Using Taylor Swift's Name For Clout, Attention And Rage Baiting Is Lazy And Boring
It’s finally time for me to address the elephant online and explain why I, the Taylor Swift Beat Reporter at Barstool Sports, have been refusing to blog about Taylor Swift.
You were all right. It’s because I’m too lazy.
LMAOOO YOU WISH HATERS! No, actually, I’ve been agonizing nonstop over what to blog and what not to blog where it concerns Taylor for the last 5 months or so. Positive press? Absolutely. New albums or songs? I’ll spend 3 days on a breakdown. Wasting my time to write 5-7 “this headline is bullshit” blogs a DAY to combat all of the misinformation and rage baiting that swirls in circles nonstop? No. I don’t have that in me.
Would I have a billion blogs if I did? Yes. Reags’ fingertips would fall off trying to keep up if I were blogging like that. Would these shitty potential blogs blend in with all of the marbles falling down the funnel of GARBAGE that’s become “pop culture media” online? Absolutely. It seems every tabloid (and a few other surprising outlets who now unabashedly follow suit) have taken to publishing headlines that go well past “clickbait” and directly into “complete bullshit.” Gossip experts know that this kind of reporting is normally synonymous with a select few - TMZ, The Daily Mail and The Sun. It seems now that the NY post/Page Six, People Magazine and even (gasp!) our beloved PopCrave are NOT above being a part of the problem, and have adapted the method that will always hold people by their nosy balls - someone else’s salacious business, true or not. Especially celebrities.
(PopCrave is the most depressing, considering they know they're using clickbait so blatantly that they immediately followed up with a tweet confirming the one above, is bullshit. Why not just tell the truth the first time?)
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In the spirit of self awareness (and for fear of people not knowing me at all) I’ll state plainly that I am not above gossip. It might be my favorite thing in the world! What I can’t stand, is WRONG gossip. Straight up lies. Fucking with the reputation of someone else because somehow, some way, it serves you. Wasting everyone’s time, energy and emotions on fabricated stories…it doesn’t sit right with me. I can only fool the public so often, and at this point? It feels like low hanging fruit. If you’re going to do it, be creative about it - don’t publish lies for personal gain. Seems simple, right?
It continues to beg the question - why do people do it? Why do these “well respected” outlets report in this way, and why do the Twitter colonies stir it up in the hive until it’s buzzing so loudly that we’re forced to look? Urged to have an opinion on ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT?
I've boiled it down to this - it’s good old fashioned Mob Mentality. And in 2025? It's the fastest way to generate engagement. Engagement = money. See where we're going here?
Let’s go back and reference a story that we all know and love, starring none other than Taylor Swift’s other best friend, Emma Stone. Im of course referring to the cult classic, The Scarlett Letter Easy A. While this movie was snubbed for the several Oscars it deserved, the messaging behind it is what’s most important - don’t have sex with your guidance counselor or you will get chlamydia DO NOT believe everything you hear. Don’t blindly assume rampant rumors when the person making sure to spread them has their own personal agenda. Let’s take the Blake Lively/Justin Baldoni lawsuit. Have we already forgotten that Justin Baldoni’s PR is headed up by none other than Scooter Braun?
These outlets (and more specifically, Justin Baldoni’s lawyer) are taking advantage of the fact that media literacy is lower than ever. So illiterate that it takes the statement of a JUDGE dismissing BLATANT LIES about Blake Lively “threatening to extort Taylor Swift” for people to start actually understanding what we’re dealing with here.
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One more time so it really sinks in:
Judge throws out letter from Justin Baldoni’s team that claimed Blake Lively threatened Taylor Swift to publicly support her: “The letter is improper and must be stricken. […] The sole purpose of the letter is to promote public scandal by advancing inflammatory accusations, on information and belief, against Lively and her counsel. It transparently invites a press uproar by suggesting that Lively and her counsel attempted to ‘extort’ a well-known celebrity. Retaining the letter on the docket would be of no use to the court. […] Counsel is advised that future misuse of the court’s docket may be met with sanctions.”
This entire lawsuit in general - people are seriously, genuinely, suggesting I go and “listen to what Candace Owens has to say on the matter, she’s really good, she’s done her research.” Don’t believe me?
Yea. For those who seem to have wiped the newborn sleep out of their eyes YESTERDAY, Candace Owens is a well know piece of shit. Not only does she hate women, she actively chooses to go against reality to make antithetical arguments, all while getting paid to do so. She’s the girl in debate class who chooses to “defend the Nazis” just so she can be the bad guy. Right now, as we speak, she’s on a crusade to defend HARVEY WEINSTEIN!!!!!! THAT is Candace. Don’t be fooled.
It’s exhausting as a viewer/fan/consumer, I can’t imagine how frustrating and BORING it must be for Taylor Swift herself. She’s clearly in the middle of some kind of rebirth (as always) and in the absence of her dinner outings and award shows, there’s no way to talk about Taylor without getting “creative.” Over at Taylor Watch, the very reputable Taylor Swift Podcast at Barstool Sports, we have FUN with her absence. We rank our favorite songs, we break down previous albums with great detail, we even make sure to check in on anyone else in the Taylor Swift Universe. What we will NEVER do, is spread around a fake story for attention.
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So, without further ado, here are some of the headlines I could’ve written about if I were click hungry, integrity absent and generally braindead starting with my personal favorite:
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And here's what's REALLY going on:
In conclusion, I will never come onto BarstoolSports.com to share, comment on or promote absolute nonsense. It's just not in my DNA. Sorry! I'm a Swiftie first, Blogger second. Oh, and I'm not a complete fucking idiot.