The Josh Innes Show - News Rant

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

After seeing a headline about Shedeur Sanders in today's USA Today, I find myself needing to vent on the state of news media. I don't understand how anyone has any trust for these people. It has nothing to do with trump or "fake news" or any of that. I just don't understand how people don't see what they are doing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So I thought the funniest thing I saw today was the headline on the USA Today sports page earlier today where the headline read, Ex-Colorado football star stunned school-retired Sanders and Hunter jersey numbers. Now granted, that was two weeks ago. But at this point, there was no new Shadur Sanders story to post, so there was nothing new to get clicks on. So we have to find, you know, dig up some dude that used to be a coach at Colorado that played at Colorado. And it's like, wait a minute.

I don't like that. They retired these guys jerseys. And I read the story and it was great guys talking about how, um, well, there was a rule in place to determine how you could get your Jersey number retired and blah, blah, blah. And the fact that that was the top story on the USA Today homepage for sports was wild to me. Like, I look at this, everything else. Now, yesterday there were some pretty wild things that happened, right? You got the Knicks blowing Game 5 at home,

and now the series has to go back to Detroit for game six which I love then you also have Giannis Attentacupo getting confronted by uh by uh Tyrese Halliburton's dad on the court after the Pacers come back and eliminate the Bucks which was embarrassing the first of all the way they lost was embarrassing the way they allow homeboy's dad to just run on the court and taunt Giannis Attentacupo is embarrassing. Everything about it's absurd. Like those are pretty significant stories. But the top story on the USA Today sports homepage was that some former Colorado football player who was an assistant coach, a significant player for what it's worth guy was like an all American type guy. But like the fact that this was the top story on the USA Today sports page

because they are obsessed. The media is obsessed with suckling off the Shadur Sanders teat. That is where we are because they know that morons will continue to click. And it goes to the point again that the most important aspect of news, the most important aspect of life that we live today is the color of people's skin. Because if this were, again, it goes back to the story. If white guy kills white guy, nobody gives a shit. If black guy kills black guy, nobody gives a shit. If white guy kills black guy, it's the biggest story in the country

it's the same concept here if white kid prank calls white kid which did happen by the way nobody gives a shit if black guy play a prank calls black guy nobody would have given a shit and now because white dude from Ole Miss NFL coach's son prank calls somebody on draft day whoa this is the biggest story ever. Plus you combine the fact that all of these media dweebs have egg on their face for telling the world for months that Shadur Sanders was fantastic and was going to be taken in the first round. So they're all butt hurt and angry about it.

So they're going to double down on everything here. The fact that this is a story is just a sports equivalent on a much smaller scale of what the biggest issue we have facing this country now which is everything is about skin color nothing else matters and as long as that continues to be the case we're going to continue to see this kind of shit and it's going to continue to happen. That's not me telling you that skin color doesn't matter. Like I hear people say, I don't see color. Well, everybody sees color. You're lying if you don't.

But the fact that you think that skin color is the most important factor in everything, whether it's jobs or whether it's news media or whatever, the fact that everything is still centered around race and knowing that much like the angel reese story which was an even bigger racial story like the schitter sanders story was going to be a racial story because young cocky black guy slips in the draft and most people are not tied into what's going on in the draft so all they can think is well he must be sliding because he's a cocky black guy like that was a racial story a story like uh angel reese is a super racial story because you've got all the the perfect combination of things to have a storm and then you get you know right-wing pundits involved and you got

dave portnoy involved calling her a piece of shit or whatever he called her an asshole or whatever we call her all that and it becomes this big racial thing but as we've seen and this is why I think that media news in particular should be not for profit and by that I mean it shouldn't be about how much money you can generate delivering news if it's delivering opinions I'm okay with that because people have opinions it is what it is if you want to monetize opinions, monetize opinions. News should not be monetized. It always will be, but it shouldn't be. News anchors, the dude that, here's the problem. You want to look at the problem, start at the, you know, just go all the way to the top on these things. But you got people that run networks. The people who run these networks have people that they're probably

buddies with. They got people that they want to protect. Then you kind of trickle it on down and you've got news anchors making $25, $30 million a year. Why does the guy that hosts the CBS Evening News, why does the guy that hosts the NBC Nightly News, why does the guy that hosts World News Tonight, why does that person need to make $30 million? Why do you have to pay someone $30 million? If you have to pay someone $30 million to read the news, you know what happens? You have to find $30 million in revenue or $30 million in ad revenue to make up for the money you're paying him and paying his producer and paying the executive producer and paying the director. And before you know it, you got hundreds of millions of dollars wrapped up in your news broadcast and you have to try to find a way to make a profit on that.

