Latest news with #ClayTravis
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
NBA Suffers Major Blow Amid Thunder-Pacers Finals
NBA Suffers Major Blow Amid Thunder-Pacers Finals originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The Oklahoma City Thunder hold a 3-2 lead over the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals heading into Game 6 on Thursday in Indianapolis at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Advertisement The series has been intense at times because both teams traded victories throughout the first four games. However, the Thunder took control of the pace in Game 5 to cruise to a comfortable 120-109 win. However, the solid play hasn't resulted in excellent TV ratings. According to television analyst and writer Clay Travis, 'Fewer people are watching the NBA Finals through five games than have watched since before the [Larry Bird] and [Magic Johnson] entered the league.' The league has historically had solid ratings since the mid-to-late 1980s, when superstars such as Bird, Johnson and Michael Jordan were among the top players playing in the finals. Furthermore, ratings for Game 6 of the 1993 Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Phoenix Suns were 20.3, and in Game 7 of the 1988 Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Detroit Pistons, ratings were as high as 21.2, according to However, the league did encounter a drop in ratings during the 2020 NBA Finals between the Lakers and Miami Heat because of the COVID-19 pandemic suspending the season until the late summer and early fall which forced the NBA to begin competing with the NFL for ratings. Advertisement 'The league's finals ratings, other than Covid year when they played in the fall and competed with the NFL, have never been lower in live air history,' Travis added. Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) brings the ball up court past Indiana Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard (2)© Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images However, despite Travis' findings, the ratings could change throughout the rest of the series. Game 6 of the NBA Finals between the Pacers and Thunder will air on ABC at 8:30 p.m. ET from Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Related: Pascal Siakam Reveals Honest Thoughts on NBA Journey Amid Finals This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 18, 2025, where it first appeared.
CNN
3 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Fox News takes pro-war position as MAGA media feuds over Israel-Iran conflict
As conservative radio host Clay Travis opened his mouth Tuesday night on Fox News, he was hyper-aware of the viewer-in-chief. President Trump is 'probably watching' this show, Travis said to Fox host Sean Hannity as both men urged the president to eliminate Iran's nuclear program. 'We have to do it,' Travis said, adding, 'We can't go halfway here.' The president's television habits once again have serious foreign policy implications as the Trump administration weighs further US involvement in Iran. The Israel-Iran conflict has exacerbated a deep rift in MAGA media over how the US conducts itself abroad, especially when it comes to Israel. Republican hawks are clashing with MAGA isolationists, and many of the arguments are happening on social media sites like X, as well as podcasts like Steve Bannon's 'War Room.' Get Reliable Sources newsletter Sign up here to receive Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter in your inbox. But Trump's favorite network, Fox News, isn't making as much room for debate. Guest after guest on Fox has played to Trump's ego — simultaneously praising the president and pushing for US intervention through his television screen. (At one point, Fox host Kayleigh McEnany, a former Trump aide, waxed poetic about him being a Churchillian 'man of action.') On Hannity's show Tuesday night, weekend host Mark Levin literally screamed on-air as he depicted a battle of 'good versus evil' and doubted the patriotism of the isolationist camp. Levin's view is dominant on Fox's air. While some guests on Fox have warned against escalation, they've been few and far between, and not nearly as loud or omnipresent as Levin. Tucker Carlson's absence is palpable. After he was fired from Fox in 2023, Carlson built himself a digital media platform with a big megaphone on X, as he proved again Tuesday night by teasing a contentious interview with Sen. Ted Cruz. But Carlson and his isolationist views are no longer as visible to Trump, who has an old-school, cable-centric mentality about the media. Levin and Carlson embody the right's competing forces on foreign policy. Levin wants regime change in Iran; Carlson wants the US to stay out of it. Both men say they are representing the 'America first' MAGA movement. Their weeks-long feud turned especially ugly last week, after Israel launched airstrikes in Iran, which in turn pulled out of scheduled nuclear talks with the US and retaliated with a series of missile strikes. Carlson called on Trump to 'drop Israel' and 'let them fight their own wars.' He branded Levin, Hannity, and Fox patriarch Rupert Murdoch as 'warmongers' pushing the president to join the conflict. Levin