The Josh Innes Show - Media White Knighting For Holly Rowe

Episode Date: September 17, 2026

I didn't plan on spending so much time talking about this. But, it's almost like these media dweebs are reading a script as it relates to defending Holly Rowe. Now this story has become a big picture discussion about women in sports. What are we doing here? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Do you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know, the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siaya and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up. the way I planned. And today I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem.

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Discover coffee plus on espresso.com. You know, I find myself just wanting to come in here and offer opinions on the pod as they come to me, right? Like, I'll see a video and then I want to do 12, 13 minutes on it, you know? So I hope he goes, everybody doesn't mind that. As soon as I see something, I'm just going to, come in. Could be at two in the morning, could be at two in the afternoon. It doesn't matter. I'm just going to keep pumping out content for you because you guys kept saying, you don't do enough content. We need more content. More content. Well, here's more goddamn content.

This Holly Rose story has now gotten to the point where I'm fucking annoyed by it. And I wasn't like, like, I can understand the idea that in 2026, we don't find it funny or like, well, let me put it this way. I'm sure plenty of people found this AI video funny. It's, It's fucking AI, by the way. But they find this AI video funny. But I can see where in 2026, the guy that's the quarterback for the football team can't sit at the podium and be like, that was fucking funny. Because I understand the reaction it's going to get. So I get that.

I understand it. However, watching media people white night for fucking Holly Row like something legitimately bad happened to her is where I'm just like, guys, chill the fuck out. Now my Instagram is just nothing but videos of like different media guys. Of course, they got to post these. These are very important videos that need to be posted because they need all the likes and they need all the shares and they need all the comments. So everybody knows that they are white knighting for Holly Roe, who nothing happened to her other than Holly Roe got stiffed on an interview at the end of the game and look pissed off.

That's the only thing that legitimately happened to Holly Roe. That's it. Well, Josh, all those big bad, mean media people. laughed at Holly Roe and that no they didn't they laughed at the idea that that Arch Manning found this video funny that's it that's the only thing that fucking happened nothing happened to Holly row nothing happened to women in media everybody tries to turn situations like this into this bigger picture issue of like well this really sets women and media back no it doesn't you know what Holly Roe's going to do on Saturday she's going to go to whatever fucking game she's going to

and she's going to ask an inane question that has an obvious answer of the coach twice. She's going to do it before the game, maybe three times, before the game, half time, and after the game. And that's all it's going to be. Hey, coach, how's the big win feel? Great. Super. And that's what Holly Roe is going to fucking do. So I'm not trying, and this is not an anti-women and media thing.

I'm like the last person that bitch is about women doing media things other than lady play-by-play people who, if you want to put them in the WNBA fine, when I hear lady play-by-play guy, on like the NFL game. And it's not the fact that it's a lady. I want to be very clear. I don't give a damn if a lady does play by play. If a lady sounds good. But then you get horrible puker lady types,

like the 76ers lady or, you know, like some of these other people. And they're just pukers and they try to sound like bigger than they are. I like the people that just sound natural when they do it. And there are some people that just sound natural and really good when they talk and I enjoy it. And then there are other people who are pukers and they're, I don't know what this one lady's name is, but she calls some of these lady basketball games, and it's just dreadful. And it's like, it's not because you're a lady.

I want to be very clear. Trust me, I hate 99% of the men announcers, too. Ask the dudes that I text in group chats. I hate every play-by-play announcer because none of them have the big balls voices like men used to have. Everybody just kind of sounds like me. And I don't want people who sound like me doing play-by-play. I want goddamn Pat goddamn Summerall and Dick Inberg doing play-by-play. I don't want some of these other people

to just sound like dweaves. So it's not just a lady thing. First off, let me play a couple fucking commercials here and then we'll continue. New from Nespresso. Blend wellness into your coffee routine with a coffee plus range infused with functional benefits. Choose the coffee you love with added B vitamins

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I'm all sorts of jacked up on this, and part of it is because I made the mistake of going to McDonald's and getting one of these Diet Cokes with this sugar-free foam in it, which is really good. It tastes like a Diet Vanilla Coke. The problem is it makes my stomach feel like shit. I can drink normal Diet Coke.

I cannot drink Diet Coke with like a frosting-type shit in it. But anyway, so now my stomach. bother me. So now I'm ordinary. I apologize that I'm ordinary, but I am. So what made me come in here is I was sitting outside on the porch with Ross and Jilly, and we're just hanging out, having a nice time. And this video pops up on my Instagram of this dude who is Matt Jones's name. And he's the guy that does the, he's the guy that built Kentucky sports radio. And now he's on ESPN radio. And if you watch this one show about wrestling on, um, It was the show that Not Batisa, who's the old wrestler from the attitude era that now runs one of these

independent things? I forgot the name of the, maybe it's called Wrestlers. Is that the name of the show that was on Netflix? And this is the guy that owned it or whatever. His name's Matt Jones.

