Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy unflinchingly confronted Emily Heil, a Washington Post reporter, who was prepping a hit piece against him, claiming he was guilty of misogynistic and problematic behavior.
Two Washington Post reporters were allegedly working on the story when Portnoy got wind of it. They went so far as to contact the sponsors of an upcoming event he was putting on.
“So I caught wind that the Washington Post was proactively reaching out to the sponsors of my Pizzafest on Saturday and trying to shame them for being associated with me. I believe the legal term for that is ‘treacherous interference.’ Anyway, what I’ve learned over the years with these types of hit pieces is that you can’t give an inch. So rather than just sit back and let them dictate the pace of the game, I decided I’d speed them up and make them play by my rules,” Portnoy wrote on Barstool Sports.
“Take ’em down into the mud where I live. Here is a call with the reporter who was working on the piece…” he added on Wednesday and then posted the video showing his call with 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
Portnoy will host his “One Bite Pizza Fest” in Brooklyn, New York this Saturday, the day after the piece is supposed to go live. That’s obviously by design.
At the beginning of the call, Heil denied attempting to paint Portnoy in a negative light to his advertisers. He informed her he was recording the call and read to her the email that was sent to him by The Washington Post. She went on to claim that she was just attempting to reach the unnamed advertiser in a manner that would compel them to engage in an interview.
“I really wanted them to respond and I was hoping to get something from them,” Heil asserted.
“Do you think that’s fair? I totally disagree with the assertions that you said,” Portnoy responded.
This is the reporter you’re dealing with:
She has hated Trump for years (even before he was president) and even attacked Melania Trump for wearing a hat. pic.twitter.com/j54g3U4uzx
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) September 20, 2023
They went back and forth and eventually agreed to do another recorded call on Thursday. The Washington Post canceled the call out of the blue.
“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 wrote on X.
Users on X had a field day with this one and pointed out that it’s one more reason you can no longer trust the mainstream media at all:
THIS IS THE WAY. The media is the enemy of the people and deserve to be clowned and exposed! https://t.co/jX6Q6xJJDV
— Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10) September 20, 2023
“This is standard journalism”
This is how all these woke fake news media people should be treated
— Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) September 21, 2023
This woman deserves to be fired immediately, and she clearly was trying to hurt you rather than actually do real journalism
— Luke Rudkowski (@Lukewearechange) September 20, 2023
Classic WaPo smearing and declaring false labels on people.
These propagandist scumbags are the lowest of the low. Vile human beings no better than swine.
— Clandestine (@WarClandestine) September 20, 2023
Reporter’s own words: “You know, sometimes you have to say something like this is like, you know, it’s sort of a reporting tactic. When you want someone to respond, you kind of have to indicate that there might be something negative and then you get them to engage. That’s all I… pic.twitter.com/HcpvCcqkCN
— Ariadna Jacob (@littlemissjacob) September 20, 2023
Defamation
— KJUNE (@kjune65) September 21, 2023
Beyond the simple unfairness of how @EmilyAHeil does her job, here’s my question …
Since when did it become the job of journalists to target advertisers? Maybe CNN’s @OliverDarcy could also shed light on such activism masquerading as journalism.https://t.co/FSTOE2rRL9
— David X. Henry (@imau2fan) September 20, 2023
Translation: “Yeah so we shit on you before confirming anything and got caught”
— Not Jim Cramer (@CramerTracker) September 21, 2023
Activist journalism at the Washington Post on full display. Portnoy should tweet the email w the email address and salutations taken out.
— Brian Doherty (@BDOH) September 20, 2023
this proves so eloquently the adage that as much as you despise MSM journalists, you don’t despise them nearly as much as you should. this is the way
— BikeHabibi (@bike_practicer) September 20, 2023
This is a master class in crisis comms on how to deal with a hostile reporter. https://t.co/G0QJYZaId6
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 21, 2023
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