responded by calling Carlson an antisemite and a 'maggot.' He dredged up Carlson's past criticism of Trump and questioned the former Fox star's allegiance to the MAGA movement. Facing backlash from Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson among others for his foreign policy decisions amidst the backdrop of the conflict between Israel and Iran, Trump says he came up with the term "America First" and that he decides what that means. While Levin's name-calling has been petty, the back-and-forth has serious impacts. Two weeks ago, when Trump and Levin dined together at the White House, Carlson caught wind of the meeting and immediately tweeted a denunciation of Levin 'hyperventilating' about Iran's nuclear program. Levin's lunch with Trump is a testament to the bombastic radio and TV host's wide influence on the right. Contrary to Carlson's recent claim that 'nobody watched' Levin's weekend TV show, Levin is actually one of the most popular figures on Fox's weekend lineup and is a regular presence on Hannity's weekday show as well. Hannity threw shade at Carlson on Tuesday night, though not by name, when he said Iran is 'the biggest existential threat to the entire western world,' and 'people that can't seem to understand that kind of puzzle me.' Wednesday morning's 'Fox & Friends,' another one of the president's cherished shows, also promoted an interventionist point of view. To 'people who say it's not our fight,' host Brian Kilmeade said, 'you could say that, but you're not paying attention. Since the 1980s, they have been killing Americans.' Then, Kilmeade threw to a video clip of Levin's pro-war arguments from the night before. 'I'm not one that wants to get involved in things. I'm not. But we have no choice! They are our enemy!' co-host Lawrence Jones said. This foreign policy feud has torn apart other pockets of MAGA media. Far-right podcaster Candace Owens exited The Daily Wire last year after she called Israel's war in Gaza a 'genocide' and openly embraced antisemitic conspiracies. The conservative media empire's co-founder Ben Shapiro, who is adamantly pro-Israel, called Owens' comments 'disgraceful,' kicking off a battle that has since rippled throughout the extremely online right. Some Fox shows have acknowledged the divides. 'On the right we have a big difference of opinion here, but unlike the left, we are not afraid to show it,' Greg Gutfeld said Tuesday afternoon on 'The Five.' However, that segment was the only direct mention of Carlson on Fox in recent days, according to a closed captioning search of the network's coverage. Fox is clearly more comfortable in a different mode: Ridiculing the left. 'MIDEAST CONFLICT DIVIDES DEMS' read one banner on 'The Ingraham Angle' Tuesday night. Carlson has seemed bemused by Fox's handling of the unfolding conflict, telling Bannon that his former employer is 'doing what they always do — turning up the propaganda hose to full blast and trying to knock elderly Fox viewers off their feet and make them submit to a new war.' Carlson could have been alluding to the 79-year-old president, whose Fox fixation is so well-established that CEOs and foreign leaders jockey for airtime with the hopes that Trump will see their segment. On Monday, when a reporter asked Trump about Carlson's comment that the president was 'complicit' in Israel's strikes on Iran, the president said he didn't know what Carlson was saying online. 'Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen,' Trump said — a barb reflecting Carlson's post-cable existence largely out of the president's view. Trump followed up later in the day, writing on Truth Social, 'Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that 'IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!'' 'I'm a little kooky. I'll concede that,' Carlson told The Free Press in response.
CNN
3 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Fox News takes pro-war position amid MAGA media feud over Israel-Iran conflict
As conservative radio host Clay Travis opened his mouth Tuesday night on Fox News, he was hyper-aware of the viewer-in-chief. President Trump is 'probably watching' this show, Travis said to Fox host Sean Hannity as both men urged the president to eliminate Iran's nuclear program. 'We have to do it,' Travis said, adding, 'We can't go halfway here.' The president's television habits once again have serious foreign policy implications as the Trump administration weighs further US involvement in Iran. The Israel-Iran conflict has exacerbated a deep rift in MAGA media over how the US conducts itself abroad, especially when it comes to Israel. Republican hawks are clashing with MAGA isolationists, and many of the arguments are happening on social media sites like X, as well as podcasts like Steve Bannon's 'War Room.' Get Reliable Sources newsletter Sign up here to receive Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter in your inbox. But Trump's favorite network, Fox News, isn't making as much room for debate. Guest after guest on Fox has played to Trump's ego — simultaneously praising the president and pushing for US intervention through his television screen. (At one point, Fox host Kayleigh McEnany, a former Trump aide, waxed poetic about him