TikToker Addison Rae Was Getting Dragged For Landing A Reporter Job With Zero Qualifications, But Then She Lost The Job Before It Started
If you’re asking yourself who the hell is Addison Rae besides a name that sounds like a long-delayed sequel to Norma Rae after she developed adrenal issues but remained as plucky as ever, here’s what I was able to glean from my many hours of assiduous and prizewinning research into the matter (a hasty, caffeinated scroll through her miles of dead-eyed selfies on IG and TikTok): She is a 20-year-old “influencer” with 80+ million followers; has a faux-gayelle BFF thing going on with 42-year-old Kourtney Kardashian; was previously dragged for stealing dance moves from Black creators and not crediting them when clumsily thrusting her rhythmless ass for Jimmy Fallon; released a single of a forgettable song, Obsessed; and will probably be starring in an upcoming movie even though she has zero acting experience.
So now we’re all caught up, and it’s a case of TL;DR, Addison Rae lands opportunities for things she didn’t earn and takes credit for shit she didn’t create. And in this fine tradition of shameless purloining, the hateful bitch troll the rest of us all know as fate is whisking her off to her next unearned gig as a reporter for the bastion of classiness that is UFC. Or is it, given the latest update to this mess that I just found?
Here is where it started, via Page Six:
Social media influencer Addison Rae is being bashed by both fight fans and studied journalists who take issue with the “Keeping Up With the Kardashian” guest star landing a gig as a red carpet correspondent for the UFC.
Rae, 20, hinted at a relationship with the organization on Instagram Friday afternoon, where she was seen wearing UFC gear and working on her moves with a partner.
She later posted two photos of herself working as a UFC reporter on Twitter, along with the caption, “I studied broadcast journalism in college for 3 whole months to prepare for this moment.”
Twitter did what it does best, and shredded Addison’s aggressive delusion of readiness and experience after what must have been a grueling and character-building three months of her rigorous and totally sufficient training before dropping out of college and opting for the life of an influencer:
Should we hire someone who busted their butt through college, and genuinely loves UFC and is hungry for an opportunity in journalism?? Nah, let’s hire Addison Rae because she’s popular for “throwing it back” on tik tok. https://t.co/vZ62DUR3iX
— Z (@ZackFrongillo) July 10, 2021
The backlash was as messy as anyone would expect, though UFC may have just pulled this as a PR stunt in order to get Gen Z talking about them and tossing a few million clicks their way. If that’s the case, mission accomplished! But after the embittered reactions from people with real qualifications and experience who routinely get passed over in favor of trending SM personalities, UFC either had a change of heart and fired her before anything really started or is just backpedaling and pretending there was never a real gig to begin with, and she just did a one-off, preliminary event for them because she and the fighter were from the same town. It sucks when stunts don’t quite work out as planned and no one can get their stories straight. According to OutKick:
Addison Rae, 20-year-old TikTok influencer and 3-month-old journalist, announced on Twitter that she was let go from her role as a reporter for the UFC ahead of the marquee Poirier vs. McGregor 3 fight.
The decision came shortly after Rae was met with criticism when she announced her job on Twitter, citing some questionable credentials.
“nvm y’all got me fired,” said Rae, which accurately reflected the three months of journalism classes.
Aiming for a boost in online traffic over capital “J” journalism, the hiring of Rae was a clear piggybacking off the near 81M TikTok followers, and presents more of a liability in the matter from the UFC when compared to the young entertainer’s decision.
E! News, however, offers a slightly different spin on the story:
The 20-year-old TikTok star found herself in hot water after excitedly sharing photos of herself at a preliminary event for the UFC 264: Dustin Poirier vs. Conor McGregor match in Las Vegas on July 9. The “Obsessed” singer stood in a yellow dress, holding a UFC-branded microphone. She captioned the post, “I studied broadcast journalism in college for 3 whole months to prepare for this moment.”
However, turns out that many on the internet just misunderstood the tweet.
“She did one social activation for UFC where she interviewed Dustin because they’re from the same town, Lafayette,” a source with knowledge of the situation told E! News. “She’s not, nor was she ever, a correspondent. She’ll be at the fight tonight but just as a spectator. There were never any plans for her to have any further official responsibilities.”
In summary, famewhoring TikToker with more followers than the populations of several countries combined but possessing no real journalism experience appears to get hired for a reporter job that actual experienced journalists would love to have. Then she appears to either have lost the gig due to all the angry backlash, or never really had it to begin with, and everyone just misunderstood her joking tweet about getting fired. End result: Lots of attention for both UFC and the TikToker, and we’ll never get this half-hour of our lives back.
It was short-lived and we’ll never know just what eloquent journalistic gems we would have savored if Addison’s UFC career had progressed as planned, but here she is, making sexy faces in her UFC gear for posterity:
Pic: Instagram