Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, found himself in the crosshairs of the mainstream media on the cusp of his One Bite Pizza Festival this weekend. In an apparent attempt to undermine the festival, The Washington Post went on a mission to portray him as having a “history of misogynistic comments,” and started contacting his advertisers and pressuring them to back out of the festival.
Well, Portnoy caught wind of what was happening and did something about it. He called reporter Emily Heil, who was working on the story, and recorded the entire interaction. He then posted it to X (formerly Twitter). In the video, Heil responds at first by lying. She claims she never characterized him as a misogynist or racist.
“We have this Pizza-fest happening on Saturday, and you’re reaching out to our advertisers,” Portnoy told Heil on the phone. “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?”
“I’m sorry. Who are you?” Heil asked, playing dumb.
“I’m the guy you’re writing the article about, Dave Portnoy,” he told her.
Heil denied the accusation, but Portnoy had the receipts. He went on to read excerpts from an email she sent to one of his advertisers.
“’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 from the email.
Caught, Heil had no choice but to admit to sending the email.
“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.”
Heil went on to deny characterizing him that way. “I didn’t say — I didn’t do that,” she lied.
“Well, no. Before I provided proof you said you didn’t really remember doing that, and then I read it to you, and you’re like ‘Oh, yeah, I did it that one time.’ So you did do it,” Portnoy shot back.
Heil then claimed she was going to reach out to him for comment the next day, but obviously, there was no reason to take her at her word.
“The Washington Post, which is a wildly left-leaning publication — you have things you’ve said. You hate Trump, you hate Elon, not that I’m those people. To think you’re gonna give me a fair shake […] I wasn’t born yesterday.”
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
The pair scheduled a phone interview for Thursday, which Heil ultimately canceled. “The @washingtonpost just cancelled the 10am call. Shocker. They proposed 5pm instead. I said 10am or nothing. They refused. What could suddenly be more important than this? The article has to come out Friday. So they’d leave themselves a few hours before going to print?” Portnoy posted to X.
The Washington Post published the story on Friday. “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,” Portnoy posted on X.
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This is what the liberal media does. It doesn’t report the news; it tries to destroy those they don’t agree with. Portnoy handled it right. He called Heil out. He recorded the calls and shared them online as evidence. That’s how you handle a media that cares more about destroying you than reporting facts.
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