Did dozens of news anchors parrot the same talking point by reporting the phrase, "Taylor Swift is not a psy-op"? No, that's not true: A video that appears to show such reporting is fake. It pairs phony audio with a video compilation from 2018.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, on January 31, 2024. The post included a short video. It began:
Nothing says 'Taylor Swift is not a psy-op' like every major Corporate News show parroting the same talking points about her at once.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
The post's video is a compilation from 2018. It shows news anchors reading a script from Sinclair Broadcast Group, which, according to its website, "owns, operates and/or provides services to 185 television stations . . ." The script prompted anchors to deliver a warning about "fake stories" and a promise to "pursue and report the truth."
The compilation was created by Deadspin. It can be watched below:
How America's largest local TV owner turned its news anchors into soldiers in Trump's war on the media: https://t.co/iLVtKRQycL pic.twitter.com/dMdSGellH3
-- Deadspin (@Deadspin) March 31, 2018
The post on X combines that video from 2018 with fake audio to make it seem like the anchors were saying "Taylor Swift is not a psy-op," an abbreviation for "psychological operation." But it's clear they weren't. Their lips weren't even made to sync with the words.
Lead Stories has debunked a number of recent claims about Taylor Swift. See here for a collection of those fact checks.
