Posted on 06/01/2023 5:01:25 AM PDT by relictele
After some uncertain initial steps and shaky first few months, Clay Travis & Buck Sexton have developed an on-air rapport and rhythm and usually deliver a show (or podcast – more on that later) worthy of a daily listen (at least most of it).
Both tend to play up and play into their stereotypes – Buck the history nerd who doesn’t watch the Super Bowl, Clay the rabid Southern sports fan. They also frequently invoke their previous professional lives, Buck at CIA and Clay Travis as a lawyer and later a sports blogger.
They have been designated as the official heirs to the Rush Limbaugh ‘franchise’ by Limbaugh’s widow and frequently invoke his name, mention his principles and influence and occasionally play his audio clips (which only makes his absence more keenly felt!).
With two engineers in the locomotive they try and usually succeed to keep things moving briskly since both usually comment on the topic at hand. Which brings us to a few criticisms/flaws in the format and the content of late:
1) Podcasts. Everyone knows how to obtain podcasts – not least because there are half a dozen easy, roll-out-of-bed, update-your-phone-or-feed methods. It’s like buying milk or bread these days. Eating up 2-3 minutes of airtime to explain how to use a search engine or click a ‘subscribe’ button is gratuitous and boring. There is also often a bit of off-putting obsessing about download & subscription figures, being in the top 10 or 5 etc. The mentions of the ‘scoreboard’ have lessened of late, perhaps because the podcast is slipping down the chart (still top 20). Instead, ‘#1 in radio market XYZ’ is the frequent claim. Rush could boast with humor. I’m not sure Clay can pull it off.
2) The guest segments. Rush almost never had guests – on purpose. Clay & Buck’s guests are (usually) everyone else’s guests. A politician, someone plugging a book, a conservative journalist. The journalists are mildly interesting and deliver new information (eg Miranda Devine, Ian Miller) but the rest are a dial tone along with the cliched book titles and their even more cliched subtitles. Off the top of my head I can generate some fictional but typical ones:
Breaking The Dam – How I Navigated The Floodwaters Of The Swamp
Long Days, Short Nights – Life Inside The DC Whirlwind
You get the idea. Memoirs are often interesting but if can predict more than 50% of the content before picking it up then it isn’t interesting or worthy of the time investment.
Politicians, of course, are the worst of all. Any discussion of legislative or regulatory fights will fall immediately into ‘They are bad – we are good – I am best.’ Pointless.
3) Clay’s interminable questions. Perhaps he imagines he’s still in a courtroom bloviating on behalf of his client or is in a revival of ‘Inherit The Wind.’ The poor sod will never use 20 words when 200 will do as he a) repeats known information in the question and b) often answers the question in the course of asking it. Rush often said that brevity is the soul of wit and brother do we need some wit.
4) C&B were brilliant, vital, unafraid during the covid nonsense. They railed against the control freakery. They exposed the dangerous farce known as ‘vaccines.’ They demonstrated time and again that masks were useless virtue signals and symbols of conformity and submission.
Covid saw them in proper ‘Rush mode’ – have principles, state them clearly, defend them and never abandon them. Accept and/or praise only those who demonstrate and adhere to those principles. Examine and eviscerate the cynical tactics and motives of corrupt officialdom, media et al.
That said, the crux of this critique is their 2024 election mode. They’ve slipped out of Rush mode now and sound like a couple of gormless pro wrestling announcers pretending to be shocked by scripted events.
Of course Trump is trying to clear the decks of competition to get the nomination. So has every other candidate including Old Joe Biden from either party throughout history. That’s how primaries work. DeSantis may be a (rising) star but he’s still a rival. That’s how these things work. This is not to claim that Trump’s current tactics are all that palatable or even effective but if you trust polls (a big if) then Trump is clearly out in front.
Which brings us to callers who, as usual, are the most uninteresting aspect of a radio show. In the age of Twitter & email they are also surplus to requirements and revert to a plodding, linear form of broadcasting/interaction.
