Two-time Barack Obama voter Clay Travis has conveniently turned into Trump's sports media puppet
Former Barack Obama voter and Al Gore campaign worker Clay Travis now runs a sports/political website named Outkick that has one sole purpose. Disseminate propaganda through a sports perspective that helps re-elect President Donald Trump.
If you have never been to the Outkick website and don't know what I am talking about, don't worry. I won't provide you a link to help earn them views and money, but I have taken screenshots of their website when I last visited to show you what I mean by propaganda through a sports lens.
As you can see below, the website has a few themes that it consistently hits on every single night. LeBron James is a biggot, Black Lives Matter is racist, coronavirus is overblown, and Jemele Hill is crazy. It might not be the same thing every single night, but you get the idea.
At any given time, there can be multiple articles on the website's front page trying to diminish LeBron James. Even the article about NBA playoff ratings dropping has LeBron's photo on it so people associate the NBA's dropping ratings with LeBron even if they don't read the article but just see the headline.
Why go after LeBron James? It is simple.
James is trying to build schools in America (Republicans can't win if everyone is educated), he is trying to build a platform that gets people out to vote (Republicans can't win if people vote), and he is trying to fund a new media organization for minority voices (if Republicans can't control the media and the news cycle they can't win).
But that still begs the question why should we care about Travis' sports propaganda blog?
Travis has made his career on covering SEC football, a big part of Trump's base.
The president needs SEC football supporters to win reelection. He needs them to be energetic and ready to vote. Don't forget that Trump made a weird appearance at the College Football Final in January to market to his southern base.
It makes sense why Trump wants schools open in the south, so the SEC can play its football and the Trump base will be happy. Remember, Trump turned the reopening of schools and sports into a political issue and it'd be a terrible look to his base if football is taken away from them. Taking SEC football away would be the same as taking away their guns. Democrats aren't planning on doing either, but Trump makes his base believe they will.
After Travis used his platform for Trump's gain, Trump did an interview with Travis in August right before the football season. It is a cycle. Travis turns out propaganda to help elect Trump and Travis gets an interview after to help boost his viewership and make even more money.
About Ryan Lipton:
Ryan is a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill majoring in Business Journalism. He has written in the past for SB Nation's Silver and Black Pride, USA Today Sports Media Group, North Carolina Business News Wire, the Daily Tar Heel, and has worked with Ice Cube's BIG3 basketball league.