I know how the media industry works. The more attention you get, the bigger you become. How you go about it though says a lot about you as a person.
As a journalism professor told me once.
“Find a niche and then exploit to the point that you become the go-to person in that niche.”
That is all Clay Travis has done throughout his career, he isn’t particularly good at anything, but you don’t have to be if your niche is exploitation of dumb and racist people. Those people are the easiest to exploit. Travis is essentially a Great Value version of Donald Trump, and it has worked for him.
He keeps pushing the envelop because no matter what he says or does, he keeps failing up. It is the Trump way of living for privileged white males.
Here is a perfect example, even though he has made a fool of himself on National TV and made countless racist, sexist and prejudice statements over his career, FS1 is putting him on TV. This is a network that employs Jason Whitlock as well, so hiring someone who has negative views of black athletes isn’t anything new to them.
But, let’s just point out just a few of the things that Travis has said in the past.
1- Rape Culture doesn’t exist.
2- His current catchphrase is “Don’t Be a P*ssy” which is very much Trumpish “Grab Them By The P*ssy.”
3- Questioned if LeBron’s home was vandalized with N*gger painting.
4- Claims black people are racists.
5- Gets put on CNN and says this.
Brooke Baldwin cuts segment with Clay Travis short after he says he believes in first amendment and boobs pic.twitter.com/T9H9jmMMVI
— Ryan Glasspiegel (@sportsrapport) September 15, 2017
Frankly, he is just an all-around trash person, and that isn’t even talking about how he put his kid on a plane who had LICE.
He is very open about how he is manipulating you and everyone else just to make money. On certain topics that wouldn’t be an issue, but there is nothing cool about pretending to be in the KKK (frankly I am not even sure he is pretending) and making jokes about black people being murdered in the streets.
This is who FS1 chooses to promote and that is sad because they have good people on there like Shannon Sharpe, but if they feel the need to balance it out by having someone racist on their airwaves, that says a lot about what they are willing to do for “ratings”.
Not surprisingly he disagrees with NIKE making Colin Kaepernick being the face of their new JUST DO IT campaign because equality and racial justice are bad for his business, which is why he says such outlandish things.
Imagine being that bold and knowing it will work out for you because of the color of your skin. The complexion for protection runs deep even in sports media.