Dave in Iowa: ‘Yeah guys you’re doing great with the show…I listen every day. I’m a retired (insert occupation here) and I voted for (insert politician here) but I’m worried that (insert today’s ginned-up controversy) will cause voters to stay home.’ Dave isn’t really expressing a thought, merely expressing anxiety. But do we need more anxiety? Unfortunately, callers like Dave also demonstrate that far too many on our side are STILL being successfully manipulated by cable news and other forms of legacy media.
Stay home? After 4 years of Jumbled Joe? Inflation, interest rates, corruption, war, surveillance and tyranny? Whatever, Dave.
As above, Rush stated principles and demanded others show dedication to those same principles. As a result, it was rather easy for him to comment on and judge GOP primaries. C&B rarely mention those principles and instead are fully engaged in the horse-race aspects that Rush had so much disdain for.
It's actually OK to have favorites or preferences and C&B clearly fancy Ron DeSantis for ’24 especially after his brave covid fights. Trump’s slams of DeSantis are unsurprising, even expected, but the hosts squeal like piglets despite knowing Trump very well – personally, in fact. They are reacting to the What rather than examining and explaining the Why.
Sadly, they sound very much like Laura Ingraham and especially her frequent guest host John Hinderaker (of PowerLine blog fame) who spent much of 2015-2016 declaring that ‘Trump just can’t do things like that’ ie he was violating some unwritten rule book of politics. They said it right up to the point that Trump won.
This is not to say that 2016’s tactics can or should work in 2024. And the incumbent is the sittingest duck in history. And, it should be noted, this is not a defense of Trump. C&B often declare that ‘Trump is being Trump’ but after such a recognition they go back to excoriating him.
As an example, nobody is going to remember what Trump said about Kayleigh McEnany next week, let alone next summer, whether he should have said it or not.
To employ a cliché, The Big Picture is, well, The Big Picture as in the big prize and that should be the focus.
Speaking of focus, the hosts also follow a maddening sequence of illogic on the subject of vote fraud:
1) They concede that there was massive vote fraud in 2020 2) But they claim talking about it turns voters off (how?!?) 3) Instead of talking about vote fraud they want to talk about issues, ballot harvesting, ground game. 4) Clay often claims that ‘talk of vote fraud is self-defeating.’ Again – how?!? 5) If there was vote fraud in 2020 and it isn’t addressed for 2024 then their daily show and all the debates are moot since fraud will overpower any issues or even the GOP candidate and his platform. That isn’t self-defeat…it’s defeat full stop. Guaranteed if something isn’t done about it.
Obviously, Rush is irreplaceable. But some humor and especially mockery of those deserving of it should still be part of his legacy. Buck did this to perfection with Fauci. It drives the left nuts to have the mirror held up to them.
In sum, this show needs to stop reverting back to a radio version of a Fox News swampy chinwag and start demanding that candidates, parties, voters and people dance around the maypole of principles and rights rather than the other way round.
“He starts to ask a question (of a guest or caller) and then goes on and on and on editorializing before shutting up and allowing the response.”
Clay is trying out for the Hannity school of broadcasting
Awful hosts. So arrogant.
Clay is a Dem. He can’t even say where he lives. Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin? Make up your mind Clay. Your kids are in WILLIAMSON County schools so that’s not Nashville.
Their pop culture references are cringe worthy. Hell, they like Taylor Swift.
Lisa Boothe needs to reconsider that awful red jumpsuit.
And they are idiots. They know everyone backstabbing Trump. He’s not one of them.
Takes him 5 minutes to make a point after repeating himself several times.
He’s a Dem. Voted for Obama twice. Probably voted for Hillary in 2016. He believes fake polls, especially exit polls. Calls them “fact”.
Yes.
I’m bumping this thread rather than post a new one to be tidy but their claims regarding and reactions to the obvious fraud are bizarre.
Among the grab-bag of assertions/complaints from Clay & Buck:
-Wisconsin is the key state in ‘24. No wait, it’s GA. No wait, it’s WI etc.
