The Media Research Center has spent much of the year bashing Taylor Swift for committing the offense of expressing political opinions it doesn’t agree with. It’s certainly not about to stop now.
Gabriel Hays sneered in an Aug 8 post:
Taylor Swift seems to be looking for a new reputation as leftwing savant and the singer has definitely put in a good effort, working hard to slam conservative perspectives ever since coming out against Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn in the November Midterm elections less than a year ago. In that short period she’s gone from knocking Blackburn’s platform of hate to now brutally slamming “white cisgender males” in Vogue’s September 2019 issue.
Well, fine, Taylor, but aren’t you currently dating one?
Hays worked up even more sneering in an Aug. 26 post:
Taylor Swift has gone from zero to sixty in record time when it comes to social justice activism. With the August release of her latest album, “Lover,” she joins the tired chorus of lefty status quo politics. In her latest project, the pop princess tackles the real issues of the day, like sexism and LGBTQ suffrage. She has also made no bones about the fact that America is in a dark place in 2019, telling reporters she thinks Trump is “tearing the country apart.”
In an interview published by The Guardian on Friday, August 23 — the same day Swift launched her album — the pop-star showed “the latest signs of her political awakening.” Ah yes, if you could consider identity politics and anti-Trump language as constituting an “awakening.”
Turns out, she’s as historically and civically ignorant as every other lefty celeb.
Hays, an inveterate LGBT-basher, was also bothered that Swift’s new album “also features a very pro-LGBTQ anthem in the song ‘You Need To Calm Down,’ which is a rebuke of homophobic people who aren’t happy celebrating all things queer.”
The same day, Karen Townsend was upset that Swift used an acceptance speech at the MTV Music Awards to promote her petition online in support of the Equality Act, an “anti-discrimination” bill that discriminates against religious views on traditional marriage and biological sex,” adding: “While Ms. Swift said the petition has enough support to receive a response from the White House and tapped her watch impatiently, clearly the bill doesn’t have enough support in the Senate and therefore President Trump hasn’t seen it on his desk. Maybe Swift is the one who needs to calm down[.]”
The next day, Kristine Marsh huffed that “All three networks couldn’t stop gushing over pop star Taylor Swift’s liberal awakening on full display at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards,” offended that she was “surrounded by drag queens” while accepting her award and promoting the Equality Act.
Hays returned to complain about “the very inclusive performance of everyone’s favorite new lefty shill, Taylor Swift.”
Matt Philbin picked up the sneer baton from Hays for an Aug. 29 post bashing a writer who he says is “pretty sure we need Taylor Swift’s sad thoughts about America,” continuing: “The truth is, Swift is simultaneously trivializing and aggrandizing the political moment into, like, the worst night ever. It’s a much less clever episode of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. The Hell Mouth is open, the apocalypse is nigh; we need to defeat it and get to the prom by 8:30!”
MRC honchos Tim Graham and Brent Bozell couldn’t help but offer their two cents, whining that “You Need To Calm Down” “trashes anyone still dissenting from the LGBTQ agenda” and that media outlets are “gushing over her leftist activism.” Making equality a partisan issue, Graham and Bozell insisted that the Equality Act “enables anti-religious hatred and bigotry,” mostly by keeping Christians from discriminating against LGBT people, adding that “The LGBTQ orthodoxy shreds dissent. There is no debate allowed. ” They don’t explain why Christians must discriminate against the LGBT community.
Hays slinked back again on Sept. 18 to grouse that “Ever since Taylor Swift decided to join the left’s propaganda machine, the pop star has been one of the hottest tickets for interviews.” (As if he isn’t a part of the Right’s propaganda machine.) Hays went on another sneering binge, this time over Swift’s preference for President Obama over Trump:
Previously, under Obama, it had been a dream for Taylor. She told Rolling Stone, “We were in such an amazing time when Obama was president because foreign nations respected us. We were so excited to have a dignified person in the White House.” Yes, doll. They were dream times, weren’t they? She also added she’s looking forward to 2020: “I’m just focused on the 2020 election. I’m really focused.”
Miss Swift also urged party unity, saying that Dems need to not quibble about “the right kind of Democrat and wrong kind of Democrat” in order to beat Trump. She used an interesting image, claiming, “We need to just be like, ‘You’re a Democrat? Sick. Get in the car. We’re going to the mall.’” Hey, throw a drum loop on that, and some major chord strumming and you’ve got one killer campaign song.
The MRC’s inability to deal with a celebrity who run counter to the right-wing narrative shows us who really needs to calm down.