being a Churchillian 'man of action.') On Hannity's show Tuesday night, weekend host Mark Levin literally screamed on-air as he depicted a battle of 'good versus evil' and doubted the patriotism of the isolationist camp. Levin's view is dominant on Fox's air. While some guests on Fox have warned against escalation, they've been few and far between, and not nearly as loud or omnipresent as Levin. Tucker Carlson's absence is palpable. After he was fired from Fox in 2023, Carlson built himself a digital media platform with a big megaphone on X, as he proved again Tuesday night by teasing a contentious interview with Sen. Ted Cruz. But Carlson and his isolationist views are no longer as visible to Trump, who has an old-school, cable-centric mentality about the media. Levin and Carlson embody the right's competing forces on foreign policy. Levin wants regime change in Iran; Carlson wants the US to stay out of it. Both men say they are representing the 'America first' MAGA movement. Their weeks-long feud turned especially ugly last week, after Israel launched airstrikes in Iran, which in turn pulled out of scheduled nuclear talks with the US and retaliated with a series of missile strikes. Carlson called on Trump to 'drop Israel' and 'let them fight their own wars.' He branded Levin, Hannity, and Fox patriarch Rupert Murdoch as 'warmongers' pushing the president to join the conflict. Levin responded by calling Carlson an antisemite and a 'maggot.' He dredged up Carlson's past criticism of Trump and questioned the former Fox star's allegiance to the MAGA movement. Facing backlash from Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson among others for his foreign policy decisions amidst the backdrop of the conflict between Israel and Iran, Trump says he came up with the term "America First" and that he decides what that means. While Levin's name-calling has been petty, the back-and-forth has serious impacts. Two weeks ago, when Trump and Levin dined together at the White House, Carlson caught wind of the meeting and immediately tweeted a denunciation of Levin 'hyperventilating' about Iran's nuclear program. Levin's lunch with Trump is a testament to the bombastic radio and TV host's wide influence on the right. Contrary to Carlson's recent claim that 'nobody watched' Levin's weekend TV show, Levin is actually one of the most popular figures on Fox's weekend lineup and is a regular presence on Hannity's weekday show as well. Hannity threw shade at Carlson on Tuesday night, though not by name, when he said Iran is 'the biggest existential threat to the entire western world,' and 'people that can't seem to understand that kind of puzzle me.' Wednesday morning's 'Fox & Friends,' another one of the president's cherished shows, also promoted an interventionist point of view. To 'people who say it's not our fight,' host Brian Kilmeade said, 'you could say that, but you're not paying attention. Since the 1980s, they have been killing Americans.' Then, Kilmeade threw to a video clip of Levin's pro-war arguments from the night before. 'I'm not one that wants to get involved in things. I'm not. But we have no choice! They are our enemy!' co-host Lawrence Jones said. This foreign policy feud has torn apart other pockets of MAGA media. Far-right podcaster Candace Owens exited The Daily Wire last year after she called Israel's war in Gaza a 'genocide' and openly embraced antisemitic conspiracies. The conservative media empire's co-founder Ben Shapiro, who is adamantly pro-Israel, called Owens' comments 'disgraceful,' kicking off a battle that has since rippled throughout the extremely online right. Some Fox shows have acknowledged the divides. 'On the right we have a big difference of opinion here, but unlike the left, we are not afraid to show it,' Greg Gutfeld said Tuesday afternoon on 'The Five.' However, that segment was the only direct mention of Carlson on Fox in recent days, according to a closed captioning search of the network's coverage. Fox is clearly more comfortable in a different mode: Ridiculing the left. 'MIDEAST CONFLICT DIVIDES DEMS' read one banner on 'The Ingraham Angle' Tuesday night. Carlson has seemed bemused by Fox's handling of the unfolding conflict, telling Bannon that his former employer is 'doing what they always do — turning up the propaganda hose to full blast and trying to knock elderly Fox viewers off their feet and make them submit to a new war.' Carlson could have been alluding to the 79-year-old president, whose Fox fixation is so well-established that CEOs and foreign leaders jockey for airtime with the hopes that Trump will see their segment. On Monday, when a reporter asked Trump about Carlson's comment that the president was 'complicit' in Israel's strikes on Iran, the president said he didn't know what Carlson was saying online. 'Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen,' Trump said — a barb reflecting Carlson's post-cable existence largely out of the president's view. Trump followed up later in the day, writing on Truth Social, 'Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that 'IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!'' 'I'm a little kooky. I'll concede that,' Carlson told The Free Press in response.
