Hour 2 - Behind the Curtain with Clay

Summary

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The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Hour 2 - Behind the Curtain with Clay
Date: February 2, 2026
Host: Clay Travis (with Buck Sexton on-site at Kennedy Space Center)
Guest: Todd Ricketts (co-owner, Chicago Cubs; founder, Free Spoke)

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Overview

This episode dives into the evolving landscape of American media, its shift from advertising to subscription models, and the resulting polarization. Clay Travis unpacks how journalists and outlets blur the lines between news and opinion, particularly regarding coverage of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and controversial statements from celebrities and NBA coaches. The hour also features an in-depth conversation with Todd Ricketts on the entrenched political bias of Big Tech, the challenges of building unbiased alternatives, and the impact of AI-driven information curation.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Behind the Curtain: Media Evolution and Political Polarization

• Media’s Two Revenue Models:
  • Advertising dominated the traditional model—news outlets sought broad appeal to maximize ad revenue.
  • “Now, subscriptions have changed the way that media operates because subscriptions basically fuel everything [...] at the New York Times, at the Washington Post, subscriptions are the reason now that they make money.” (Clay Travis, 05:03)
• Print Newspapers' Decline and Internet Disruption:
  • Print relied heavily on classified ad revenue; online classifieds like Craigslist destroyed this market.
  • “Internet dollars for advertising were a pin prick of what you could get in print advertising. […] So they had to shift and they had to become subscription-based businesses.” (Clay Travis, 07:44)
• Impact of Subscription Model:
  • Media now caters to subscriber preferences, leading to echo chambers.
  • “People are not seeking negative stories. They want their preexisting opinions reinforced.” (Clay Travis, 38:54)
• Sports Media Analogy:
  • Subscription fan sites always paint teams positively to retain subscribers—mirrored in modern news outlets.
  • “If you are a subscriber for a fan-based subscription, you don’t want to hear that your team stinks… That’s the New York Times.” (Clay Travis, 39:56)

2. Blurring News and Opinion: The ICE/Celebrity Narrative

• Manipulative Journalism Tactics:
  • Reporters ask ‘coded’ questions to coax opinionated responses from celebrities, then present those as news.
  • “She wants ICE to be ripped by a celebrity […] so that her news story can be ‘celebrity rips ICE’…” (Clay Travis, 10:48)
• Celebrity/Coach Accusations and Accountability:
  • Steve Kerr (Golden State Warriors) claimed ICE wasn’t arresting violent criminals—later corrected.
  • Doc Rivers (NBA coach) doubled down on calling ICE actions “straight up murder” without retraction.
  • Media covers initial provocative statements but ignores corrections/apologies.
  • “Steve Kerr's apology—almost no news site covered it, but they all covered him saying that ICE was only arresting five-year-olds and wasn't arresting violent criminals.” (Clay Travis, 16:12)
• Outkick Reporters Holding Figures Accountable:
  • Alejandro Avila (Outkick) pressed Steve Kerr on inaccuracies regarding ICE.
  • “That’s what actual journalism would look like: hear what somebody’s opinion is, push back when they’re wrong, and hold them accountable for it.” (Clay Travis, 22:38)

3. Big Tech, Censorship, and Political Bias: Interview with Todd Ricketts

• Personal Experience with Algorithmic Suppression:
  • Clay recounts how his site, Outkick, saw traffic plummet after publishing pro-Trump content, testifying how tech algorithms can sideline conservative voices. (24:18)
• Inside Free Spoke: Mission for Neutral Search and AI
  • Ricketts: Free Spoke isn’t designed to be right-leaning, but to provide balance and avoid suppression.
  • “We started Free Spoke not to be a right-leaning search engine, but we said, you know, what we want to do is we want to put something out there that is just trying to give good results and balancing all the information that you have…” (Todd Ricketts, 25:39)
  • AI presents new challenges—algorithms can further entrench biases.
  • “We've tried to train our AI to be really... just the facts, ma'am. We're trying not to lean anywhere.” (Todd Ricketts, 28:50)
• The Problem of Echo Chambers and Social Media Algorithms:
  • Algorithms reinforce users’ views, pushing them deeper into isolated bubbles.
  • “When you get on Instagram or TikTok and you like something, you just get more of it. […] It really drives the divide.” (Todd Ricketts, 31:00)
• Serendipity and Exposure to Diverse Views:
  • Print news offers accidental exposure to diverse topics; algorithmic curation narrows the field.
  • “One reason that I love print is serendipity. It puts articles I might not otherwise read in front of me…” (Clay Travis, 33:09)
• Scaling and Competing with Big Tech:
  • Ricketts notes challenges in gaining scale against entrenched behemoths and speaks to antitrust hurdles and AI’s significance in future information battles.

