The Josh Innes Show - Richie Incognito and Media Dishonesty

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

It turns out Richie Incognito didn't bully Jonathan Martin...No Way! Incognito is now taking a victory lap and it's annoying media people. How can they be surprised when a guy they defamed for years is going to talk his shit? Also, do not trust media people. They are not honest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, friends. So over the weekend, we learned that Richie Incognito, he who is most famous for being a bully, was not actually a bully. And that's one of my favorite stories of all time. If you go back to when that story happened and what year was that, that that became a huge deal. Was that when Philly. No, I think it was in Houston is when it all kind of went down. But if you don't know the story, this dude who's a lineman from the Dolphins named Jonathan Martin had accused Richie Incognito of being a bully. And Incognito's like, I'm not a fucking bully. He's clearly like a meathead and a doofus, but he wasn't a bully. And the fact, what I loved about that story is that anybody believed that some dude who's like 6'5", 300-something pounds, an offensive lineman in the NFL is being bullied by another man in the locker room. Like it's preposterous.

But of course, media people have to run with it because it's like a mental health thing. So the media has to run with it like it's the most important thing ever. And they have to shit on Richie Incognito because he's clearly terrible. Although these people have no fucking concept of any sort of culture or locker room shit at all. Because most of them are pencil net fucking putzes that have never played a sport or done anything or been in a locker room or ball busted at any point in their life. Because they're a bunch of weirdo fucking journalist hacks that have nothing going for them. Have nothing good going on in life. So they have to sit around and try to ruin other people.

But of course they ran with the story because, oh, it's salacious, and oh, this poor giant man, this black football player, being bullied by this mean, evil, douchebag white guy, and they ran with it, and they hammered it, and it was the biggest story in the world and oh my god can you believe how terrible this guy oh he left a horrible voicemail for him oh he's being bullied can you believe it then we find out that the whole thing was fucking made up like most of this shit is these same people who were all over this were the same people that were all over Duke Lacrosse. They want these stories to be true. But at least in Duke Lacrosse, there was a rape involved in it.

So you look at that story and go, okay, this is like a legit crime. And maybe these guys did this to this girl. And it's like a bad thing happened to someone. Can you imagine being so worked up over the idea that a six foot five football player allegedly got bullied by another football player how can any reaction like I don't understand how you can give a reaction other than laughing at that how could you hear that and not laugh at the idea that two dudes in a locker room I'm not talking about like in high school or middle school and there's like jocks and then like some nerd is changing in the fucking locker room and he gets a guy that drops a ball sack on his face or something.

Like that shit probably happens because, you know, there are big dudes, there are little dudes, there are bullies, whatever. In an NFL locker room where everyone is like giant mongoloid men. And if they're not giant, they're ripped to shreds you want to tell me you want to tell me and wanted me to believe that some giant six foot five 300 pound guy was getting bullied by a teammate yet you all ran with it oh you all talked about the bad culture and oh you talk about how evil this guy was and now you have egg on your face because this Jonathan Martin has come out and said I made the whole fucking thing up basically to protect the cash that you know he

got he didn't want to lose his signing bonus so he and his fucking family concocted this cockamamie story about how he was being bullied to make sure he got to keep his money and you now all have egg on your face media people let's play a few commercials and continue all right if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs you got to check out pick six from draft kings when it comes to basketball payouts draft kings pick six posterizes the competition including price picks it's a very simple concept hit all your picks and score higher minimum payouts on pick six plus even more cash if you outscore the competition. Pick six is available in most states including Missouri, California, Texas, Georgia and more and I absolutely love it.

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Voidware prohibited. One per new customer. Bonus award. It is non-withdrawable pick six credits that expire in 14 days. Limited time offer. See terms at pick6.draftkings.com slash promos. I love it. I love when media people are exposed. And then I love to watch media people dance in circles and spin themselves into a knot trying to cover their bases and make it seem like they didn't get duped and that they weren't wrong in the story. Like Mike Florio, who I truly believe is a talentless waste of air. Mike Florio got famous being football drudge. He just posts other people's shit on his website. And that's how Mike Florio became successful.

To a degree, maybe we're the idiots because we didn't do it but all Mike Florio has done is Mike Florio has gone out and paid basically stolen people's stories posted links to them put his own little caption on them and that's what Mike Florio has done to become very rich and successful why anyone listens to his opinion on anything is beyond me why anyone thinks he has any value or merit is beyond me. He is one of the fucking worst. But he, along with other media outlets, ran with this story about this bullying shit. If you ever listened to it, you listened to me, you listened to Jim when we were doing this shit, you would know that we laughed at this from Jump Street. And anybody with a pair of fucking testicles

or even girl balls would laugh at this story. The idea that a grown-ass man is getting bullied in a locker room in the NFL is preposterous. Yet people ran with it. And incognito is terrible, and they defamed him, and they said he's terrible, and they said he's a bully, and he's awful, and he's bad, and blah. They did a whole report.

