The Josh Innes Show - Lazy Media Dweebs

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

USA Today has become my favorite punching bag. Many of the stories and columns are inane. Anywho, I started this pod with the intention of ridiculing USA Today for a story titled "Winners and Losers Of The Tush Push Vote"... I ended up going on a diatribe about media idiots. One thing I hate is when people who are not journalists are referred to as journalists by idiots. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I know I ask this question often when we talk about stories that I read in these newspapers, but why does everything require a winner and a loser, right? Like a game requires a winner and a loser. There is a scoreboard, score is kept, there is time, there are innings, and there's a winner and a loser. Like last night, the winner was the Indiana Pacers, the loser was the New York Knicks. Why do things that are not games require a winner and a loser? And usually when you see who, you get this question, who are

the winners and the losers of something, the answers are obvious and it's usually like one person or one entity is the winner, yet these outlets who are lazy and have nothing else to write about and nothing else to do, write headlines and write stories like winners and losers of blank. Like I forgot what it was we talked. Oh, it was just about a game last it was last week. It was I think it was in the Oklahoma City Nuggets series and the series wasn't over yet,

but it was I forgot what it was 2232 at the time whatever it was and the question was who were the winners and losers of the Nuggets and Oklahoma City game five? Oh, I don't know. Whichever fucking team won the game five. That's the winner and the loser. There are no other winners and losers in these situations. Like, maybe a guy has a great game. Does it necessarily make him a winner? That is a reach. We are constantly reaching all the time in these stories. People are so lazy, they have nothing interesting to say. Journalism is dead. I was, it was funny, I was reading a tweet from Des Bryant who was calling out RG3 who had been calling out Ryan Clark and all this stuff and And I recall Des said something along the lines of RG3 is mad because he doesn't do good journalism or something like that. And I'm like, brother, don't call two dipshit former football players racebaiting each other journalists. Journalism is dead. Just ask Jake Tapper about the death of journalism when this guy knew that the president was a vegetable

but waited until they got out of office to write a book about it to make money. So, journalism is for the most part dead, right? But for the love of Christ, there's a little speck of it left. Let's not call Ryan Clark and RG3 two former athletes who appear to be dipshits. Let's not just throw them under the blanket of journalists. That's another thing that bothers me. Hold on, let me play a couple commercials and we'll continue. When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer, so download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes.

Plus, enjoy zero dollar delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees exclusions and terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over-deliver. groceries that over deliver. It bothers me that people don't understand what a journalist is compared to a dipshit that yells about shit on TV. Like let me give you an example. Like when Stephen A Smith was covering sports for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and I think he was a columnist, but

I think at some point he was on the beat. That person is a journalist, right? Someone who is on the White House beat, in theory, that is a journalist. A person who delivers news on television, in theory, is a journalist. I would question those people now, but those are journalists. Assholes who get on TV and give opinions about sporting events are not journalists, and what they are doing is not journalism. They are hot taking. Like that is a pet

peeve of mine. Like I am not a journalist. I am a dipshit in his underwear, in his bedroom, yelling about shit into a microphone. I am not a journalist. And what we have done is we've completely done a disservice to people who are legitimate journalists by calling Ryan Clark a journalist. Ryan Clark Ryan Clark a journalist. Ryan Clark is not a journalist. Ryan Clark is a race baiter and Ryan Clark is a very uninteresting person. RG3 is not

a journalist. RG3 is a doofus. There's a big difference between what we think are journalists and supposed to be journalists. Like people just say shit. That's another pet peeve of mine. When people who are not in an industry give a label to someone that is an inaccurate thing or people who are not in an industry that use industry jargon. That fucking annoys me more than you could. Like when I see these wrestling dweebs and to be clear I don't think just because you watch wrestling you're a dweeb. My wife watches wrestling and she forces me to watch pay reviews with her. I have nothing against people that watch wrestling you're a dweeb. My wife watches wrestling and she forces me to watch pay reviews with her.

I have nothing against people that watch wrestling. As we've discussed before, I went to a wrestling event in Philadelphia once and I didn't even make it to my seats before I was blackout drunk and had to go home because everybody that I ran into would want to buy me a shot in Philly at the wrestling match, yo Josh, let me buy you a shot, yo Josh. But I made one loop around Wells Fargo Center and was black out hammered because people kept buying me shots.