4. Cultural Sidebar: Super Bowl and Competing Halftime Shows

• Turning Point USA’s “All American Halftime Show”:
  • As an alternative to the official Super Bowl show featuring Bad Bunny (who has expressed anti-ICE, anti-America sentiments), Turning Point USA will air a performance including Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, among others.
  • Travis notes the halftime show always draws the biggest audience: “Every single year, the Super Bowl audience peaks at halftime.” (37:31)
• Cultural Competition as a Reflection of Political Divide:
  • Entertainment is being split along ideological lines, mirroring broader media trends.

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Notable Quotes (with Timestamps)

• On Media Shifts:
  • "They (news organizations) no longer break news, they're just propaganda because they shifted from ad to subscription-based businesses."
    — Clay Travis (09:18)
• On Journalistic Bias:
  • “What the reporters are doing is they're asking left wing coded questions. They're getting famous people like Doc Rivers, Steve Kerr, Jelly Roll, whoever it is, to say what they wish they could say. And then they're covering it as ‘news’.”
    — Clay Travis (15:14)
• On Tech Censorship:
  • “The left is running big tech… Programmers at Google are just naturally left leaning and then there’s institutional left leaning from the executives.”
    — Todd Ricketts (25:56)
• On AI's Impact:
  • “We've tried to train our AI to be really... just the facts, ma'am. We're trying not to lean anywhere.”
    — Todd Ricketts (28:50)
• On Echo Chambers & Algorithms:
  • “The algorithms are driving us to the content that we like, because their whole idea is to keep you there. So they're not going to show you stuff that disagrees with you.”
    — Todd Ricketts (31:25)
• On Print vs. Algorithms:
  • “One reason that I love print is serendipity. It puts articles that I might not otherwise read in front of me because the algorithm only is going to give me things that already knows I like.”
    — Clay Travis (33:09)
• On Subscription Media:
  • “Subscription-based businesses are not honest because fans buy subscriptions. People are not seeking negative stories. They want their preexisting opinions reinforced.”
    — Clay Travis (38:54)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Media Shift to Subscription, Bias Explained:
  [05:03]–[09:18]

• How Journalists Manufacture Opinion Headlines:
  [10:30]–[16:30]

• Clips: Steve Kerr on ICE, Correction, Doc Rivers on ICE:
  [13:00]–[14:41]

• Outkick Reporter Questions Steve Kerr – Journalism Example:
  [22:16]–[22:38]

• Todd Ricketts Interview (Big Tech, Free Spoke, AI, Scale):
  [25:24]–[35:47]

• Discussion on Echo Chambers & Print News Serendipity:
  [31:00]–[33:19]

• Super Bowl Halftime Show, Cultural Split:
  [37:31]–[38:54]

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Memorable Moments

• Clay’s “Behind Enemy Lines” in California:
  Clay highlights that despite California's reputation, many conservative listeners exist there—“even behind enemy lines.” He shares the surprising stat that “more people in California voted for Donald Trump in 2020 than in Texas” (02:19).

• Clay Recalls Being ‘Deplatformed’
  News of Outkick’s traffic plummeting due to algorithmic suppression after a Trump interview—underscoring Big Tech’s gatekeeping.

• Todd Ricketts on Tech Bias:
  Explains Free Spoke's aim to give users exposure to the full political spectrum rather than just what algorithms auto-feed based on prior behavior.

• Cultural Competition of Halftime Shows
  Reflecting the political divide, while the official Super Bowl show features a left-leaning artist, Turning Point USA offers a “patriotic” alternative.

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Conclusion

The episode pulls back the curtain on how business models, technological algorithms, and human bias combine to shape an increasingly fractured and opinion-heavy media landscape. With anecdotes and pointed examples, Clay Travis critiques modern journalism, exposes the mechanics of echo chambers, and explores efforts to foster more balanced platforms. The hour closes with a preview of further discussions on media, culture, and technology.

