The Rock Shares His Political Stance
According to allsides.com, Fox News leans to the right while USA Today leans to the left.
https://www.wwe.com/superstars/the-rock
The Headlines
Fox News: 'The Rock' explains why he's not endorsing Biden this time, how he feels about 'woke culture'
USA Today: Why ‘The Rock’ isn’t endorsing Joe Biden in 2024
The Story
In an interview with "Fox & Friends," Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson voiced his views on political endorsements as he revealed his decision not to publicly endorse a candidate in the upcoming election. Fox introduces the story with the sentence "Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson sounded off on cancel culture and why he would not be endorsing President Biden this election cycle, in an exclusive interview with "Fox & Friends." (Parks, 2024) The article highlights the Rock's comments on cancel culture and includes his political affiliation stating that "Johnson, who identifies as an Independent, made his first endorsement of a political candidate during the 2020 election, backing President Biden." (Parks, 2024). The article concludes with the Rock's reason for not endorsing a political candidate as "bringing the country together".
USA Today's article focuses on the Rock's comments on division and why it influenced his decision not to publicly endorse a political candidate. The article states " Johnson [The Rock] said that believed endorsing Biden in the 2020 election was the best decision at the time. But shortly after, he realized sharing his political opinions only further flamed partisan division in the country" (Waddick, 2024). The article also highlights the Rock's goal of "bringing the country together" and concludes with a statement on whether he will ever run for president.
The Takeaways
Fox News - The Rock is against "cancel culture" and values authenticity.
- The Rock is an independent.
- The Rock regrets his decision to endorse Biden in the 2020 election.
USA Today - The Rock is not going to endorse a candidate.
- The Rock believes endorsing Biden was a good decision.
- The Rock feels endorsing a candidate could contribute to the division in the country.
- The Rock is against "cancel culture" and values authenticity.
- The Rock is an independent.
- The Rock regrets his decision to endorse Biden in the 2020 election.
- The Rock is not going to endorse a candidate.
- The Rock believes endorsing Biden was a good decision.
- The Rock feels endorsing a candidate could contribute to the division in the country.
Connection to Class
I titled my article " Why Do We Care Who The Rock Endorses As President?" not as a direct jab to Dwayne Johnson but for perspective on the reason why the average voter cares about celebrity endorsements at all. According to Air Waves, celebrity endorsement adds to a political candidate's credibility and spotlights their associations. As West explains in his book, "Politicians love to connect themselves to widely esteemed popular objects while tying their opponents to things that are unpopular, controversial, or divisive." (2017) Examples of such popular objects include prominent celebrities like "The Rock". In turn, we voters may liken our attitudes of popular objects to the appeal of a political candidate. For this reason, celebrity endorsements are considered important elements of political advertising.
References
Waddick, K. (2024, April 6). Why ‘The Rock’ isn’t endorsing Joe Biden in 2024. USA Today
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/04/06/the-rock-dwayne-johnson-biden-endorsement/73227973007/
Parks, K. (2024, April 5). 'The Rock' explains why he's not endorsing Biden this time, how he feels about 'woke culture' Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com/media/the-rock-explains-why-not-endorsing-biden-time-feels-woke-culture
West, D. M. (2017). Air Wars (7th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781506329840
The reason we care who the Rock endorses is because a large proportion of society get their political insight from the mass media. In other words, some citizens lack the knowhow and/or ability to do independent investigations about candidates. Therefore, they rely on what is widely report in the mass media. Choosing one media outlet over another can exacerbate the dilemma due to media bias. For example, your post sheds light on how the same story is reported differently depending on who is doing the reporting. Thus, Fox News reports one thing and USA Today reports another. Unfortunately, this type of media bias leaves the subscriber virtually clueless.
ReplyDeleteBecause a large segment of the public gets their political information from the media, The Rock's endorsements are significant. Many people rely on what they see in mainstream media because they lack the time or means to conduct their own independent investigation. Due to media bias, which occurs when various sources give contradicting narratives on the same issue, this dependency becomes problematic. Customers could become perplexed if Fox News and USA Today, for instance, present conflicting viewpoints. Therefore, in the midst of all this media noise, endorsements from celebrities like The Rock offer clarity and direction to individuals who rely on mainstream sources for political information.
ReplyDeleteFair point! Why should we care? But unfortunately, because most people consume what their preferred news medium tells them to feel, without questioning it themselves, they will start to care about this kind of controversy. For me, it is such a small potato matter and I like The Rock, no matter what, because I can divorce his real human experience from the talented person who makes the kind of movies that I enjoy. Most people do not have this capability though. They get enmeshed in the idea that who The Rock plays in his fictional storylines, translates to who he is in real life. I originally saw him as The Scorpion King, so if I was not able to divorce his character from reality, maybe I’d be out there believing that he’s going to save humankind from an Ancient Egyptian evil, that is waiting to come back from the dead. 😉 It does not just happen with The Rock but with most celebrities it seems. I did see this article making the rounds as well and for me it just seems irrelevant and trivial to get either political party fighting about this. Leave the man alone! (I’m saying this rhetorically to the news media outlets) Let’s all think for ourselves and decide who we want to vote for president without getting celebrities involved unnecessarily!
ReplyDeleteThe Rock is a super influential person and when you really think about it think topic is super important because the value in the Rocks thoughts. When he shares his opinion or political stance people want to listen or follow what he says. This is important to what it means politically as young voters will cling to his viewpoint. As a canidate he holds the power for a lot of different things. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI agree we shouldn’t really care who celebrities endorse. I think sometimes it does more for the celebrity than it does for the politicians. But to some voters it is important that the celebrities they support have the same political opinions as them. I think it is interesting for The Rock to publically endorse Biden in 2020 but to go back on that. While he called it a good decison, I wonder why he won’t do it again.
ReplyDelete