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.
Dave (Littleboi) Reboi, Mike (Circle the Draino) Cernovich, Bill (Shill) Mitchell are in there.
CIA plants. I miss Rush. He’d be PISSED if he knew what happened with his show.
CIA plants.
Bongino is ok
Just another bloviating blowhard connected to the establishment. Hannity & Levin, too. Every one of them, worthless. Any good commentator would have walked away from Faux News a long time ago.
Buck can be informed
Clay who is basically just a Republican sportscaster and lawyer is just rah rah and poorly informed
They simply don’t get the gravity of where we are
They are all actors playing a role, saying what they think their audience wants to hear.
Naturally you feel that way X
You guys all fly from the same nest don’t you
One word: UNLISTENABLE.
Wow. The Obama voting, pro abortionist Clay & CIA Buck pushing the illogical DeSantis talking point about ignoring the 2020 Steal.
What a sh*t show that is.
What conservative would listen to that?
Tyrmand?
Tyrmand.
Yes, Tyramand is the big DeSantis guy who sacked O'Keefe.
The 2020 Steal is a much larger issue than Donald Trump. It's about having an honest 2024 election. The 2020 Steal should be discussed until the problems of 2020 are remedied.
Those who refrain from talking about it because they think it would turn off the voters, will be the ones who cost us the 2024 election.
Can't address the potential 2024 fraud without mentioning the 2020 Steal.
Why "imply"?
Getting things fixed requires an all out effort. The complete process should be something like:
It's a difficult task. There's no reason to skimp on any of those three steps.
Plus, if 2020 is any indication, there's no guarantee that Trump will fix anything, but only complain afterwards.
So the only time you want to look back at the 2020 stolen election is to blame Trump?
Trump patriotically, peacefully and legally fought the stolen election in all the swing states, through to January 6th. Where was citizen DeSantis during all of that?
And now, at the very least, Trump talks about how and by whom the election was stolen in the swing states. DeSantis, won't even talk about it.
Good luck with the implying and skimping.
Agreed.
Clay has many irons in the fire and travels quite a bit. He admits to reading the NY Times, Washington Post & WSJ every day but is that show prep or merely sampling the conventional wisdom?
Neither one seems keen on exploring networks of groups & individuals who have produced and, crucially, financed the deep state, the DEI/CRT/ESG cartel and even more sinister initiatives.
Not everyone needs to be a Glenn Beck or Alex Jones but some connecting of obvious dots is in order.
Also in order is ignoring the airheads/racists/shrews on MSNBC & The View. Yet their moronic utterances are regularly repeated on the C&B show as fodder for ‘How dumb are these women?’ Of course they’re dumb! We don’t need to hear the quotes to know that.
Agreed.
It’s been much worse lately as his breathless first question is typically ‘How soon do you think Trump will be indicted?’ or ‘When do you expect Trump to be jailed?’
Where was Trump before election day when the Democrats were orchestrating the fraud? What did he do to prevent it or stop it or counteract it? Complaining afterwards and blaming everyone else does nothing.
There’s no sign Trump will be focused and proactive in this cycle, and he’s already alienated the people he would need to fix things.
We all know the Democrats cheated, but even for a lot of Trump voters, going on and on about 2020 is a reminder of the mistakes Trump made in that campaign. The rest of the country, though, isn’t going to be convinced and doesn’t want to hear about it.
Trump filed 62 cases both BEFORE and after the election. When he filed them before he was told that his cases weren't ripe or he didn't have standing. When he filed them after, he was told that it was too late, or he didn't have standing. I believe only two of the cases went to evidendiatary hearings. He won one of those only to be overturned by the Democrat PA SC.
There’s no sign Trump will be focused and proactive in this cycle, and he’s already alienated the people he would need to fix things.
DeSantis refuses to focus on the unresolved steal. There is less of a chance DeSantis will fix it.
We all know the Democrats cheated, but even for a lot of Trump voters, going on and on about 2020 is a reminder of the mistakes Trump made in that campaign. The rest of the country, though, isn’t going to be convinced and doesn’t want to hear about it.
You claim to speak for the "rest of the country". Rasmussen polling in April found that most people think that politicians are ignoring the cheating problem.
I get everything from podcasts now though I did watch Tucker snippets
Yes, but they tune out when Trump talks about how the election was stolen from him. They don't want to hear about it over and over again.
“Perhaps he imagines he’s still in a courtroom bloviating “
I doubt that Clay Travis has ever tried even one case.
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