Barstool Sports boss Dave Portnoy abruptly ended an interview with a local Philadelphia ABC reporter during a discussion about the antisemitic incident in his bar and then noted how much he hates the news media.
Portnoy has been in the news since a video of an antisemitic sign posted at his Philly bar went viral. The sports website owner and businessman initially went ballistic over the sign and pledged to “ruin” the people involved, even firing several employees over the incident.
But later, after he calmed down, he announced that he was sending the two young customers who created the sign to tour the WWII Auschwitz death camp in Poland as a learning experience for the two bar customers.
CNN reports that one of the customers has apparently been suspended from Temple University over the sign stunt.
With the controversy swirling around his bar, Portnoy was being interviewed by a reporter from WPVI-TV, but he quickly became very unsatisfied with the interview’s direction. Portnoy called the whole ordeal a “bait and switch” and accused the reporter of asking “gotcha” questions to make him the bad guy.
“They begged me to do an interview,” Portnoy said as he explained how the interview went. “They give me the reporter’s name, and then they do a bait and switch, and a new reporter shows up.”
So @6abc begged me to do an interview about the incident at our bar. Since it was local I agreed. Then the reporter tried to say Barstool and I and white men were responsible for the incident. Austin started recording once it got contentious pic.twitter.com/ug8CX83HHp
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) May 5, 2025
Portnoy blasted the reporter for trying to blame him for sponsoring an antisemitic atmosphere at his bar, and the reporter cited professors who claimed Barstool Sports is a hate site.
“She shifts, and then, she does what a media scumbag does,” he said on his video. “She pulls a quote out of her ass from like – some professor…. It’s like, ‘Barstool Sports creates a culture of harassment,’ and that basically I’m responsible for this happening at my own bar.”
In response, Portnoy pointed out that college campuses all across the country are far worse for antisemitism than his website or his bar.
“Who’s creating more hate right now in the world? Barstool Sports and White men, or college campuses?” he replied.
Portnoy tried to get the reporter to tell him what professors she was quoting and where those quotes came from, but the reporter refused to answer his questions, claiming that she was the journalist and didn’t have to answer him.
That was when he abruptly ended the interview by slamming his laptop shut.
“This piece of shit. ABC, the person who set it up, gave me one reporter, bait and switch to the other,” he railed at the end of his video. “Fuck ABC! Fuck ABC! …I forgot how much I hate fucking journalists. This fucking piece of shit!”
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