The Independent
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
OutKick co-founder tells Rep. Ilhan Omar to ‘go back to Somalia' in Hannity interview
Conservative pundit Clay Travis has told Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar to 'go back to Somalia ' following her recent scathing criticism of the United States under President Donald Trump 's leadership. Travis, co-founder of the Fox-owned sports and political commentary website OutKick, appeared on Sean Hannity 's Fox News show Tuesday evening and reacted angrily to footage of the congresswoman being interviewed by Democracy Now! and saying the U.S. was becoming 'one of the worst countries' in the world under Trump. 'When I see a clip like that, Sean, presumably Ilhan Omar is a citizen of two different countries,' Travis fumed. 'I'm not, I'm a citizen of one country, I happen to think it's the best in the history of the world, so I'm not going anywhere, but why doesn't she go back to Somalia? If she's now looking at the United States, thinks it's an awful place, presumably she's still a citizen of Somalia.' He continued: 'If I hated the country that I was in and I had dual citizenship, wouldn't you go to the other one? I mean, I don't give Rosie O'Donnell a lot of credit for anything, but she decided she didn't like the United States anymore and she left and went to Ireland.' The conversation then pivoted to mockery of O'Donnell, the chat show host and actress who recently relocated to the Republic of Ireland rather than endure four more years of Trump. The Independent has contacted the congresswoman for comment. Omar made the remarks that so infuriated the right-wing duo in response to Trump's crackdown on anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles, which saw the president send in the National Guard and Marines to support local law enforcement, against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. 'I grew up in a dictatorship and I don't even remember ever witnessing anything like that,' Omar said, alluding to her early years in Somalia before she arrived in the U.S. as an asylum seeker aged 12. 'To have a democracy, a beacon of hope for the world, to now be turned into one of the, you know, one of the worst countries, where the military are in our streets without any regard for people's constitutional rights, while our president's spending millions of dollars propping himself up like a failed dictator with a military parade, it is really shocking. 'And it should be a wake up call for all Americans to say this is not the country we were born in, this is not the country we believe in, this is not the country our founding fathers imagined, and this is not the country that is supported by our Constitution, our ideals, our values, and we should all collectively be out in the streets rejecting what is taking place this week.' Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul previously offered to buy Omar 'a ticket to go visit Somalia' back in 2019, suggesting that 'maybe after she's visited Somalia for a while, she might come back and appreciate America more.' The progressive congresswoman has long been a hate figure to conservatives, who have often targeted her over her willingness to criticise Israeli lobbying interests in Washington, D.C. Travis, for his part, describes himself as a 'radical moderate' and claims to have been a lifelong Democrat until Trump appeared on the scene a decade ago. He co-hosts the talk radio program The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, which replaced Rush Limbaugh 's long-running broadcast in 2021, a huge influence on the emergence of the present populist American media environment dominated by Trump, MAGA, and Fox.
Daily Mail
06-06-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Clay Travis claims OutKick has been banned by WNBA over Brittney Griner
Outkick founder Clay Travis claims the WNBA has banned his publication from covering Brittney Griner out of fear they will ask the Atlanta Dream star about a controversial video of her which recently went viral. Griner was at the center of fierce controversy last month after she was seen making a furious remark during Atlanta's defeat to Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. After fouling out in the game, TV cameras appeared to capture the 34-year-old saying 'trash' at the end of a sentence before pausing and continuing her tirade, with social media divided on what came next. A number of users on X, including former college swimmer and conservative political activist Riley Gaines, alleged that she said 'f***ing white girl' in a racial slur aimed towards Fever sensation Clark. Others, however, were adamant that she did not use that racist insult on the night, insisting Griner was instead moaning that the referee had just made a 'f***ing wack call' by penalizing her for the sixth time in the game. The Dream center has not clarified what she said in that moment, while Atlanta also did not respond to a request for comment from The @wnba has refused to credential @outkick for @brittneygriner games because they don't want her asked about the 'fucking white girl' viral video comment. And no other 'media' outlet in America covering the WNBA is willing to ask her about it. — Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) June 6, 2025 Yet a few weeks on from the incident, Travis has accused the WNBA of banning Outkick from games involving Griner because they don't want his conservative outlet to ask her about it. 'The @wnba has refused to credential @outkick for @brittneygriner games because they don't want her asked about the 'f***ing white girl' viral video comment,' the American writer and lawyer said on X. 'And no other 'media' outlet in America covering the WNBA is willing to ask her about it.' Despite some alleging that she was directing her fury at Clark, it is believed Griner actually committed the foul that got her penalized against Indiana on Natasha Howard - a black player for the Fever. Former ESPN host Jemele Hill took to social media to shut down accusations of racism made against Griner by Gaines, who argued that Clark making a racist remark about the Atlanta player would have sparked greater fury. Hill responded to the conservative political activist and ex-college swimmer: 'I get that your whole personality is caught up in stuff like this, so you don't care about spreading misinformation. '1) the foul call made on her had nothing to do with Caitlin Clark. It was because she fouled Natasha Howard. '2) She clearly says 'trash' and 'f***ing WACK CALL' But carry on with your grifting a**.' Amid the controversy over her comment against the Fever, two days later Griner left fans stunned when she launched an F-bomb at officials as they exited the floor at halftime of her Dream's win over the visiting Dallas Wings. The 6-foot-9 Baylor product and freed Russian penal colony prisoner was set for a customary on-court interview with CBS when she noticed the crew of Jeff Smith, Eric Brewton and Tyler Mirkovich leaving the floor. 'BG, right now you have five points, ten rebounds…' CBS' Autumn Johnson began as Griner's attention wandered. The apparent issue was Griner's displeasure with a late foul call. The three-time Olympic gold medalist was whistled for an offensive foul with 1:30 remaining before halftime. 'Right now she's talking to the refs… about holding,' Johnson said, calling the action of the halftime kerfuffle. Griner returned to the interview but only after seeming to yell 'be f***ing better' at the refs. She then appeared to compose herself before apologizing to both Johnson and the CBS audience: 'I'm sorry, y'all.'