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Transcript

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[A]

Our number two Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show. We appreciate all of you hanging out with us. Buck is at Kennedy Space center hanging out with Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War and the new head of NASA. Jared Isaacman I believe is his name. Team can correct me if I blew that or not. Andy said that we may be invited to watch a spaceship take off on the trip to the moon. That's pretty fun. So thanks to Buck for running around there as we get ready for I believe it's Artemis 2, which is going to be the next big NASA departure that is scheduled to travel around the moon. We will find out all the details on Buck's trip tomorrow when he will be back in studio with us. I am out in Los Angeles right now. I'm in California for the week and so I'm hanging out with a lot of you who are behind enemy lines. It feels like one of our biggest audiences, not surprisingly, on the raid. Maybe it does surprise some of you. Partly it's a function of population, but one of my favorite stats blew people's minds. Didn't happen in 2024, but more people in California voted for Donald Trump in 2020 than voted for Donald Trump in Texas. Let me repeat that cause a lot of people say now again, partly it's a function of the population, but I think it goes to show how many people are behind enemy lines here. In the 2020 election, more people voted for Donald Trump in California than voted for Donald Trump in Texas. Everybody thinks of Texas deep red state and thinks of California as a deep blue state. But I do think it's always worth keeping in mind that whatever political persuas equation you have, in most parts of the country, at most it's 65, 35, 60, 40 in one way or the other. Even Wyoming and West Virginia, which are the two biggest Trump states in the country, have 30% blue voters. Now. They're drastically overwhelmed. But no matter what state you live in, I do think it's worth remembering that there are lots of people that agree with you. Even if we generally speaking say red or blue states, there are still a lot of people in California behind enemy lines, so to speak. Okay, so we just played you the cut as we went to break of a Rolling Stone reporter asking Jelly Roll the entertainer what he thought about the anti ice comments from one of the entertainers, Billie Eilish, among others, who were just ripping ice to shreds last night during the Grammys. And I said, I want to take you behind the scenes and let you know exactly what's going there on there. Because once you see it, I think you'll be able to understand even more so how this narrative story is created. So we have historically opinion people and we have news people, right? That is the general concept and it's designed in a way so that old school. If you were in the newspaper, the front part of the newspaper you would read would theoretically be the news, the facts, what actually happened, laying it out for you so that you could understand what exactly was going on. And then in the back you would have the editorial pages where you would have columnists or opinion guest op ed writers. They would tell you what they think of the news. And so there was a difference between news and opinion. And then the Internet happened. And in the Internet something really interesting happened. And I've written a lot about this and if you're really fascinated by it, you should go read some of my books. But I think you're going to understand, and I think it's important for you to understand how everything shifted back in the day. Media companies, most of them, and a lot of them still do, like this show for instance. But really in media, there's only two ways to make money. There's only two ways that you really make money in media. One is advertising. If you listen to this radio program, the reason why this radio program makes money is advertising. We have commercial reads, people who want to reach you with their product. They pay. I heart and buck and I talk to you. And the way that this show makes money is advertising dollars. Which is why we say we always want you to support the advertisers here because they are the reason that this show exists. Okay, so advertising. And it's been an advertising media dominated industry for a long time. But of late, subscriptions have come in and subscriptions have changed the way that media operates because subscriptions basically fuel everything. At the New York Times, at the Washington Post, subscriptions are the reason now that they make money. And if you think about when most of us grew up, if you got a newspaper and I got three of them printed for myself this morning, I may be the only person in America who's got the Wall Street Journal, the LA Times and the New York Times sitting in front of him in print right now. When I was on my Southwest Airlines flight last night, I got on with a bunch of newspapers. And the flight attendant said, do you know how long it's been since I've seen anybody old school with actual newspapers? I am the last print reader. What made money back in the day for newspapers? They made money by delivering ads to you. And the way that they charged more money. Think about it from a business perspective. The only reason the newspaper existed was to deliver ads to your front porch. All of the articles were the reason that you might buy the newspaper. And remember back in the day, classified advertisements was the place that newspapers made the most money and Craigslist destroyed that business. But primarily they didn't make money off subscriptions. They would give you the newspaper for free often if they knew that you would read it. Remember USA Today? Probably the worst newspaper that exists in America today? You stayed in a hotel room, you got a USA Today. It was the nation's most widely distributed newspaper. Mostly trash, but the entire business model was we want to get the newspaper in front of you. And then the advertising market collapsed to a large extent because classified ads, which were the most valuable part for newspapers, it collapsed. Most people don't get print newspapers anymore. I'm old school, I do. And as if that were not bad enough, the Internet dollars for advertising were a pin prick of what you could get in print advertising. Why? Because back in the day you used to be able to restrict how many ads you could have in a newspaper. Right? A full page ad in a newspaper, there's only so many of them. Same thing for magazine. Okay, I'm giving you the history of media here and explaining what's happening. So they had to shift and they had to become subscription based businesses. Advertising doesn't work for many of these media companies anymore. New York Times, LA. Times, Wall Street Journal. When they were trying to reach the broadest possible audience, they at least had to have some modicum of evenhandedness because you wanted to reach everybody. Democrat, Republican, Independent. In all honesty, the New York Times wanted to sell to everybody. The LA Times, the Wall Street Journal, okay, When they shifted to a subscription model, then people only wanted to hear good things about their favorite team. So all of these newspapers, they no longer break news, they're just propaganda because they shifted from ad to subscription based businesses. What is one way I talked about the news in the front of the newspaper, the opinion in the back? Reporters are becoming least less and less valuable, but many of them are super political in nature. The idea of a 100% unbiased reporter has mostly blown up in social media because you've seen the way that these people behave, but most of them don't have very substantial audiences. And most of them want to be in the opinion business, but they're in the news business. So how do they get to the actual opinion side? They ask slanted questions that allow them to use the answers they get that have the opinions that they have. They slant it. Can I play the Jelly Roll question again for you? I want you to listen to this. This is a Rolling Stone reporter. She's supposed to be there just covering the news. She wants ICE to be ripped by a celebrity who is more famous than her so that her news story can be celebrity rips. Ice, listen to that question again. We just had Billie Eilish win and she mentioned in her speech, she talked about this topic that's so big tonight.