They had to have that, what was it, the Wells report. They had to do a whole report on this and an investigation into it and blah, blah, blah. And what we learned is that Incognito seems like a meathead douche, but Incognito was not bullying this guy and did not force him to quit. Why he quit was he sucked at football and he needed to concoct a story, some sort of cockamamie story, so he could continue to get paid. And now he looks like a total putz and he's a liar. And honest to God, I think people who do that should be in fucking jail. This dude

should be in jail. He should be imprisoned for this, for being a cock. Like to try to ruin someone else's life because you're a fucking failure. You should be thrown in jail. You're a worthless human being. Fuck you. And we need to start looking at people like this, liars like this, like the gal that made up the whole story about Duke lacrosse. That bitch should have been in jail because she ruined these dudes lives. When people ruin someone's lives because they lie about them, those people should be in jail. They're awful people. So now incognito is taking a victory lap as he should be taking a victory lap. but of course you get these outlets that are ripping him sort of or or still kind of like mocking him for taking a victory lap like I saw Florio post some stuff calling this an 11 years dead story of course you feel that way

because you got egg on your face because you were wrong you were duped and you were so desperate for this to be real like that's the thing about people. And that's why media people are dishonest. And that's why I don't trust them because media people are looking for the best story. They're not looking for the truth. That is a lie. If people tell you, Oh, we're out there searching for the truth. You're not searching for the truth. You're searching for what would be the best story, or you're searching for what could protect people that you know, like, it's just convenient that you're always looking for the best story when it's someone you don't like or it's someone that you don't have an attachment to. But if it's like a political candidate that you actually like, maybe you're not looking for the truth, Hunter Biden people.

Maybe you're not. But if it's someone you dislike, you're always looking for the truth, Trump. So that's what you're always doing, right? Or if like you're a radio guy in a town that covers a football team, you're always looking for the truth about the Steelers. But when it comes down to the Texans, you're not actually looking for the truth about them, right? You're going to protect them, right? Like that's how the media works. And like, look, it's just reality. People have biases. And I tell you this all the time. This is one of my main things about media. Media people, well, people are people. People have biases. Media people are people. So they have biases. So when you hear like, oh boy, this is a hot story. Do you know how many stories that these media people probably like back in the day didn't even bother to cover?

Because they might've been truthful, but they weren't salacious enough stories. They need salacious stories and they want them to be real. That's the thing about media people. They cover them and they cover stories that they want to be true and they cover them like they're already true because they want them to be true. They want to wish them into existence. They want to wish them into this world of, oh, wow, this is clearly true, I want this to be real because it's a sexy, salacious story. So they find these stories, like the Richie Incognito story, and they want it to be true,

and they covet the attention they'll get for it being true, so they just keep running with stories like that. And then what you end up with is dishonesty. And I think what you get is guys like Florio, who are now busted, guys like Florio, are now busted guys like for Florio who everybody is mocking now because Florio shit all over this dude now they're just trying to basically

discredit Richie Incognito and discredit the whole story now by saying oh it's an 11 years dead story and and blah blah blah no you got worked on this story you got schooled you were wrong you played into the fucking lie that was told by the six foot five putts who said he was being bullied and now you have egg on your face and Richie Incognito has every right and and of course he has the right but Richie Incognito should take a victory lap around all these people is he still a douchebag probably is he a guy that I'd be buds with probably not but the idea that the world treated this like this was like real bullying like you know you know a kid in a wheelchair at school getting

picked on by the the team jock the team star is so preposterous and it was always preposterous the whole concept of this was remarkably stupid yet all of these people bought into it because it was a sexy salacious story and the Nancy Armors of the world and the Florios of the world could write their self-important, self-righteous, this is the problem with football and bullying and race and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah stories. And then at the end of the day, we learned that it was all bullshit. And that's why you cannot trust media people, especially in this era where the biggest currency, the most important currency, the way these people get paid is engagement. And they get paid by likes and engagements. That's their currency. That's what they live on. So, of course, they're going to write shit that gets them that currency.

Like, this isn't hard, guys. I'm not a genius. I'm not an expert. I am just a dude, right? I am a flawed human like all of you listening to this. And we all have biases. The media wants to know why people don't trust them. Why don't you trust us?

