The Pentagon wants to recruit Taylor Swift.
She is supposed to use the psychological warfare department to influence public opinion so that Joe Biden gets re-elected. This isn't new; four years ago, the government unit known as 'Psy-Ops' thought about how it could use the superstar for its own benefit.
“So is Swift just a front for a hidden political agenda?” asked Jesse Watters, host of the Fox News show “Primetime.” To add after a dramatic pause: “Primetime obviously has no evidence. If we had any, we would present them. But we are curious.” Only about two minutes later, Watters says in an interview with a former FBI agent who could have made the contact. In a very short time, a crazy thesis has become a certainty. At least in the Fox News narrative.
This type of reporting is now typical when supporters of former Republican President Donald Trump talk about Taylor Swift: it's always about how much she will help his Democratic opponent Joe Biden in the election campaign. And there's always the feeling that it's all a bit messy and things aren't going well. The singer declared in 2018 that she flatly rejected Donald Trump and spoke out for Joe Biden during the 2020 election campaign or posted it via Instagram. So why all the fuss?
"They're afraid of her," says Marc Pitzke, SPIEGEL's long-time US correspondent in New York. »Otherwise they wouldn't be dedicating so much time to her on Fox News, Newsmax or whatever the right-wing channels are called. And at the same time they know that such an enemy image naturally drives up the ratings. They ride from one made-up fake scandal to the next. And now it’s Taylor Swift’s turn.”
The centerpiece of the saga is Taylor Swift's relationship with football star Travis Kelce. On Sunday he will be in the Super Bowl final with the Kansas City Chiefs for the third time in the last four years. Of course, for the whispering conspiracy theorists in this matter, it has long been a given that Kansas will win: the evil state powers have paid for it. They want Swift and Kelce to become even more famous and be able to declare their support for Joe Biden in front of an audience of billions at the moment of triumph. So, if Taylor Swift makes it to Las Vegas in time for the Super Bowl after her concert in Japan.
How do not only the radical media like Fox News but also the Republicans make money from such campaigns? How uncritically do Donald Trump's supporters now follow such stories? And why is it not just the right that is susceptible to fake news? Marc Pitzke talks about this in this episode of the SPIEGEL foreign podcast Eight Billion.
You can listen to this episode here.