[E]

Would you be willing to comment on.

[A]

What'S going on in our country right now? Would you be willing to say what I'm not allowed to say because I'm an unbiased newscaster? Jelly Roll, will you say what I wish I could say? And it's happening in sports and there's almost no pushback. Well, we've started to push back. Steve Kerr said, for those of you who do not know, he is the Golden State warriors coach. He said that ICE wasn't arresting any violent criminals recently in a press conference. Well, outkick, the site that I sold to Fox got credentialed, went to a Golden State Warrior game and asked this question this weekend of Steve Kerr holding him accountable for the lies that he told. This is what we need more of if celebrities are are going to decide that they are going to be outspoken when it comes to politics. Listen, you're right. I definitely misspoke.

[E]

And I knew that ICE was arresting some criminals, and I think I immediately regretted it because I knew that to be the case. But my point is that they're also arresting people and detaining citizens and people.

[A]

Who should not be being detained.

[E]

And I misspoke.

[A]

And so I apologize for the misinformation. So I hope everybody else out there.

[E]

Who'S, you know, saying stuff that's not.

[A]

True, please apologize too.

[E]

You did highlight that.

[A]

Ms. No, no, that I I addressed.

[E]

Everything I wanted to address in Minneapolis, but I am glad you said that.

[A]

Because that was false what I said.

[E]

And so I want to correct that for the record. So thank you.

[A]

Okay. And we'll get I'd like to grab the question that Dan Zach Shesky, who is an outkick reporter, asked for Doc Rivers and then Also the, the question that Alejandro Avila asked there of Steve Kerr, because I think the questions are important. But Steve Kerr actually apologized. He apologized for being inaccurate. Now Doc Rivers is the coach of the, of the timber of, of the box up in many up in Milwaukee. And he was asked about the fact that he said ICE agents are committing murder. And he actually doubled down on it. Listen to this. A few weeks ago you said the shooting of Renee Good in Minnesota was.

[E]

Quote, a straight up murder.

[A]

And you called the Browder ICE situation a quote, travesty. Now that some time has passed, do you still stand by those words? And when you said murder, can you.

[D]

Explain if you meant that in the.

[A]

Legal sense or as a moral condemnation of the situation? Both.

[E]

And I don't change that at all. I look at our league, look at the NBA, we're celebrating Pioneers Day today, right? And I look at our league and I think Elijah1 could have been taken off the streets, but we would right now. The way brown people feel, only the brown people would be taken off the streets. And it's just not right and it's not morally right.

