This year’s U.S. presidential election is proving to be an inflection point for digital creators, as both the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket and the Donald Trump-J.D. Vance ticket seek out influencers and nontraditional hosts for interviews.
Harris has already been interviewed by former Barstool Sports personality Alex Cooper and retired NBA athletes Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. Meanwhile, Trump has chatted with comedian Theo Von and streamer Adin Ross.
In that vein, veteran sportswriter and host Dan Le Batard revealed Tuesday that he is currently booking Walz to appear on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz in the run-up to the November election.
“The fact that they told me this week that the vice presidential candidate for Kamala Harris wants to come on the show suggests to me that we have a demo that he wants to reach,” Le Batard said while filling in as a cohost on the Nothing Personal with David Samson podcast.
Le Batard’s comments came amid a wider conversation on the candidates’ strategies this election cycle, including Le Batard’s ties to Harris’ appearance on All the Smoke, the podcast hosted by Barnes and Jackson which has a partnership with Le Batard’s Meadowlark Media.
After interviewing Harris, Barnes appeared on the Le Batard Show and admitted that he and Jackson ran their topics by the Harris campaign before the taping. Le Batard insisted he would not do the same if he interviewed Walz.
“All of it feels a little gross,” Le Batard said. “It doesn’t feel like journalism to submit questions beforehand so that a candidate can prepare like that for what they’re getting.”
So while he may not be on the good side of the campaigns, Le Batard clearly sees a unique opportunity to bridge the gap as a host with a large digital audience who also believes in doing real journalism.
“Traditional mainstream media is collapsing and fragmenting, so you have to do stuff like reach out to the YouTube influencer to make sure that you get the young vote, (even) if you’re a 78-year-old candidate,” Le Batard said. “I have a hard time with it as well because I am adhering to old-fashioned journalistic standards at a time that it seems fewer people than ever care about those standards as something that holds truth to power.”
Maybe that’s why Le Batard is getting Walz and not Harris.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.