-Complaining about documented fraud in ‘20 is a self-defeating argument for ‘24. Huh?
If we get scammed at a casino do we go back to the same casino? If we say nothing does the casino lose other customers? Does it get investigated?
-Kemp’s refusal to investigate, prosecute or even acknowledge fraud and corruption is...a good thing because he won his election. ?!?!?!
-Herschel Walker was a poor and a poorly-chosen candidate. His failure means that Trump will fail also because people split their tickets even though Walker and Trump are not the same person and they are running for different offices in different years.
-We can overcome fraud with strategy and ground game. ?!?!?!?
-Clay & Buck demand you show them fraud before they’ll believe it. Even though such documentation already exists.
They have failed to uphold the Rush tradition. They refuse to go after criminals and scumbags personally. They clap like sea lions every time someone mentions Trump possibly going to jail. They squeal like schoolgirls over the trial possibilities because, as Clay will tell you 30 times per hour, he’s an attorney.
PS - their callers are absolutely moronic.
That is a reflection of the call screening as much as the show.
Steyn woulda been so much better
Clay is poorly informed rah rah GOPe
Buck is smarter and more erudite but still falls short
Very few radioheads worth listening to
Podcast political celebs is where u go
Clay is a moderately brighter version of Hannity. Similar bad habits.
O’Keefe wasn’t fired. He quit PV when their board was concerned that there might have been financial mismanagement and wanted some oversight.
Not even close
You know some of these
Three of the girls are cute
Are they redeemable?
Yes went from a lively market to a dead one fairly quickly.
For some reason the ‘conservatives’ want to play nice. With whom? Why?
I can recall the first iteration of Laura Ingraham’s show. She was merciless and funny. Did books like ‘The Secret Obama Diaries.’ Made fun of ‘Mother Robinson’ - Michelle Obama’s mother who was a holy terror and thoroughly deserved the mockery.
There was a break of about a year when Laura was out of contract - or taken out of contract. When she came back she was KIND of funny but had obviously been defanged contractually or otherwise.
She started with the swampy ‘Hey I like Paul Ryan/Mitt Romney but....’ She talked about her kids a lot. ZZZZ.
Mark Levin provides good commentary but man is his health going down the drain and the incessant book plugging is tiresome. He could be doing all the things he’s suggesting Trump’s lawyers do - he doesn’t need to be a party to the cases. Landmark Legal are doing nothing without him except perhaps cashing a paycheck.
Bongino has been a damp squib. A constant stream of ‘oh I could tell you some things but I’d get in trouble.’
I tried Bannon’s podcast a few times. PLUGPLUGPLUGPLUGPLUG. We know how to find people’s social media - no need to ask every guest, Steve.
Excellent synopsis
Clay can’t even remember where he lives. Raised in Goodlettsville is NOT “from Nashville “. That’s as stupid as saying you are born in San Dimas but from “Los Angeles “.
Then he says he lives in Nashville, then Franklin, etc. I suspect he lives in southwest Brentwood. Kids probably go to Brentwood schools. If they go to Brentwood Academy or BGA then why was he grandstanding at a Williamson County school board meeting monts ago? (Publicity).
“as Clay will tell you 30 times per hour, he’s an attorney”
He has to remind us, because judging from his reasoning powers none of us would conclude that on our own.
This may be obvious but I was cutting down a recording of their show and it dawned on me - this is Fox News on the radio.
Not just because of the ties between Clay Travis & Fox (Outkick etc.) but because they play Angry Conservatives but are essentially toothless cowards.
They interview reporters and breathlessly ask when this conservative or that Republican will get a raw deal and just how raw the deal will be.
They play clips from moronic shows and networks like The View and MSNBC so they can talk about how moronic the shows and networks are (spoiler: we know).
Rush rightly banned MSNBC and their inanity from his airwaves and probably would have done so with The View.
They claim to oppose statism and Marxism but never get round to identifying and skewering the culprits like Pelosi et al. Instead, they bitch and moan and do it all again tomorrow.
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