Dave Portnoy, the founder and owner of the Barstool Sports media empire, took to Twitter on Wednesday to expose a Washington Post effort to pressure sponsors to abandon a food festival he has organized for Sep. 23.
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 called Washington Post food reporter Emily Heil, and — after telling her he was recording the call — to confronted her about the fact that she had referred to him as a misogynist in contacting festival sponsors.
When Heil denied that she had done so, Portnoy read her an e-mail that she had sent to one of the sponsors. She then admitted using more pointed language in the email, she said, to ensure that she would receive a response.
Portnoy accused Heil of preparing a “hit piece” on him, whereupon she said she had planned to contact him the following morning (Thursday). He asked if he could see the article before providing comment; she refused.
Later, Portnoy took to Twitter to note that the Washington Post had canceled the original Thursday morning call.
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? https://t.co/qPQ77bXLcG
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) September 20, 2023
The tactic Portnoy exposed — censorship via media queries — is not uncommon. It has been used in recent years by a variety of center-left outlets, in an effort to pressure advertisers to drop rival media publications.
As shown in Portnoy’s case, the journalist typically includes a hostile claim about the target company or individual in a media query to an advertiser, asking if that advertiser intends to continue supporting the target, then reports — as news — that advertisers are dropping the target.
It is, critics argue, a form of censorship under the cover of journalism.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.