How do you make a profit on that? You sell advertisements. Well, what happens whenever you sell advertisements? There's a possibility that things are, what's the word I'm looking for? Things can be compromised because you might try to protect somebody. Oh, and oh, by the way, you've also got the issue of people have their own political leanings, their own political biases, and that alters the way they cover the news. And it's happened for a billion years. So the idea that it is a money-making venture is wrong to me.

Because when money is involved, it alters the way things are delivered. This isn't sports. This isn't some asshole on the radio yelling about a football game. This is delivering people information that people need. Now, most people are fucking morons. They're going to take what they want. They're going to fall for the easiest shit. That's the big issue. Now, let me play a couple of commercials and we'll continue. All right. If you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you got to check out Pick 6 from DraftKings. When it comes to basketball payouts, DraftKings Pick 6 posterizes the competition, including prize picks. It's a very simple concept. Hit all your picks and score higher minimum payouts on Pick 6, plus even more cash if you outscore the competition. Pick 6 is available in most states, including Missouri, California, Texas, Georgia, and more.

And I absolutely love it. Look, every night we're going to be having playoff basketball. Every night. So when you're sitting around and you might not have interest in a particular game, let's say you're a fan of a particular team, they're not playing that night, here's how you make it a little bit more fun for the other games. Build a little lineup there with Pick 6. It's really great. Me and my wife do it all the time. So make sure you do it. And new players get 50 in pick six credits instantly on just a $5 entry.

Download the DraftKings pick six app now and use code Ennis. That's name i n n e s for new customers to play five dollars get 50 and pick six credits better payouts bigger wins only with pick six from draft kings the crown is yours gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER help is available for problem gambling call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org in Connecticut. Must be 18 plus. Age and eligibility restrictions vary by jurisdiction. Pick 6 not available everywhere, including New York and Ontario. Voidware prohibited. One per new customer.

Bonus award. It is non-withdrawable Pick 6 credits that expire in 14 days. Limited time offer. See terms at pick6.draftkings.com slash promos. The biggest issue we're going to run into on that is that you've got people and you're trying to find a way to survive in the media world, right? Like that's the world you're trying to survive in. So to survive, you need to get people to click on stories. How do you get people to click on stories? You find the thing that these people are addicted to and you keep feeding it to them,

even if it doesn't fucking matter. At the end of the day, Shadur Sanders being the lead story and a big story on actual news broadcast does not matter. What is happening to Shadur Sanders does not impact anyone else's life. He is a rich, entitled nepo baby whose dad is a football hall of famer and is rich as shit, and he bombed his fucking interviews, and he fell in the draft. This is not some sort of cultural issue. This is not some sort of story that impacts young black kids sitting at their homes watching television. It doesn't impact white people, Mexican people. It impacts nobody. Yet it's the biggest story. People need clicks. They need clicks because if you click on it, they make money off of you clicking on it. This is easy shit. That's why it should be not like,

and I think I've talked with Meltzer about this, like news should not be monetized. It should be not for profit. Any asshole can get on the television and read the fucking news to people. It's an empty head job. Look at your local sports guy on your local television channel. You think that that guy is some sort of brilliant dude? Most of them are just empty heads that read a teleprompter and occasionally go out and stick a microphone in somebody's face. This isn't the 1950s. Anybody can go on television and can anchor the CBS evening news. You don't have to pay somebody $30 million to do it. But once you start paying people all of this money to do it,

you have to find a way to pay those people. And we start finding a way to pay those people, that comes in ad revenue. And once things are dealing with ad revenue, and once you are dealing with ad revenue and once you are dealing with people's biases then you're then you're compromised that's why like i don't distrust news because like oh it's fake news and they hate trump don't give two fucks i don't trust news because i believe that everyone because i'm a human who has biases, I don't believe, especially in 2025. Maybe in 1950 you could convince me that someone didn't have a ton of biases because it's not like those people that were on the news.

It's not like Walter Cronkite every day got off the air and was like, hey, let me check my Twitter and see what everybody's saying about me today. Walter Cronkite had no fucking clue what people thought of him unless they sent him a fucking letter. That's the only way Walter Cronkite knew so it's not like Walter Cronkite could be blinded uh and and have his opinions altered or have his delivery of the news altered by the reactions of people on social media so by that I mean like if you're a guy that's delivering opinions or not even let's not even do deliver delivering of opinions let's say you're doing a news story delivering opinions, or not even opinions, let's not even do delivering of opinions. Let's say you're doing a news story and you deliver it. You go to Twitter, you look, and you just see a bunch of people are like, I think this guy's full of shit and blah, blah, blah. You want to say that that doesn't impact people and the way they cover things?

