Dave Portnoy, founder and owner of Barstool Sports, has a complaint with Washington Post reporter Emily Heil’s characterization of him as “racist and misogynistic” and has given us a great seminar on how to react to such an accusation.
When Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy discovered the Washington Post’s Emily Heil had contacted his advertisers and labeled him as a person with a “history of misogynistic comments,” he took matters into his own hands and called her.
Portnoy posted the 11-minute confrontation in its entirety on Twitter. Heil initially lies, saying she didn’t characterize Portnoy as a misogynistic racist, before being confronted with her own words.
“We have this Pizza-fest happening on Saturday, and you’re reaching out to our advertisers,” Portnoy said. “You’re basically sending an e-mail that says, to the effect, ‘Dave’s a misogynic racist. Do you want to defend yourselves advertising at this event?’ Right?” he asked Heil.
I Caught Wind That The Washington Post Was Writing A Hit Piece About Me And My Pizzafest So I Did What I Do. I Went on the Offensive pic.twitter.com/5oK2zJqVAs
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) September 20, 2023
This, folks, is how you fight back against unfair media portrayals. The founder of Barstool Sports obviously did his homework, too, because, on that call, he had all of his web-footed fowl arranged in a linear fashion before dialing. In the video, he presented a great example of “calling them on the carpet.” Here are a couple of gems:
“We are planning to write about the festival and how some of the sponsors and participants have drawn criticism by seeming to associate themselves with Dave Portnoy, who has a history of misogynistic comments and other problematic behavior,” Portnoy read.
Upon hearing Portnoy reading the e-mail, Heil admitted to sending it. However, she claimed the email was the most “pointed of them,” because she “really did want them to respond.”
“Do you think that’s fair?” Portnoy asked. “I totally disagree with the assertions of what you said that I’m misogynic and all that stuff.”
This, folks, is the formula. Push back. Correct false statements. Don’t let them get away with it. Call them out publicly. Record and post the conversation – on Twitter, Facebook, wherever you can. And no matter what else you do, never, ever apologize. Dave Portnoy did it right.
It would be nice if the Washington Post’s Emily Heil was one of the worst offenders, but she’s not even in the top ten. Earlier this month my colleague Brad Slager gave us a compilation of Chuck Todd’s Greatest Hits, and there were some doozies. And Sister Toldjah also brings us the tale of yet another “tell all” book accusing Ron DeSantis, literally, of kicking puppies. There are many others, many more prominent, many even less forthright and honest.
It has been apparent for some time now that the media is acting as a de facto arm of the Democratic Party; none other than Bernard Goldberg, who describes himself as a 1960s liberal Democrat, wrote one of the first books on the topic way back in 2001. But it seems in recent years that the old practices of cherry-picking quotes, inferring, and implying have been replaced by outright, shameless lying.
It’s an untenable situation. It’s an intolerable situation. There are, fortunately, alternatives; you’re reading one of them right here. You can read more, in fact, with a VIP subscription – use code SAVEAMERICA for a discount!