[A]

Okay, so Doc Rivers is a moron. But you have to push back on these narratives because what the reporters are doing who sit in those newsrooms is they're asking left wing coded questions. They're getting famous people like Doc Rivers, Steve Kerr, jelly roll, whoever it is to say what they wish they could say. And then they are covering it as quote, unquote news. So they're claiming that this is not opinion based media. Now here's something else that's interesting about this and I think it's so important. Most of those answers don't get covered. Steve Kerr's apology. Almost no news site covered it, but they all covered him saying that ICE was only arresting 5 year olds and wasn't arresting violent criminals. Doc Rivers doubling down on murder. The New York Times covered it. Steve Kerr saying, hey, I apologize for getting that wrong. The New York Times didn't cover it. What they select as quote, unquote news is actually the foundation of opinion based journalism. They're disguising everything that is actually opinion as news and they're cloaking it in far left wing media because that's what their subscribers want. You don't want to subscribe to the New York Times and find out that your political views aren't true. You want to subscribe to the Washington Post and find out that everything you believe about awful Nazi conservatives is actually true. These organizations in leaving advertising and moving to subscription based businesses have actually wildly polarized their audiences because subscribers overwhelmingly index far left wing. And what might have been somewhat at least of an organization that attempted to try and bring actual news has now just become left wing propaganda. Now there's not really right wing equivalents to the New York Times or the Washington Post. And that's sometimes why it feels like metaphorically conservative ideas are so overwhelmingly outgunned. We'll talk about this when we come back. I'll take some of your calls. By the way, we're going to be joined by Todd Ricketts. I bet he has some thoughts on this at the bottom of the hour. He owns the Chicago Cubs and he's trying to create media companies that have more balance. Will it work? We will discuss, but I want to tell you all about Price. I mentioned that I'm out in California. Well, I am headed up to San Francisco. I'm going to be doing a lot of meetings with advertisers. I'm going to be doing a lot of shows up there and I'm going to be meeting with a lot of people that are in town for the Super Bowl. Seahawks going up against the Patriots. If you love sports and you're going to be watching the super bowl this weekend, I am going to give you a pick. You can now play in all 50 states, California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, everywhere. In fact, I will give you a pick in our number three pick that I will give you all week long that you can play along with us in the super bowl. And you can get $50 deposited in your account when you use Code clay, go to prizepix.com Code Clay Clay. That is prizepix.com Code clay. You get $50 instantly in lineups when you play $5. That's Code Clay on prizepix. To get 50 bucks in lineups when you play $5 win or lose 50 bucks just for playing in all 50 states. Super roll pick coming in our number three pricepicks.com Code Clay. You can download the app, put in Code clay. You get 50 bucks. That's PricePicks.com code Clay Stories of Freedom, stories of America, inspirational stories that unite us all each day. Spend time with Clay and Bob. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sex Show I wanted to play as we get ready for Todd Ricketts, who I bet has actually quite a bit of thoughts about what I just laid out. I wanted to play the question that was asked that I thought did a really good job of holding these guys accountable that almost no one else will ask. And this is cut 30. This is what it sounded like from.

[E]

Outkick.Com so going back to the situation.

[A]

In Minneapolis and some of the comments.

[E]

That were made there.

[A]

So I know you had mentioned that, you know ICE isn't rooting out violent criminals but is instead taking five year olds. Since we know that ICE has indeed.

[D]

Arrested violent criminals and perhaps some of.

[A]

Those statements could be seen as misinformed or possibly divisive. What would you say to that? Okay, that's a perfect question. Nobody else will ask it. Steve Kerr ripped ICE to shreds, said that they're only arresting five year olds, they're not arresting violent criminals and no one in that room would ask the question or call him out on the inaccuracy. Alejandro Avila for outkick just did it. I wanted to play that question. This is what we need more of. That's what actual journalism would look like. Hear what somebody's opinion is, push back when they're wrong and hold them accountable for it. That is what we need more of. That's how I think the country could use real journalism. Look, I want to tell you, gold prices have been skyrocketing. They're up over 700% in the last 20 years old and gold can give you peace of mind. Unbelievable percentage just in the past few years. If you're wondering or concerned about the diminishing value of the dollar, if you want to protect yourself with a metal that has been used for value for thousands of years, gold is more valuable than it ever has been before. It's surging. A alternative to the declining value of the dollar. Get hooked up with Birch Gold. They can help you convert existing IRAs or 401ks. Text my name Clay 989898 to find out if gold makes sense in your portfolio. It's does Clay 989-898 welcome back in Clay. Travis Buck Sexton Show. We are joined now by a guy who's probably ready for Major League Baseball season to be back. He is Todd Ricketts, a co owner of the Chicago Cubs and he's got something that I think is super important that he's focused on how technology is biased in particular Google and Big tech. And let me tell you a story here that kind of goes to that. When we had Donald Trump on my sports talk radio show for the first time, Mr. Ricketts, back in July of 2020, we had him on and did the interview, sports talk radio show, wrote it up at Outkick and overnight our Facebook traffic and our Google traffic vanished. We lost 80% of our traffic. Basically. I've testified under oath about it. And it was entirely because we had a lot of positive things that were written about Donald Trump and the algorithm that they, that they created disfavored us. And I don't think most people understand and you're focused on this just how rigged big tech can be in favor of left wing politics. What have you seen and what are you trying to do? And thanks for joining us.