Do you want to say that looking at Twitter and seeing how quickly Twitter tries to cancel people doesn't impact the way you cover a story? I mean, I know that this is an opinion thing, but look at like Bill Maher. Bill Maher is a staunch liberal, super left-wing dude, right? Offers a couple of viewpoints. I don't even talk about the Trump thing. Just leave the Trump thing out of it. A couple of viewpoints that go against this weird online cult of leftists, right? And basically says they've gone too far left. All of a sudden, Bill Maher, super left-wing dude, anti-Trump guy, anti-religion guy, doesn't give a shit about abortion guy, all this. Bill Maher is now the enemy of these people. Social media has a power to ruin people. It has a power to alter the way you look at things. Like I don't,

I don't believe there's ever a day that I go on the air now and just have an open mind and go, I'm going to do something today. I don't even talk about this podcast, but I'm just saying when I was on the radio, like I think about this a lot because I didn't get on Twitter until early 2010, I believe. And that was still kind of in the infancy of Twitter. That was 15 years ago. That's early Twitter, right? There was Facebook, but you had no fucking clue what people were saying about you. You had no clue for the most part. So there was a freedom that came along with that. That's not to say that criticism is all bad, but there's a difference between criticism and constantly being ambushed with how terrible you are and I don't care who you are that impacts you in some way some people overcome it more like I'm convinced

that all these people that we idolize from the 70s and 80s and 90s all these athletes and we say you know Michael Jordan was tough here and this guy was tough here I'd like to know what would have happened if Michael Jordan played in this era because I will credit the guys that play in this era this is the most difficult era to deal with media people and deal with fans in the history of ever Michael Jordan basically had all of the media people in the bag for the most part you know they all fawned over guys like Michael Jordan LeBron deals with it from both sides some hate him some love him and he has to read it every day I'm not trying to do a Michael. LeBron deals with it from both sides. Some hate him, some love him, and he has to read it every day. I'm not trying to do a Michael versus LeBron thing, but for the sake of this story, it's reality. That's the way these things operate in this world. It's got to

be tougher. I will give them credit there. You go out there and every day there's a billion people. Then you throw in the fact that sports betting is such a huge part of shit. So then people are pissed at you if you don't hit over 24 and a half points and you go to social media and people want to kick your ass. This is the most pressure-packed time. You can say the games aren't as good as they used to be, the guys aren't as tough as they used to be, but I assure you this, that dudes who played in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, if they had to come home every day after playing a game and see a billion or so tweets about how fucking terrible they are, they'd have some mental issues too. It was a lot easier to be a guy in the 60s that goes and plays a football game, then Monday goes to sling some cars at a dealership, then Sunday goes and plays again. Knock your wife around a little bit, have a schlitz and do it all again. Life was a dealership. Then Sunday goes and plays again. Knock your wife around a little bit. Have

a schlitz and do it all again. Life was a lot easier. You could say it wasn't. You could say those guys were tougher. Yeah, they may have been tougher in some way. It is a tough world. I know I'm kind of all over the place here, but it is a tough world for these dudes. So now imagine it's a news person. I've told you this before. I've watched people alter what they say on the air based on people ripping them on social media. You cannot tell me that social media doesn't impact the way people cover things. Social media impacts the way the Shador Sanders thing is covered. I guarantee you there are so many people who are falling on the sword for Shador Sanders and saying this is the most awful, egregious thing ever because they just don't want

to deal with the blowback from social media. It's just easier. It is easier to just kind of fall in line with the most vocal people on social media say. Being a dissenter or having a dissenting opinion doesn't, like it's tough, especially when race is involved. And the most important stories are race stories. The biggest story. The reason why Shadur Sanders, and I haven't even gotten to the thing about the dad being punished and all that, because that just came down a few minutes ago, or at least I just saw it a few minutes ago. But, like, the headline. We're talking main story on USA Today right so USA Today the

main story where this all started was Shadur Sanders some guy is critical because Shadur Sanders and and Travis Hunter got their numbers retired they were looking for anything to continue glomming on to Shadur Sanders to the point that we're taking a two-week-old story a throwaway story about them retiring their numbers at Colorado. But fortunately for them, one former coach and player said that they shouldn't have done it, so boom! Now we get more Shadur Sanders content. As I said, last night you had Tyrese Halliburton's dad

after a hard-fought one fought one point loss or in his case one point win for his son's team they advance and eliminate the Bucs dude's out on the court he's got this towel that has his son's picture on it he is standing right in front of Giannis Attentacupo and just shit talking Giannis

right after this dude's season was over played his balls off, overtime game blew the overtime lead thought they were going back to Milwaukee aren't going back to Milwaukee's season was over, played his balls off, overtime game, blew the overtime lead, thought they were going back to Milwaukee, aren't going back to Milwaukee, season's over, maybe career in Milwaukee's over. The split second.

