Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy released a press release blasting a recent Washington Post “hit piece” against him.
Portnoy’s statement accusing the outlet of causing the “death of honest and fair journalism” in attacking him with “untrue narratives” went viral on X Friday, receiving millions of views in hours and prompting a social media pile on of the Washington Post.
In the statement he posted to X, Portnoy explained his side of a recent feud between him and the outlet over a story the Post published. The piece reported on criticism advertisers and pizzerias got for working with the mogul for his upcoming “One Bite Pizza Festival” in New York City.
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Bartstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy responded to a Washington Post hit piece on him with a press release he published to X Friday. ((Fox News/Getty Images))
The piece, published by Post reporters Tim Carmen and Emily Heil Friday, described Portnoy as someone who “has been no stranger to controversy.” It mentioned his history of “sexist” and other insensitive comments, as well as allegations of sexual impropriety.
The statement from “Team Portnoy” opened, stating, “Today marks the official death of honest and fair journalism in America. Emily ‘Caught Red Handed’ Heil and Tim ‘Probably An Ugly Loser’ Carman of the Washington Post put the final nail in the coffin with their weak and dishonest hit piece against David S. Portnoy and his One Bite pizzafest.”
The letter continued, explaining how Portnoy “caught wind of this hit piece” before it was published. It claimed he noticed that “Heil started reaching out to advertisers and pizzerias to try and shame them for participating in what will be the greatest day in the history of pizza.”
Portnoy’s feud with the outlet went public when he called Heil and argued with her over her intentions in publishing it.
Taunting the reporters, Portnoy’s letter continued, “It had already been a rough week for Portnoy, who’s been having trouble finding his coffee in his colossal new Miami mansion. And now he had to deal with this.”
Mentioning the phone call, the statement added, “So he called up Heil to confront her and caught her red-handed in a lie where she denied saying anything negative about Portnoy in emails. (She would later clarify that she only tells negative lies about people as a reporting tactic. As if that was supposed to help her case somehow.)”
Returning to the piece itself, the statement read, “It was mostly the same old tired, reused, and untrue narratives about Portnoy. Although they did make the groundbreaking investigative discovery that he sometimes takes more than one bite in his pizza reviews.”
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The text added, “no pizzerias or advertisers decided to pull out of Pizzafest.”
X users weighed in on Portnoy’s post, with many siding with the Barstool owner.
The Federalist senior contributor Rich Cromwell read the post and declared, “This is art.”
Publicist and conservative Beth Baumann posted, “This is the best press release I’ve ever read and I’m a publicist. Lol.”
Neither The Washington Post nor the two reporters who wrote the piece about Portnoy immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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