Dave Portnoy has been back in the headlines, and it’s for one of the stupidest reasons imaginable. Apparently, holding a pizza festival in New York is a huge scandal. That led The Washington Post to put two reporters on a proposed hit piece.
The goal was to pressure pizza shops that were participating to back out by accusing them of supporting sexual misconduct. The fun began when Portnoy caught wind of the coming smear job, though. He called one of the reporters and confronted her, catching her in a lie.
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.
The hit piece has now dropped to little fanfare and lots of mockery. Still, the Post did its best to try to present it as a bombshell.
This weekend, New York will host Dave Portnoy’s One Bite Pizza Festival.
Participating pizzerias have had to navigate buzz around the festival and backlash against the Barstool Sports founder’s controversial remarks and allegations of sexual misconduct. https://t.co/v2XqLxkJwg
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 22, 2023
Let’s be clear about what this is. It’s a coordinated attempt by a far-left news outlet to pressure shops by threatening their advertisers and customer base. It’s the lowest form of activism, relying not on anything actually newsworthy, but on veiled threats and misrepresentations.
Portnoy was having none of it, and he plunged the rhetorical knife in deeper.
It’s surreal we live in a country where activist reporters can openly get caught lying and admitting they are creating a false narrative to generate engagement and controversy AND still publish the article https://t.co/kUtVMsFI9M pic.twitter.com/R9wk8B9d3V
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) September 22, 2023
Translation: Dave Portnoy caught us red handed. Our flustered reporter lied again and said she always planned on contacting him to get his side. She then scheduled a meeting. She then cancelled it till 1 minute before article was due so she could claim she tried to talk him https://t.co/hc5NsKs7yn
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) September 22, 2023
Portnoy is right. This is utterly embarrassing for the Post. The nation’s second-largest newspaper gave an entire investigative team the mission of trying to destroy a pizza festival. Is it any wonder they’ve been losing subscribers hand over fist? There are a million more important things to look into, and they chose a pizza festival. It’s laughable.
To be clear, Portnoy isn’t even a Republican. He’s actually fairly liberal, but he also happens to speak freely about some topics the left considers off-limits. Thus, he must be destroyed. In the end, though, it was the Post that was left with egg on its face.