And I admire the guy because this Matt Jones is a guy that built his own thing. And I admire that he's a guy that built his own thing. And now he's on ESPN. and like he's done very well for himself.

I'll never bang on anybody who built their own empire and is rich because of whether or not I think he's good is irrelevant. He's the guy that's like the dude when it comes to Kentucky sports. He's built this empire because really who the fuck else is going to be talking about Kentucky sports? You're talking about a really smart move. Just like one day sitting around. He's like, you know, no one's really talking about Kentucky sports. Let me be the Kentucky sports guy.

But which is interesting because, you know, 20 years ago, these guys didn't exist in these towns. Like when I was on the radio in Baton Rouge, there was no big time sports radio in Baton Rouge. There was one pay-for-play sports radio station that I was on. And it was a bunch of dudes that were on the radio because they paid to be on the radio. You know, now guys like my buddy Matt Muscona has a goddamn empire. And I admire the hell out of him for it. But 20 years ago, that was an afterthought.

People were just sitting back and, you know, like, we didn't know any of these things were going to happen. So credit to Matt Jones. But now he's like a two-hour afternoon guy on ESPN radio. No offense to him, but this is like the deadest ESPN radio has ever been and nobody gives a shit. But I'm scrolling through and I'm seeing all these videos of people that are almost like reading a script about Holly Row. I saw it from Rich Eisen. I've seen it from like local schmows. And then I saw it from this Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio.

So let's play this audio of him talking about Arch and Holly Row and all this shit. But I think the laughter was probably as bad as the comment. But online, a lot of the discourse has been. oh, why doesn't everybody realize it's just joking around? Hitting women is not joking around. They have to deal. But you're missing the point. It's not that he's hitting a woman.

It's just the reporter. What if that would have been Tom Rinaldi, would you have given a fuck? Last time I checked, if a dude hits another dude, it's still bad. You know what I'm saying? But like, if it's Tom Rinaldi's face that's in there and he's getting shit on and they're making fun of him, none of you would give a shit. and I also understand the difference between hitting man, hitting one of them, whatever. I get it.

But it's like you guys are acting like this is the worst thing you've ever fucking seen. And I think, and it is a huge problem in society, it does not mean that you don't have a sense of humor if you acknowledge that jokes and, and comments and videos can be hurtful. Don't laugh about it. Arch gave the right answer today,

even though he shouldn't have done it before. Even though he shouldn't have done it. Dude's a young dude and he said something was funny and he laughed at it. Doesn't mean he doesn't respect Holly Roe. Like the fact that this is where we are. The fact that we're sitting here and you've got this guy who's like all these, but they're reading a script, Rich Eisen says the same shit. My buddy Matt says the same shit.

It's like I can't imagine having to work for one of these big companies like this, like a big sports company, like an ESPN. And I have to get on there and pretend like this is a federal fucking case. And then you have to get on there and act like Holly Roe is like God's gift to journalism. Again, no offense to Holly Roe. More power to her. I guess she's good at what she does. I do not believe that sideline reporting is a job that requires great skill. Sorry, I just fucking don't.

Man, woman. I told you this. I used to tell this to Eskin. We used to make fun of him on the air because he was the sideline reporter for the Eagles. And we'd be like, Howard, what the fuck do you do? You're a sideline reporter. Your job does not matter. You ask trivial questions.

They go down to you and you say, hey, guys, we won the coin toss. Like, you don't do a lot. Shouldn't have done it before. But your comment about our colleagues who are female reporters, etc. Now here's where it gets good. This is where we get the bigger picture issue. This is where we get the,

now I get to be white knight man, who knows I make more money than women report. That's the best part is when all these guys know they make more money than women and will always make more money than women in sports. And deep down if they got replaced, like if Matt Jones got replaced on this show by a woman, I guarantee you deep down in places he doesn't talk about at parties. He'd be like, what the fuck is that shit? Of course, he's got a white night because he's making more money than women.

And he has to get on the internet and post the video so we get a thousand likes about how violent is that men were laughing at Arch Manning. Because they don't want to just shit on Arch Manning. They want to make sure they shit on whoever was laughing in the press conference. you know, and like they have to white night for these people are female reporters, etc. I think I didn't even realize when I first started doing this. How much the baseline assumption for some people out there is, well, it's a woman covering sports. They must not know what they're talking about.

And there are a lot of people that think that way. You're not going to change those people. Like I never look at a chick that's covering sports, woman, whatever. I never look at a chick and go, I don't think she knows sports just because she's a woman. Like, I'm not trying to white knight myself here. I'm not trying to pat myself on the back. But honest God, look, I lived in Philadelphia.