They're nice people. They're good people. They like wrestling. Fun fact, there's no difference between watching wrestling and being into Star Wars or being into Marvel movies. It's all fucking shit the dudes like and it's all fake. So what's the difference? I'm always intrigued by that. Like you're allowed to be some like dude that walks around wearing an Iron Man t-shirt or a guy that wears like you're you're allowed to believe Wakanda is real, but you're not allowed to enjoy wrestling. Like think of the absurdity of that.

Like there are grown ass people that like like convince themselves that Wakanda is a real place and they cried when Black Panther, who played Chadwick Boseman, when Chadwick Boseman died, like Black Panther is dead! And it's like, it's a fucking movie. Just like, hey, you know when Apollo Creed, spoiler alert, died in Rocky IV? It's a fucking movie. It's the same concept as wrestling, yet people walk around wearing their Star Wars outfits and their Iron Man outfits and the Superman outfits and their t-shirts and jet yet wrestling is nerdy and stupid up your nose with a rubber hose. But I was at the

wrestling match and people were very nice people and I dig wrestling but like people live in this universe where they give that like to go to the wrestling point the part I hate about wrestlers or wrestling people is they listen to wrestling podcasts and they try to speak like industry insiders like they are Eric Bischoff or they are Stephanie McMahon or they are JJ Dillon or they are Duffy Rove. They try to talk like all these people and use industry

jargon and if you're not in the industry and you attempt to use industry jargon, it fucking annoys me more than you could fathom. Right? Like when I listen to people, like I see people online talking about wrestling and they'll use shit like, you know, well, like I'd really like to know how the boys feel about this. Like, dude, you're some slap dick that works for UPS during the day and you've got 20 replica belts. You don't work for the WWE. You cannot call them the boys. The boys is reserved for like a person who runs the fucking show. It is not you. You are not the person that says the boys are or like when someone's bloodied, right? When there's blood and like you listen to

some asshole fan go, like I think they need to have the guys get more color. Like, no, just say they need to fucking bleed more. Like, you're annoying. You annoy me so much. And you hear it in sports now because everybody thinks they're insiders on sports. Like when like some dipshit Jagoff guy will go, well, his V-Lo is down a little bit. Bitch, you don't work in the league. Finish the fucking word. Velocity. If you know, like, Greg Maddox wants to say a guy's velo is down, he's Greg Maddox.

If Randy Johnson or Leo Mazzoni wants to say that somebody's velo is down, then they say velo. You are a dipshit that yells at the TV every pitch of every game. You don't play. Don't say veelo. And that goes for media people too. I find myself so annoyed when I hear a guy on the radio go, Wayne writes Velo's down. Shut up! Hell, I don't even know where I was going with this whole thing. I just had a tangent. Oh, like I don't even know how this thing started or why this... Oh, now I remember where it started. Sometimes I have to

unpack these things as you know because sometimes I've got eight things that I go off on a tangent and here we are so the winners and losers angle when you start reading stories okay so yesterday the tush push was I can't say it was resurrected because it wasn't dead so the tush push was given a stay of execution I guess you could call, but that doesn't even make sense either because it's not like it was ordered to die or sentenced to die and then it was on death row. It wasn't on death row. It was voted. It was voted back into office. How about that? It was back in but then it didn't have to give up there.

I don't know how to word it. Point is the damn thing exists still and that's good because the Philadelphia Eagles fans are happy and they're celebrating and the Eagles Twitter's posting like 30 minute videos of the tush push and good. It shouldn't be banned because people can't figure out a way to stop it. I guarantee you there was a point in life when somebody did like some team presented some sorcery like throwing the ball forward and people were like well that shouldn't be allowed this voodoo. Well shut the hell up and figure out how to stop it. But USA today.com again, I know a lot of shit comes from USA today.com, but it's so fucking

easy. And let's be honest, it's hard to find other stories at other websites because most local newspapers charge you and I am not going to spend like $1 a month for the Opelika Auburn Tribune or the Philadelphia Inquirer. I don't care that much. Headline, winners and losers of NFL's tush push. Eagles not only ones to benefit from retention. They basically are. Like the winner is the Eagles. The Eagles are the team most associated with this. They are the team that is the most successful running this

