Dave Portnoy caught wind of a piece that was being written about him by The Washington Post pertaining to a pizza festival Barstool Sports is holding in Brooklyn, N.Y. this Saturday. Instead of watching the piece be published, he decided to contact the reporter, food writer Emily Heil, who was seeking comment from advertisers involved in the festival. In an email, she wrote that Portnoy “has a history of misogynistic comments and other problematic behavior,” a statement the Barstool founder and owner felt was “tortious interference.”
When Portnoy called Heil, she initially denied that she had written an email about Portnoy to sponsors about the story. After Portnoy read it back to her, she confirmed that it had indeed been done in order to get people to respond, asserting that negative commentary elicits more responses than its counterpart. WFAN host Gregg Giannotti described the occurrence on the Boomer & Gio morning show on Thursday, prompting co-host Boomer Esiason to give his genuine reaction to what had happened.
“Classic, classic example of cancel culture,” Esiason said. “She’s using her platform as a Washington Post reporter – that’s her backstop – and she’s sending out an email from that email address and she’s basically associating him with something she thinks he is. It’s the absolute obvious cancel, I guess, cancel culture syndrome if you will.”
Giannotti made mention of the fact that Portnoy has raised $50 million for small businesses affected by the COVID-19 global pandemic through his “Barstool Fund.” Moreover, he articulated how the entrepreneur has helped pizza places through reviewing them, even if he does not grant every restaurant a high score. Portnoy’s “One Bite” videos garner millions of views on social media and have become a trusted source of information pertaining to local outlets.
“The last one he gave a negative review,” Esiason said, referring to Dragon Pizza in Somerville, Mass., “and the next thing you know, the place is packed.”
Watching the incident unfold in real time through Portnoy’s recording of the phone call and videos on social media was fascinating for Esiason and Giannotti. The call ended with him agreeing to be interviewed by The Washington Post at 10 a.m. on Thursday; however, the reporter canceled the call and asked to reschedule after details of the interaction became public knowledge.
“This is a really bad look on her part and the whole industry’s part,” Esiason said. “She’s trying to impart her feelings into a question to get people to respond. What she’s really doing is probably trying to get them to pull out of sponsoring the pizza fest.”
Both hosts believe that Heil is taking advantage of her platform as a reporter for The Washington Post in an attempt to thwart their business because of her own aversion to its practices. The disclosure of this ordeal is somewhat disturbing for them, acknowledging how it is extraordinary that something of this magnitude is taking place out in the open
“This is not someone writing, ‘This is what I think of this guy,’” Giannotti explained. “She said she’s doing reporting, so when you do reporting and throw out there, ‘This guy’s got a history of misogynistic and problematic behavior….’”
“And she doesn’t take into account the Barstool employees,” Esiason added, “[who are] the people that are benefiting from the pizza fest and all the stuff that he’s done for small business because she doesn’t like the way that Barstool does its business.”
