Josh Innes, I guess in an attempt to mock the ludicrous nature of the NFL coaching search (fair), trolled his audience and reported, per league sources, that Lovie Smith would be interviewing for the Eagles head coaching job, which he’s not. Apparently he encouraged listeners to tell Mike Missanelli to see if he would run with it (I’m not even gonna bother pulling the audio to get specifics, I don’t feel like it).

The problem, of course, is that some people believed it:

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And so on. There were more.

[UPDATE: Apparently he encouraged listeners to troll others and the media. So it’s hard to tell who’s in on the joke and who isn’t. Same difference. But now I’m gonna have to listen to this shit.]

Look, it’s been a crazy week blogging the goofy coaching search. I don’t even have the energy to feign outrage or try to be snarky about this. I’ll just point out that this is a really good example of someone who doesn’t quite get his audience. Funny stunt? Maybe a little. But I’ve never been a fan of the make-up-rumor-mess-with-people shtick, from anyone. It’s lame. Most people are going about their days and pop in and out of sports news and don’t have time to check an original source, a fake account, whether a radio host is fucking with his own audience, etc. So if they turn on WIP for five minutes, or check Twitter, and hear or see that the major sport talk radio station’s lead afternoon host is saying that Lovie Smith is interviewing for the Eagles job, then they believe it. Understandably.


I’m hardly hardcore sports X and O guy, and fully prefer to focus on the lighter side of sports, but the Eagles coaching search is one of the few actual sports stories we’ve had in the past 12 months. And it’s a big one. There is no more hardcore audience for that stuff than WIP’s. The “A” listeners live for this shit. Yet I tuned in to Innes’ show earlier in the week, on Monday, at 2:09 p.m., because he was apparently ripping me about something or the other. I missed what he said about me, but did catch the porn conversation… nine minutes into the show during arguably the biggest actual sports story week in maybe six months. Cool. And trying to pull Stern-like chicanery on the subject matter today is the equivalent of turning on RedZone and having Scott Hanson show you updates from games played three years ago (which would be hilarious). Lame. Wrong audience. Wrong outlet. It’s the perfect example of an outsider not understanding what his audience actually wants. And the only funny thing about it is that as of yet no one has actually ran with the report.

…

As I write this, Innes has disappeared from the air, just before the promoted interview with Ray Didinger. Marc Farzetta and Hollis Thomas were left to fend for themselves. 5 p.m. Drive time. Sports week. Is it a stunt? Is it real? Who cares?! But it’s complete amateur hour on WIP right now, as it is most days.

UPDATE: He had a flight to catch, but his co-hosts were eager to play up the “where’s Josh?!” angle because ratings.