[E]

Well, yeah, thanks for having me today. And that's, that's actually a fascinating story that you just told there. Really I started off with respoke coming at this from not actually having hard data like you just mentioned, but really just a hunch. When I would search for things in Google, I was thinking the results I was getting were not the results I expected. And so I kind of went down this like this rabbit hole of saying like the left, the left is running big tech. And I think there's kind of two aspects of it. There's the, there's the guys that work in the, in the field, like the programmers at Google that are just naturally left leaning and then there's a little bit of institutional left leaning from right, the executives. And what happens is you end up having like these, these outcomes that are kind of left leaning. And so we started Free Spoke not to be a right leaning surgeon, but we said, you know, what we want to do is we want to put something out there that is just trying to give good results and Balanc all the information that you have out there. And so we sort of Free Spoke to try to be fair, to try to show everything and not suppress any sort of information, whether it be labeled misinformation or whatnot. And so we kind of, we came at that and then since then we've discovered that Google most definitely has been left leaning. Yeah, they kind of, for a long time they said they were not. But then you hear like the executive director from the UN on climate change talking about how they work with Google to suppress any sort of like any sort of thinking on climate change that goes against the narrative. And then you saw, I think you had Eric Schmidt talking about how, you know, the Biden administration worked with the big tech companies to suppress anything that was anti vaccine. And the list kind of just goes on and on and on. And so what we've done at Pre Spoke is try to create a search engine. And then the way the world is evolving, I'd call it more than more of a, an AI digital news assistant to help you sort through everything that's out there, to help you form your own opinion. And that's really what we're going for at Free Spoke.

[A]

I think that's super important because the search engine is now becoming diminished through AI because so many people, my kids included, just pull their phones out and go to a AI location, whether it's ChatGPT, whether it's Grok on Twitter. So how do you balance that as you move forward? Because Google's power may be diminish, but Google has their own AI device. I'm sure you're having to evolve in real time where back in the day somebody would sit down in front of a computer or even on their phone and type in a query to try to find information. Now it's moved from the traditional search engine to this AI device. And arguably I would think the algorithms that are powering AI are even more impactful going forward than search has been.

[E]

Yeah, that's, you're 100% right there. And really what we've seen is that people are shifting away from, away from Google to your chat cpt. But again, the chat CBT have like their biases built into them as well. So we built our own competitor that if you go to Free Spoke and you search for things, it has, you know, an agentic AI sort of interface where you can ask, ask a question, get it, get a answer and then kind of elaborate that and build just like you do in the chatbots sort of environment. But what we've tried to do is like, we've tried to train our AI to be really, I say just the facts, ma'.

[A]

Am.

[E]

We try, we're trying not to lean anywhere. We try to get both sides and kind of like show some middle ground is where things overlap. So we've kind of developed that same sort of technology. And so if you're using ChatGPT, then come over to Free Spoke and try us out and see if you find the difference.

[A]

We're talking to Todd Ricketts, co owner of the Chicago Cubs, co founder of Free Spoke, the independent search engine trying to take on Google's Political bias and combat big tech censor. As you well know, it's not only bias, it's also burying what you can find. And one of the things that's so important is scale and all of these iterations, because the more scale you have, the more success you can build, the better iterations you create. How do you get big enough to make free spoke, be able to build off of the queries that it's getting to build a more efficient sort of reply system?

[E]

Gosh, that's a great question. And really it is the big obstacle that we're trying to get over. How do we get out there and get people using our products? Because once they get there and they start using it, they generally stay and they use it more and more and more. And we've got a few million users, but this is the year where we've decided to really go out there and kind of advertise a little bit more and try to get more users and stickier users. And so it's really. It is a tough. It's a tough market to break into, though, that's for sure.

[A]

Well, and there's all these obstacles that are built up. I mean, there's been a ton of antitrust investigations into this, because once these organizations get big, they try to keep anybody else from being able to get in. And that makes it even more challenging. And again, in an AI age, I think it's going to matter even more. What are you seeing in terms of youth? Is there an understanding among young people that they are being sort of sometimes fed false information? How active are young people in your experience, based on what you're seeing, aware of how the world is shifting and not only young people. Who's more susceptible to being manipulated in your mind? Is it older people, younger people? The answer is everybody. But who are you seeing? Be the most impacted and maybe not even realize it?

