Featured Image Credit: Steve Granitz / Contributor/AFP / Stringer
Topics: Taylor Swift, Celebrity, Music, Film and TV
Emily Brown
Topics: Taylor Swift, Celebrity, Music, Film and TV
Ever thought about whether Taylor Swift could be secretly working with the government to influence the public? Me neither, but the Pentagon has still been forced to deny the theory.
Between planning to continue her Eras Tour across oceans, maintaining a relationship with Travis Kelce and appearing at star-studded events, I just think Swift is too busy to add 'government operative' to her resumé.
Not everyone would agree with me though, as Fox News host Jesse Watters made clear on Tuesday (9 January) when he shared a bizarre claim.
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Watters told viewers of his Jesse Watters Primetime show he 'likes' Swift's music, but added: "She's all right, but I mean, have you ever wondered why or how she blew up like this?
"Well, around four years ago, the Pentagon psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting. What kind of asset? A psy-op for combatting online misinformation."
Psy-op stands for psychological operations; operations designed to convey selected information to audiences to influence their motives and reasoning.
The host attempted to back his claim by sharing a video which he alleged showed a Department of Defense official describing Swift as an asset to sway public opinion.
"You came in here wanting to understand how you just go out and counter the information operation," the woman said.
"The idea is that social influence can help– can help encourage or promote behavior change... So, potentially as like a peaceful information operation...
"I include Taylor Swift in here because she's... you know, a fairly influential online person."
Watters insisted the clip was 'real', and it gained enough attention that the Pentagon itself has been forced to respond.
In a statement to Politico, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh gave a light-hearted response as she made reference to one of Swift's most popular songs.
“As for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off,” Singh said.
“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."
The clip Watters aired on his show did in fact not feature a Pentagon employee, but a research engineer at Johns Hopkins University named Alicia Marie Bargar.
Her comments came as she presented research she had conducted on how information spreads online, using hypothetical scenarios including an example with Taylor Swift for how information can be manipulated.
The video shared by Watters was heavily edited down to just three minutes out of the entire presentation.