said. “She was in support of March for Our Lives against gun violence, she supported the LGBTQ community in her music videos, and then [she’s] pro-choice, and then she said [go] vote. They picked the wrong princess.”
“Im tired of dumb people. I’m just, I’m tired of it. I can’t handle it,” Goldberg added.
Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” movie just surpassed Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” to become the highest-grossing concert film of all time with more than $261.6 millionand counting at the global box office. She’s taking the in-person “Eras Tour” global this year and kicking off the 2024 run of shows in Tokyo on Feb. 7.