And he already has to deal with the fact that there's 20,000 people in the arena that are cheering for the other team and that sucks. And you got this asshole's dad running up to him with his fucking towel in his face, shit talking him. Now,

if that would have been like some white dude's dad doing that that would replace the shadur sanders story and then would be the biggest story in the country because it would be about the entitlement and racist white people and blah blah blah instead it's kind of okay let's put schiller sanders up top because that's got the racial component we need to get the clicks we need the angry racial component but if tyrese halliburton's dad would have been is there a white guy that played oh tj mcconnell if tj mcconnell's dad would have ran on the court and was shit talking and like right in the face of Giannis, it would have been like, whoa, now we got something. And that's the problem. That's the issue. And that's the reason why this Shadur thing is a big deal. If Shadur Sanders

were some white kid, it would have been a laughing stock that no one would have cared that this old bricks kid got the phone number. No one would have cared that this old bricks kid got the phone number. No one would have cared. You want to know why I know nobody would have cared? They don't care that Tyler Warren got called. They don't give a shit. But the Shadur Sanders, and as we said yesterday, great job by Bomani Jones basically saying, don't you dare make Shadur Sanders a cause. And that's what the world has done. And they just keep clicking these stories. Click, click, click, click, click. That's why reputable quote unquote news outlets like a USA Today, their lead story prior to the punishment being delivered for this old brick and the Falcons became it was Shadur Sanders and Travis Hunter numbers retired. Former player blasts Colorado for it.

Like two weeks ago. Who gives a fuck? That's where we are. Speaking of, this Oldbrook was fined $100,000 and the Falcons were fined $250,000 for this prank call. Cool. Like, you got to punish them in some way. Like, there's no way, like, the way the world works, you're not going to punish them. And what the fuck are you doing?

Like, it is fishy. The way the world works, you're not going to punish them. And what the fuck are you doing? Like it's it is fishy. The whole thing is kind of fishy. So you mean to tell me you just left your iPad open on the desk and your son walked in there and scrolled through the iPads like, oh, there's Shader Sanders phone number. We're going to call him or there's Tyler Warren's phone number. It's all weird. I don't mean that. I think it's some sort of like racial thing. But of course, that's what everything is. But I think it's some sort of like racial thing but of course that's what everything

is but I think it's like what are we fucking doing so you find him cool he's fined teams fined move on with your lives they even asked the jerky boys about this I saw on TMZ that I guess it was TMZ had to ask the jerky boys, famous for making prank calls, of course. They had to reach out to the Jerky Boys to get their thoughts on this. And the Jerky Boys want you to know that they never would have done that, which I also find to be bullshit. Like in their heyday, I find it hard to believe that the Jerky Boys, if they had the phone number of a guy on draft day, wouldn't have tried to fuck with the guy on draft day. My dad used to get all these celebrity numbers and they would prank call them, but none of them were done like with malice, you know.

But one time they got Don Henley on the phone early in the morning, either at his house or in a hotel, and they called him and Don Henley threatened to sue them. But that seems like a Don Henley thing to do. But what's amazing is some of these people are so nice like there's and I don't have the audio anywhere but dad somehow got the phone number of the hotel room that Tony Gwynn was staying in for the all-star game one year so he calls Tony Gwynn balls early in the morning and they do it as Tom Brokaw from NBC this how my dad did I even tell you guys that my dad ended up

on the Rosie O'Donnell show and I don't know where this audio is or video is but one time my dad prank called Rosie O'Donnell's uh uh studio where she was filming her talk show at the time. This is late 90s before Rosie O'Donnell was a lunatic. She was probably always a lunatic, but before Trump and all that. And they call us Tom Brokaw, and they get Rosie on the phone, and then she finds out that it's not Tom Brokaw, and she goes off. Then she goes on her show that day and talks about how my dad prank called her like a bunch of idiots and all that like that's funny like my dad used to do cool shit um but

anyway all right more to come