play. The Buffalo Bills also are successful running it and other teams may try it but to say the Eagles not the only ones to benefit from retention they are. They for the most part are but I'm curious now please tell me the other winners you know who the losers are the rest of the fucking league's defenses there you go the defenses around the league those are the losers there you go. The defenses around the league, those are the losers. There you go. Maybe Saquon Barkley because Saquon Barkley is getting fewer touchdowns. But for him to be a loser in this, he'd have to be someone saying, this is bullshit that I'm not getting touchdowns. Well, here's your two options, Saquon. You could have been buried in New York winning three games or you could win the Super Bowl. That's what I would tell him every time

they sneak it forward and fucking homeboy gets the glory or the touchdown or the first down, I'd say, say Kwan, would you like to be winning four games in New York? Shut it. So the Philadelphia Eagles are the winners. Okay, according to this. Now, shocker, the Philadelphia Eagles are a winner of the tush push vote. All right, let's see who the other ones are. Other winners, Jalen Hurts fantasy owners. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Ugh. Geez. Kevin Petullo. Meet Philadelphia's new offensive coordinator who replaced Kevin. God, why does this shit exist? How do they pay people to do this? When I see the shit they pay people to do and write, I don't know how much this guy

Nate Davis makes, but like how do people get paid to do this? How do people get paid to be like, you know what, I've come up with the winners and losers of the tush push vote, and it's all basically saying the same thing, that the Philadelphia Eagles are the winners, but I'm gonna pick particular people out of the Philadelphia Eagles to say that they're winners too.

That's pretty creative, isn't it? I'm fairly creative. I'm pretty good at this shit. So yeah now I'm gonna take the losers and then I'm gonna say something like defenses around the NFL and then maybe I will pick particular defenses that are gonna benefit from it or gonna hurt the worst. Then I'm gonna throw in Saquon Barkley because he doesn't get the touchdowns that that Jalen Hurts gets and that'll be great shit. That's the winners and losers of this.

Oh, Jason Kelce. By the way, Jason Kelce is also a winner in this, apparently, too. He doesn't play, but if we talk about the Eagles, we have to talk about Jason Kelce. I'm fairly certain that that is written into a contract with media people somewhere, that if you talk about the Eagles,

you talk about Jason Kelce. Oh, by the way, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. let's see, wait a second, this is still the winners? Jesus Christ. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, let's see, okay, the NFL, okay, whatever, the losers are the Green Bay Packers, wow. Saquon Barkley's fantasy owners, wow. NFL head coaches and coordinators, whoa. Cam Jergens and Landon Dickerson, mmm. Player safety, mmm. Super Bowl aspirants, mmm. My God, the fact that these people exist,

the fact that these people are paid to write about this shit really just blows my mind. I might say, Josh, you're a little too worked up over that. I'm not overly worked up about it. I'm just annoyed by it. I think people take my passion when I speak as anger and it's not always anger. It's just, I'm amazed at the people that lose media jobs and then someone is getting paid probably very little to write winners and losers of the tush push vote. And then that means that goes to some editor and

the editor's like, that is quality shit. Right up there with the dipshit that makes the power rankings that everybody thinks are some sort of real thing. I love when people get worked up over power rankings. Like, hey, did you guys see that the USA Today has us at seventh like behind the Chiefs what and then like here's how it works let me explain to you how the media game works and the social media and the clicks game works for these dipshits so you take one outlet like say like a local radio station who doesn't do anything has no real local talent writing

anything but they need something so then they go to USA Today and the USA Today sees that, posts, you know, your top 10, here's our power rankings in baseball. Again, power rankings do not matter in any sport because they are literally just the opinions of a dipshit, but people don't seem to understand that. They think it's some sort of gospel because they too are dipshits. So then what happens is people start going with this and then what will happen is like dude from radio station is like hey watch this and he's gonna he's gonna say can you believe that can you believe where USA Today has LSU and the power

rankings question mark link and then they'll click their link and in their story there they'll read LSU is seventh in the power rankings? What? And then they'll get a bunch of comments and interaction on their post because people are dipshits and they believe that these things matter. They believe that the power rankings of a guy with a podcast matter. They believe that the power rankings of USA Today matter. They do not. They're not a real thing. It is literally just the opinion of someone. But people are fucking morons. I can't help them. The world is stupid.