The Josh Innes Show - Anniversary Of Lennon Being Shot

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

It was 45 years ago today that John Lennon was shot. Let's revisit the MNF broadcast when Howard Cosell broke the news to the world. Is there a celeb death that would have that impact on the world? Or are we so broken that we will politicize anything? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right. Well, today is a significant day in history, as it was 45 years ago, that John Lennon was shot and killed. Do we say assassinated? Like, he was murdered, but how do we determine whether or not we consider John Lennon's death to be an assassination or not? Was it an assassination? These are the questions. Actually, that's a very good question that I always ask and then never look up the answer. What is the difference between assassination and killing? Oh boy, now we're getting down to something. Let's play a couple commercials, and we'll get into that and revisit this moment in history.

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Reese's All right, so let's take a look the key difference differences lie in the scope in the motive. Killing is a general term for ending a life, while assassination is a specific

type of murder that targets a prominent person, typically for political or ideological reasons. Killing. Killing is the broadest term, simply meaning to deprive of life. Thank you. Examples. An accidental death like a car accident. Killing in self-defense. Murder is a legal term for an unlawful, intentional killing of a human being with malice, a forethought or premeditation, which I mean, I feel like John Lennon's murder would have been that by Mark David Chapman. Assassination is a specific form of murder involving the deliberate killing of a prominent public figure, like a ruler, a politician, or celebrity. So if a celebrity gets shot and killed, it is an assassination. So let me ask that, Internet, was John Lennon's murder and assassination?

That's kind of a loaded question, isn't it? Like, what do you mean by that? Let's see. Yes, John Lennon's murder is widely referred to as an assassination because he was globally recognized figure, a formal beetle, and a peace activist shot by a fan Mark David Chapman, motivated by obsession, envy, and perceived hypocrisy, making it a high profile killing the deeply impacted music and culture, blah, blah, blah. So, yes, we call it an assassination. John Lennon's murder was in fact an assassination. For anyone who needs to know, now you know, and that's according to the internet, and the internets would never lie to any of us. Now, it's wild to think about this because it was only 45 years ago.

But 45 years isn't that long ago, but it might as well be 1,000 years ago. Because think about the way people got the information about John Lennon's death. There were three channels. I don't know. There might have been early days of cable, but this is 1980. So basically, everyone in their home has three channels. And if you're watching TV, you're watching CBS, ABC, or NBC. Let's see what was on.

Let's see, prime time television lineup in fall 1980. Let's see what shows would have been on. Let's see on Mondays. I'm intrigued by this. All right. So on Mondays, ABC had Monday night football. That's during the fall. During the spring and summer, they would have had Dynasty.

Okay. CBS up against Monday Night Football would have, let's see, MASH House Calls. Actually, you know what's funny is MASH had higher ratings than Monday Night Football. How about that? But Monday Night Football had a 20 share and MASH had larger. They had 25 ratings, so they were higher. And then let's see here. Now I don't know if that's just football, if that was the other shows that they had. And then NBC had, Monday Night Movies, which also was very close to Monday Night Football ratings-wise as well. So those were your three primetime things happening in the fall of 1980. So in this case, it'd be the winter of 1980 essentially, but this is technically the fall, I still think, in December 8th. So Monday Night Football or Mash and Lou Grant or Monday Night at the movies. On Monday night, that's what you were getting. So those were your three television options at the time. that means outside of that you weren't getting much else there was really no cable of course you didn't have your cell phone to text someone you didn't have social media to spread lies and misinformation all you had is what you saw on TV and what you heard on the radio so imagine you're watching Monday night football on December 8th 1980 and Howard CoSell says this John Smith is on the line and I don't care what's on the line Howard you have got to say what we know in the boot

Yes, we have to say it. Remember, this is just a football game. No matter who wins or loses, an unspeakable tragedy, confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City. John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the west side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps, of all of the Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Now, I want you to imagine that they have to continue calling this game. So what I love is that Cosell gets to deliver the big news. Now, Cosell always wanted to be a newsman, and he kind of resented the fact that he was pigeonholed into sports. That was always this kind of resentment he had. So he hated the ABC news people and the ones that they would use for big assignments like that. He didn't get those assignments, and he hated that.

Resented it, okay? So then you have to go back to the game, and my man just puts Frank Gifford and the worst spot here, if you listen. Hard to go back to the game after that news flash, which in duty now we had to tell. Frank? That's great. He goes, it's hard to go back to the game knowing what we know now after that news flash. But Frank, call the field goal, brother.

Indeed it is. Like, he kind of left his ass out to dry there a little bit. Like, it's a tough spot for everybody. but like to say it's tough to go back to the game after this but I'm going to leave it up to my partner Frank Gifford who he also had a resentment for because Gifford was a former athlete and Cocell hated jocks turned broadcasters that was just one of the many things the guy hated if you ever think you hate a lot of shit and resent a lot of shit and have a lot of angst in you just remember that there's always Howard Cocell and that guy hated everything so um so he leaves him out to dry though like well there you go Frank call the game winning field go, buddy. By the way, John Lennon's dead. All right, we're lining up for a 30-yarder for the win. But that's how people got that information. Then, of course, it trickles into radio. And, like, that's just crazy to think that that's the only two places you can go. And that wasn't that long ago.

You know, 45 years is not an eternity by any means. Now, obviously, we've had great advances in those 45 years and cable and the internet and cell phones and all that shit. So, like, obviously, that's been the case. But, um, just, Just 45 years ago, that death happens, and that news comes across the screen that John Lennon's dead. And, like, if you miss it that one time, when do you hear it? You know, like, it's not like they just kept hammering that. Now I'd imagine maybe after the game they went to an ABC News special or your late local news did a story, whatever. But imagine that world that you're just sitting there and it's like, hey, I'm watching the Monday Night Football Game. Oh, here's Howard CoSell.