I lived in a lot of major cities. I've seen enough dudes who talk a big game that don't know fucking shit about sports. So I don't just assume that a woman doesn't know about sports. But apparently, everywhere Matt Jones goes, it's just dudes who assume women don't know. Like, where are these people? Like, everybody creates these weird straw men

where they're like, I run into so many people that don't think women belong in sports. All right, like, where are these people? Please tell me about them, Matt Jones. Talking about. And they have to overcome that every single day. And you take somebody like- And also, you say that Holly Row has to overcome that. Like, so we're using Holly Row.

Again, Holly Row is a sideline reporter. Holly Roe's job is to stand there and say, Hey, guys, coach said Smitherson's not coming back in. Back to you. Like, it's not a difficult gig. She's not doing the CBS evening news. She's not reporting in Moscow. She's not on the International Bureau,

and she's not on the front lines covering Nam. She goes up to the coach. She says, coach, wow, what did you tell your team after that? That's all she does. I think that's the part that annoys me more than anything. Not the guy is pretending like they're offended that Archmanning laughed at this thing. It's like the idea that they feel like they have to white night for Holly Roe

because somewhere along the way Holly Roe has become this saint. For whatever reason, I don't know why, but Holly Roe is like this super duper saint of female sports sideline reporting. And they have to overcome that every single day. And you take somebody like Holly Roe, who's been doing this a long time. And now since they all work at ESPN, they all got to be like, well, this are obligatory. Holly Roe is the greatest thing that's ever happened to sports journalism. No offense.

Tom Rinaldi does more. At least when Tom Rinaldi was on ESPN, he would do those stories that would make you ball your eyes out on the countdown shows. Or Chris Conley, the old MTV news guy that used to do the My Wish stories. That seemed like it required a lot more effort than, hey, coach, Hal Smitherson's ankle. I put that forever. She doesn't deserve it. And I thought the best part of Arch's apology was no. By the way, again, he was forced to apologize, by the way.

at because what happened is the internet started critiquing Holly Row as if she had done something wrong and that's the problem that women. And by the way, no one's critiquing. The reason why people are talking about Holly Row is Holly Row has been made a victim in this whole thing. So of course people are going to come back and go, why is everybody just constantly on this defense of Holly Row as if Holly Row is some untouchable Mother Teresa type figure? Why?

Like, why is Holly Row this special figure? If that were a dude, you'd all say this dude didn't even doing anything. You'd laugh. If a coach basically told a dude reporter to go fuck himself, everybody would laugh their balls off at that. Porter's in sports have to deal with. I think it's important to acknowledge it, make people realize it. And what does Holly Row have to deal with from these people? And you might say, well, Josh, there are some guys on the internet that say mean shit to her.

No offense, bro. You know why I got off of fucking Twitter two weeks ago? because I was being called every gay slur under the sun. Do you not think that dudes get the same shit? It might be about different topics and it might be in a different level of anger or whatever. But do you think dudes on the internet don't get the same shit from people as women do?

It might be about different shit. But men and women get the same shit in terms of they get shit on by the internet. It doesn't matter. The internet doesn't see. gender or race. Well, sometimes it does because maybe, but it doesn't care. The internet shits

on everybody. Because when you take something as the norm, and it is assumed, white male reporters are the norm. And if you're not that, then you have to prove yourself. That's not... Now it's become a racial

thing. It, my God. I mean, it's like, in a matter of a minute, this guy has... He sees really run the gamut. He really has. He's like, look, if you're not a white male reporter, then you're sure. Stephen A. Smith makes one billion dollars a year. I forgot that Stephen A. Smith is a white motherfucker. Like, do you, also, Pat McAfee's a white dude, not to defend Pat McAfee. Do you think Pat McAfee doesn't get shit on the internet every day from people? Oh, I forgot.

Like, again, not to defend him. Hell, jelly roll. Do you think jelly rolls fat ass doesn't get shit from people every day? Like in this weird world that Matt Jones gets shit every day. But in this wacky world, somehow the only people that get shit from anybody, apparently, are lady reporters. And that's it. Let me see if I can find this Rich Eisen. My God, this was...

Rich Eisen's the worst. He's among... Like he is on the Mount Rushmore of the most insufferable cockbags on the planet. Let's see if there's a Rich Eisenholy Row video here. I saw something of a video of a guy that I also don't like Jason Whitlock talking about this Eisen thing. And what I love about all these guys is they have to make sure that they post all these videos of themselves defending these people. Just so, you know, people can know that they're down. You know.

And again, nobody would have cared to. if a dude had gotten snubbed in that situation. But it's just, I thought I'd gotten myself out of this world. And then I started seeing these. And I'm like, my God, these people are insufferable. These people are just insufferable. Like at what point does it become, we talked about this earlier. At what point is it, hey, did you see the way they killed the lady in the horror movie?

I don't think that's right that were killing ladies in horror. It's a fucking movie. Get the fuck over it. My God. Football is back. Every game, every weekend, Draft King's Sportsbook has you covered. Every snap matters. Every comeback can shift the game.

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