The Washington Post’s ICBM strike against Dave Portnoy and Barstool Sports was released Friday, and it was an ‘as expected’ reception. Some of the anti-Portnoy folks interviewed aren’t playing with a full deck, but that, again, was predictable. Portnoy, El Presidente, has conducted the famous ‘One Bite’ pizza reviews for years, garnering an insane following. It’s led to pizzerias becoming overnight successes. This weekend, he’s hosting the One Bite Pizza Festival, inviting the top-rated establishments to New York.
The publication decided to reach out to these businesses, informing them of Barstool’s so-called controversial content and their feelings about their name being associated with the festival. El Presidente decided to launch a pre-emptive strike; catching wind that a hit piece was in the works, he called Emily Heil, leading to the viral video where he exposed the paper’s bias and activism. He obtained an email she had sent to the sponsors:
Hi, just following up on this. 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. I wanted to make sure that [redacted] had a chance to respond to this since the company is the most prominent of the “partners” for his festival.
Thanks,
Emily
WaPo reporter gets caught working on a biased hit piece about Dave Portnoy, agrees to actually interview the subject of her smear, then cancels the interview.
— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) September 21, 2023
In the end, Portnoy gets a ton of earned media and the WaPo reporter locks her Twitter account. pic.twitter.com/kDF2lQ4iK7
The video is brutal:
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
Now, with the piece published, it starts off somewhat fair, noting how some of the sponsors might not agree with Portnoy’s past remarks, but they can’t pull out. They’re going to serve the fans and their love for pizza. In today’s world, that’s enabling rape culture or something. And yes, the Post dredged up supposedly controversial remarks made by El Presidente, along with quotes from some loser mathematician who calls himself the “conscience of the food industry,” who has railed against Barstool (via WaPo):
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The craziest thing about this @OneBiteFest controversy is the very few losers complaining about it never had any intention of going. Their only goal is to hurt all the pizzerias and small businesses involved because they don't like me. How delusional and selfish can you be?
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) September 21, 2023
The main thing Maggie DeMarco Mieles knew about Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy before she agreed to take part in his One Bite Pizza Festival this weekend in New York was that he had given her father’s pizzeria a stellar review in 2018, years before the legendary Domenico DeMarco died. Portnoy, in fact, rated two slices from Di Fara Pizza. He gave them both 9.4 out of 10.
[…]
Since signing on for the inaugural One Bite Pizza Festival — named after the influential video series in which Portnoy takes one bite (though usually more) of a slice and gives it a numerical rating — DeMarco Mieles has learned a lot more about the man who goes by the nickname El Presidente. For the festival, Di Fara had a special T-shirt made, which the pizzeria put on its Instagram account. DeMarco Mieles and the pizzeria were quickly accused of supporting a man who has been accused of sexual misconduct and has a history of using racist, misogynist and homophobic language that he has defended as jokes. In a brief phone call with The Post, he said, “I have been hit with the same things over and over, and they are so wildly out of context."
[…]
DeMarco Mieles was rattled enough by the incoming comments that she turned to her mother, the matriarch of the celebrated pizza family, for guidance. “I told her about some of the comments. I’m like, ‘Mom, I don’t pay attention to this stuff. I can’t even pay attention to my own stuff.’ She said, ‘You have to think of the people that paid a lot of money for those tickets. Those are the people you have to think of.’ And she’s right.
If Di Fara had pulled out of the festival, DeMarco Mieles said, “We would be disappointing a lot of people that are going not because of Dave Portnoy but because of Di Fara and all the other great pizzerias that are beside us,” she added.
[…]
Since the One Bite Pizza Festival was announced in early August, some influencers, writers and activists have been calling out the pizzerias and sponsors participating in the nearly sold-out event, scheduled for Saturday at a minor league ballpark in Brooklyn, with remaining tickets as of publication time starting at $219.99. Some of the biggest names in pizza — Di Fara, Lucali and John’s of Bleecker Street in New York; Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana and Sally’s Apizza in New Haven, Conn., — are among the 35-plus shops slated to participate in the festival, which is sponsored by Coca-Cola, High Noon, New Amsterdam Vodka, Peroni and other brands. Many of the pizzerias have received favorable reviews from Portnoy.
Joe Rosenthal, a Minnesota-based mathematician who has positioned himself as the conscience of the food and restaurant industries, has been leading the charge against those involved with Portnoy’s festival. He has posted regularly on his Instagram account, with its 33,000-plus followers, writing that the pizzerias, influencers and trade publications are showing that “Portnoy can continue his violent misogyny and campaigns of abuse, and they will continue to support him.” Rosenthal wants the public to educate those businesses about Portnoy’s past behaviors and pressure them to make a decision.
This week, Jeremy Schneider wrote an opinion piece for NJ.com headlined, “Why are N.J. pizzerias supporting misogynist bully Dave Portnoy?” And best-selling cookbook author J. Kenji López-Alt said in a recent Instagram story that Portnoy had “put together this list of pizzerias who are either not aware of his history...or know but don’t care.”
[…]
…some support Portnoy, whom they see as a champion of small business. His pizza reviews, they say, can increase revenue up to 50 percent. They point out that his Barstool Fund has raised tens of millions of dollars to help restaurants and other small businesses during the pandemic…
The WaPo hit job on @stoolpresidente is out
— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) September 22, 2023
Actual sentence:
"Rosenthal, a Minnesota-based mathematician who has positioned himself as the conscience of the food and restaurant industries, has been leading the charge against those involved"
The conscience of the food industry! pic.twitter.com/pFMRBe4wVw
And where do you think Portnoy’s defenders were featured in this piece? You guessed it—towards the end, many paragraphs deep, underneath the part about the supposed problematic history of Dave Portnoy. While unfair, the more they attack El Presidente, the stronger he gets. Also, liberals don’t watch or read Barstool’s content. It’s too much for them: they don’t like sports, gambling, drinking, or love of pizza.
The Washington Post admitted it slandered Dave Portnoy just to get a response from a sponsor.
— OutKick (@Outkick) September 21, 2023
Is that common practice at @washingtonpost? We asked. They wouldn't say.https://t.co/Og94xTgNgi
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