[E]

Yeah, I don't know if you can put an age range or a type of person, but what we're seeing, though is like, I think that a bot, a big part of, like big tech and the social media we have out there, it just reinforces your point of view. Because when you get on an Instagram or a TikTok or something and you like something you see, you just get more of it. And so what's happening is the algorithms are driving us to the content that we like, because their whole idea is to keep you there.

[A]

Right.

[E]

So they're not going to show you stuff that disagrees with you. And so people are just kind of like fed into this echo chamber, and it really drives the divide. Just like sometimes if I get onto one of these platforms and I'm watching and I'm seeing stuff that, you know, like, identify. That I identify with, and I'm like, yeah, damn right. And then I think, well, my neighbor's probably not saying that.

[A]

Yeah.

[E]

And that's what's leading to the divide in this. And like, and I think a long time ago, before social media and before the technology was so prevalent in our lives, if your neighbor didn't agree with you, you didn't necessarily know it. Right. You get beers with your neighbors, and your neighbor may have some crazy ideas about how the world works and may be extreme to one way or the other, but you didn't always have to talk about it. Like, you could still have a beer and talk about, you know, the favorite sports team or what's going on in the neighborhood, but now you can't help but know because either your neighbor is posting stuff out there and you're like, oh, my God, I can't believe Bill believes this. And on the flip side, when he's going there and just, you know, kind of surfing through social media, he's only seeing things that reinforce his point of view, not saying things that, like, kind of counter it. Right. I think that's a big issue we've had in the country right now is that that divide is getting driven by that. And so at Free Spoke, what we're trying to do, especially on our news side, is like, kind of show all sides and let you see, like, what both sides are writing about on the same topics. And so then you can see the crossover of, like, okay, well, the truth probably lies somewhere in between.

[A]

I think that's hugely important. I was making fun of myself because I'm the last person who still reads print. I'm out in LA right now. I've got the New York Times, the LA Times, Wall Street Journal in front of me. One reason that I love print is serendipity. It puts articles that I might not otherwise read in front of me because the algorithm only is going to give me things that it already knows I like. But there might be things that I want to be exposed to that I would never see. And that sounds like something you're trying to address with your product.

[E]

A hundred percent, 100%. I'm going to say I'm with you. I actually, I still get a hard newspaper every day because I like that. I like the tactile feeling of flipping through the paper itself as well as what you said about like reading articles that you would never think to search on or go look for yourself.

[A]

We're talking to Todd Ricketts. Okay, you mentioned sports. You are one of the co owners of the Chicago Cubs. I'm a big baseball fan, Braves fan, unfortunately for you competitor. But you've got one of the great all time brands in sports, the Cubs, you know, Wrigley Field, wgn, back in the day, nationwide audience. Are you nervous? I'm in LA right now. The Dodgers are spending money like crazy. The Cubs are a big brand team. But are you nervous about where baseball is going when you see the contracts that some teams can sign and others cannot or you think it's going to get itself solved? How much time do you spend thinking about that?

[E]

You know, I think that eventually it's going to get solved. I think that like at some point we're going to come up with a system that kind of like is a little bit more like the other leagues out there that has a little bit more of a hard cap. But also I think if you've seen in baseball that, you know, spending doesn't necessarily equate to championships. I mean it did this year for the Dodgers, but historically speaking, you know, the Yankees for the last 125 years, call it or whatever, the Yankees have outspent everybody but they haven't won the World Series every single year. So I think there's a lot of examples in baseball where money doesn't equate to World Series championships. It certainly helps. So we'll see, we'll see where this leads. I think it's going to lead us to a place where we get a little bit more of a hard cap at that will put a little bit of balance of talent or at least a balance of money out there. But also I look down, I look at our team and I'm like we have a rock solid team. I think we have a really great, a really great team coming up this year and think we're going to make the playoffs, you know, knock on wood and see where that goes from there.

[A]

For people out there who are listening and they're saying, boy, I do need to have a better, more aggressive understanding of how things are playing on the Internet. Tell us one more time about your search engine, how they can start to use it in their lives.

[E]

You can go to free spoke.com or you can go to the app store and download the free Spoke app. And really what I'll give you each morning is like, you know, a whole list of headlines and both sides like what multiple newspapers are writing on the same topic. And I think it'll just really help you to inform your opinion. And I think it'd be good for our country if everybody spends a little time thinking about how the other side thinks and kind of bridge that divide.