Oh, John Lennon, arguably one of the top three or four. biggest celebrities on the planet at the time, probably among them, certainly musically and politically musically, like, what do you do? Like, nowadays, it would come through your phone and almost instantly we'd have video. Like, almost like, we would go to our phones, within five minutes of hearing this, there'd be video of Mark David Chapman, who would probably be wearing those glasses that have like a camera in the glasses. He probably would have filmed it himself.

He would have been doing it live on the internet. He'd be doing a Twitch stream of him shooting John Lennon. but like in this era that doesn't exist like back in 1980 all you had was the local you just have the network you had ABC NBC CBS so I have no idea if they cut in I would imagine they ran a scroll on you know CBS during MASH well this probably been later in the night so during Lou Grant during Lou Grant or Monday night movies they probably ran a scroll across the screen and said John Lennon's dead and then that's one of those things where people talk about where were you like where were you when this guy was shot Where were you in Kennedy, all that? Like, there are no moments like that now that, like, you're never going to get a reaction like that. And by that, what do I mean? What I mean is, like, Charlie Kirk got shot. It was not something that brought people together under the idea that, holy shit, this is horrible.

We are broken and we need to fix this. This brought people together and actually drove them apart. It brought them together on social media in the same place and then drove them all apart by making it super political. and this guy deserved it, he didn't deserve it, whatever. Like, there is nothing like that. Like I told you, I've talked with my old boss about this before, and I've talked with other people that are in media about it before, about politics.

And I asked the question. The question was, do you believe that people will ever come together again? Will there ever be a time that these groups, like right-wing, left-wing, whatever, kind of come together, is there some sort of event? And my man always said, listen, there's going to be another 9-11 or something that's going to make people come together. I 100% disagree. I do not believe there will ever be a time that the country has galvanized and everybody will come

together. I don't believe it. I have very little belief that we will ever see a time that there will be a unifying moment. Like 9-11 might be that last opportunity. But keep in mind, what's important to note about 9-11, September 11th, 2001? There was no, barely any internet, right? Like, that's like, hey, you're getting on there and maybe aim and maybe a message board.

or trying to, you know, ASL somebody like, hey, what truth is. Like, there was, there were chat rooms, message boards, whatever, but there was no Twitter, there was no Instagram, there was no Facebook, right? That's the most important factor. And therefore, because those didn't exist, you didn't see how truly divided and angry and stupid people are. Therefore, it was easier to bring people together, or at least do it under the guise of bringing people together

because you didn't know how openly one group hated the other group of people and how vocal they would be about it on social media. and thus to keep things divided. There is not an event that will ever bring people together like that again. And I know that that's not the, you know, we're talking about John Lennon here and like obviously the John Lennon part of it is different, but there will never be that kind of moment. Is there a celebrity that could be shot to death and you hear about it on Monday night football that will, you know, bring people together in morning?

No. Charlie Kirk was murdered and all we did was went to social media and watched the videos. of it. And we're like, wow, videos, and that was the liberals. And no, actually, he was a right-wing guy and he was extremely. Like, that's all that is. It will never, that will never be. Is there a celebrity that if they got gunned down, you'd go, collectively, the whole world would go, shit, that's terrible. And the sad part is, I don't think there is. Like, who are the 10 most likable celebrities by everybody, right? Usually number one on that list is Tom Hanks. Let's see. Who are the 10 most beloved celebrities currently

okay like here's the okay whatever like this is their list the rock Taylor Swift you know what maybe Morgan Freeman like if Morgan Freeman got gunned down in the streets like I don't know that anybody associates Morgan Freeman

with anything other than being Morgan Freeman but like Taylor Swift is now associated with being annoying football whatever right again I'm not rooting for these people to be murdered or anything like that I'm just looking from the standpoint of is there a celebrity that if they were murdered in the streets, as a country, people would go, holy shit, this is terrible and something needs to change.

Because, like, I see Jim Carrey. Well, here's the thing. Jim Carrey openly hates one side of the political spectrum. So that side of the political spectrum would not come together on that. Like, they would find something politically about the guy. Honestly, Morgan Freeman might be the best. I saw Tom Hanks, but Tom Hanks is a guy that the right wing people have kind of turned on for VAC's purposes and everything else.

So it may be Morgan Freeman, or Dolly, I guess. I guess Dolly would fall into that category, but, like, you're not going to see anything like that because this country will never come together again because this country is fractured and broken. I just don't see a scenario ever. Like, you'd like to think it would, but I don't. So, you know, people that grew up in a different era might say, well, there's always a tragedy. But those tragedies all happened in the era before you could run to Twitter and blame somebody for it and cause a fight before bots, before all this fake shit, before AI. I, like, it will never be. There will never be, like, this is about as good as it's going to get.

So not to bring everybody down here, but this is about as good as things will get for you. And, like, just think about this. Compare it again, that Charlie Kirk is not John Lennon and whatever. But when Charlie Kirk was plugged in Utah, you know, instantly, like you hear about it. You go, first thing you do, you go to social media. You start looking this up and you start scrolling through and you see people say, Oh, my God, the Charlie Kirk video's terrible. So what do you do?

Oh, Charlie Kirk shot video. And then you just watch a guy get shot in the neck and blood gush out and he dies. And we think nothing of it. It's fucking crazy. The world is so different. Obviously, it's so different. But still fucking wild, man. Anyway, more to come.

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