Fox News this week published an absurd conspiracy theory linking pop star Taylor Swift‘s success with psychological operations division of the Pentagon. This claim has since been disproven by military officials.
Watters made his claims based on a video from Alicia Marie Bargar’s 2019 conference talk where she referenced Taylor Swift as an example of online misinformation. Bargar told Business Insider that her comments had been misconstrued and taken out of context.
Fox News Host Jesse Watters Claims Taylor Swift Is Front for Covert Political Agenda
Jesse Watters, a conservative talk show host who first made an impressionful statement on Fox News as host of The O’Reilly Factor in the early 2000s, made an unexpected claim this week during his show Jesse Watters Primetime: He suggested Taylor Swift may be used as an intermediary in carrying out covert political agenda. To support his claim he showed footage from an anti-misinformation conference from 2019 where one presenter discussed using certain people as “assets” against online propaganda.
Watters then went on to suggest that the Department of Defense may be using Taylor Swift as a weapon against President Joe Biden in an effort to turn voters away from supporting his administration and towards supporting President Biden through social media targeting of her vast fanbase – suggesting she may help make America blueer by turning its voters towards supporting President Joe Biden and away from Mitt Romney.
The Pentagon did not take Watters’ claims lightly and issued a response full of references to Taylor Swift songs such as “Shake It Off”. Sabrina Singh told Politico that they plan on dispelling this conspiracy theory just like she did.
Netizens Take to X to Express Their Opinions
when they heard that the Pentagon’s psychological operations unit may be using pop star Taylor Swift as part of a covert political agenda, netizens quickly took to X (formerly Twitter) to voice their opinions on this matter.
Watters then showed a clip from a 2019 conference held by NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence, during which one presenter discussed how social influencers can serve as “assets” to combat misinformation online and used Swift as an example.
One day after Watters played his clip, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh issued a statement featuring references to Taylor Swift songs in order to disprove and alleviate concerns that the Department of Defense may be using Swift as part of its covert information campaign. She concluded her statement by repeating Swift’s lyrics that they will just “shake it off”, per Politico. This swift and comprehensive response by the Pentagon proves it won’t hesitate to confront Fox News hosts who propagate inaccurate claims and speculation with accurate answers and facts.
The Pentagon Responds to Claims
Fox News host Jesse Watters brought to light an intriguing conspiracy theory often found only on right-wing Internet forums: that of the Pentagon’s psychological operations unit discussing turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting.
Watters used a clip taken from a presentation by Johns Hopkins University researcher Alicia Marie Bargar. She discussed how information spreads online and used hypothetical scenarios featuring Swift to demonstrate how information can be altered online.
A Pentagon spokesperson dismissed the claim with an amusingly humorous reply referencing one of Swift’s hit songs: “As for this conspiracy theory, we’re just going to shake it off,” according to Politico. Furthermore, Swift has long supported her fans while engaging in political issues like Syria war and gun control reform reform efforts.
Legality of Psychological Operations
Psychological operations or military information support operations (MIO), are planned operations designed to provide foreign audiences with information that influences their emotions, motives, objective reasoning and behavior. According to the Department of Defense’s definition, psychological warfare “is intrinsically tied into all aspects of force’s activities – for good or ill.
MIO remains an essential tool of national strategy and it is critical that our military continues to broaden their capabilities despite becoming less dominant over time.
However, existing policy and legal restrictions must be updated so that military PSYOP forces can fully leverage modern technologies and media. Furthermore, the Pentagon must make sure its soldiers can effectively counter disinformation attacks that threaten military objectives – the only way to fully realize the benefits of this unique capability.
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