Because you show us time and time again that you're either wrong or you're just outright dishonest. And we see it in politics. And we see it in sports. Now sports is far more like politics. And it in sports now sports is far more like politics and the way people cover sports is far more like politics that's why a lot of times sports media turns me off you got to be in little cults you can't look at your own team in an unbiased way

you have to just say that everyone's against them that's like the new popular thing to do is just say well this person's wrong about us because they hate us and they hate because they ain't us and blah, blah, blah. No, maybe they just, they think you suck. And maybe they're not blinded by the fact that they're a fan. Like, look no further. And I love you guys. And look, a lot of the Astros coverage was bullshit, but the reality is the Astros did cheat. So when people say the Astros cheated, they're not wrong. The Astros cheated. Were other people doing it? Probably. Did the Astros do it better? Yes. Are you taking away the Astros cheated. They're not wrong. The Astros cheated. Were other people doing it? Probably. Did the Astros do it better? Yes. Are you taking away the Astros World Series? No. But if people are going to call you cheaters, they're going to call you cheaters. But the way people react is like people in Houston react like they never fucking cheated. Of course they did. Of course

they cheated. They got away with it essentially because they got the World Series and they didn't give back. Fine. But like that's what I hate about the way sports media is now sports media has to be tribal and cult like so you have to like basically you can't say anything bad about your own team and if anybody does say bad things about your team they're just haters and it's so lame and it's so tribal and it's so social media and high school and bullshit. That's why I really dislike a lot of it. But then going back to the actual media, the Mike Florios and all these people, these people are dishonest. These people want things to be true. I mean, like, this is not hard. Go watch any movie about news or anything, watch them. And like I say, I'm really chasing a big story that

they want the story to be true. They're not looking for the truth. They're looking for the story that they want to tell to be truthful. They want their truth to be told. You cannot trust them. They are dishonest people. Not all of them, but many of them, especially in this era. This era is an era where it's easy to be dishonest because, A, people don't care about the truth. You know what people actually care about? They care about, again, just like the writers and the media people

don't care about the truth other than their own truth, the consumers, many of them, only want the truth they want to be real. They only want the good stories about their politician to be true. They only want the bad stories about the person they're against to be true. And they will believe it based on their own personal biases. We are in a horrible time for media with all of the access and everything you could possibly have to make media better. Media is terrible. It's not good right now. And people are just completely dishonest because they can be because they have a big enough audience for their dishonesty. So they keep telling their own dishonest stories. Their audience who wants those

dishonest to be stories, those stories to be true, believe it because they're desperate for it to be true. This isn't hard. And then go back to this incognito thing. The number of shitty, lame media people that just wanted this to be true and wanted this to be a bigger story than it should have been, they went with it. They fell for it. They bought it. And now they're trying to dismiss it. Guys like Florio are trying to dismiss this as, oh, this is just an old story and incognito is a big doof anyway. And then the guy has the balls in one of his stories to say that incognito is now on a tour that's bullying media people.

The media people love to tear you down. And then when you call them out on it, they play victim. They're the fucking worst. They are the absolute worst they lie they tell dishonest stories they tell the story they want to be true even if it's not true and then when they are found out and someone who was on the receiving end of this and had to deal with it calls them on their lies they play victim oh he's out here bullying us we're being bullied by richie incognito oh the irony you're the fucking worst you're nerds you're

people that have never done anything in life you write about successful people you lie about successful people and then when they call you on your bullshit you know what ends up happening you play victim fuck you you're the worst and you cannot trust these people. They are liars. They are dishonest. Go watch any fucking movie about old media shit. You always see the story like, oh, I'm chasing a big lead. I want this to be real. The second they hear a story like, oh, somebody who's famous might have gotten a DUI. I got to go find this story. We got to get down to the truth.

That's what they do oh shit anyway so good for Richie Incognito he's not vindicated for being a douche he still seems like a real hardcore doucher but he is vindicated after a decade plus of this dude and we should be calling this dude for like instead of like the story should be that this motherfucker

lied and he's a piece of shit and he should be calling this dude for like instead of like the story should be that this motherfucker lied and he's a piece of shit and he should be in jail. Honest to God, put it or at least put him in the Iron Maiden. Put him in a guillotine. Put this man in the guillotine. He's like if you're going to lie about somebody to that extent, like which is incredible to me that you can like I try to be an honest person. Like if I know that I'm lying, I feel really fucking bad about it. Like imagine telling that lie.

Anyway, more to come.