[A]

Todd Ricketts, co owner of the Chicago Cubs, co founder of Free Spoke, we appreciate the time. Pitchers and catchers report soon. It's a good time of year.

[E]

Yep. On the 11th. On the 11th, baseball is almost here. I can't wait.

[A]

Thank you, sir. Todd Ricketts, you can go check out freespoke.com I'm going to check it out. I haven't used it yet. I will and I'm certainly appreciative of the goal there. Look, I want to make sure that all of you are able to be safe inside your own homes. And that's exactly what Sabre does. We have every single Sabre product in the country. Sabre home defense launcher delivers seven powerful impact pepper projectiles, non lethal but designed to protect people. That's two more than most of the competitors out there because when you have to defend yourself, you want to make sure that you have as much possible protection out there. And maybe you got young kids, maybe you got grandkids and you know, they like to snoop, you know, they like to get into everything. Sabers products are all non lethal. They're protective, but they are non lethal, whether it's pepper sprays, whether it's the projectile launcher. We have every single Sabre product in the Travis household. You can go check it out for yourself, for your kids, for your grandkids, for your peace of mind, for your family. Don't wait for a close call. Get Protection now at saberradio.com that's S A B R E radio.com 844-824 Safe S A-B-R E radio.com that's saberradio.com Two guys walk up to a mic. Anything goes. Clay Trav and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[A]

Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton show they have announced Turning Point USA just in the last little bit, their own lineup for the All American Halftime Show. Super bowl is this weekend. And Bad Bunny, who loves ice, sorry, hates ice, hates America. These guys probably love ice. This is the lineup for what Turning Point USA is calling the All American Halftime Show. I don't know how many people are going to turn the channel, but did you know the highest rated part of the super bowl every year is the halftime show? This is. You go look at the data. Every single year, the super bowl audience peaks at halftime. Now, partly I think this is because people have kids, they, a lot of people may leave the super bowl parties at halftime. A lot of people frankly only want to watch the commercials and the, and the halftime show every single year. The audience, the most number of people watching the super bowl, it peaks during halftime. This. I'm curious, I'm curious how many people will change the channel or stream maybe on a additional device. Kid Rock, Brantley, Gilbert, Lee Bryce and Gabby Barrett are going to be the halftime performers for the All American Halftime Show. So if you don't want to watch Bad Bunny and you want to instead watch another halftime show, that is the lineup that Turning Point USA is going to put out there. My thanks to Todd Ricketts who was just with us. I haven't ever met Todd Ricketts, but I think what he's trying to do is it directly ties in with how I started the second hour of the program talking about the power of so many of these media companies in a subscription based era is they no longer actually share any kind of negative story that would make their subscribers angry. And the analogy that I use this is when I had my light bulb moment go off. I'm a big sports fan. Obviously anyone who subscribes to a team sports site, some of you do that are out there listening right now. If you're a big Notre Dame fan, if you're a big AT Ohio State fan, if you're a big Alabama Crimson Tide fan, usc, whoever it is, you subscribe to a team site, you pay a monthly fee, $10 a month or whatever it is, and you get told that your team is awesome and that the recruit recruits are all going to be good. No negative story is written except when coaches get fired. Suddenly all the reporting comes out about things being awful. Because by and large, if you are a subscriber for a fan based subscription, you don't want to hear that your team stinks. The coaching staff is awful. On the message board you may hear that, but you don't want to hear that from the people you pay to talk to you about your favorite team. And I had that light bulb go off a few years ago. I said, oh my goodness, that's the New York Times. Subscription based businesses are not honest because fans buy subscriptions. People are not seeking negative stories. They want their preexisting opinions reinforced. The New York Times, the Washington Post. They moved from from entirely ad based businesses to subscription businesses. I don't believe the Washington Post or the New York Times now would ever break a Bill Clinton is sleeping with his intern story because Democrats would be upset they wouldn't cover it. So if you ever wonder why, how in the world did Biden not get covered when it came to his health? The New York Times would lose subscribers. The Washington Post right now is losing subscribers like crazy because Jeff Bezos, who's so rich he doesn't need to make money off the newspaper, is just trying to get back to some form of basic honesty. And the subscribers, every time he does that, they vote in overwhelming numbers. We don't want this. We want our pre existing opinions reinforced. Course, I'll take some of your calls, 800-282-2882. You can also get into the show through talkbacks. We're gonna be joined by Senator Marsha Blackburn at the bottom of the next hour, but we will dive into census data, Epstein revelations and the Melania movie coming out, plus some great data out of Washington D.C. i promise I'm gonna tie it all together next.

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