Dave Portnoy vs. the Washington Post
A conflict between publications reveals a changing of the cultural guard
There was this viral interaction between Barstool Sports impresario Dave Portnoy and a Washington Post reporter over the latter undermining a planned Coney Island pizza festival run by the former. An NJ.com article attacked local restaurants for associating with “misogynist bully” Portnoy, and it appears the Washington Post was on a similar trajectory, at least until the Barstool founder made a recorded phone call.
The exchange spawned a debate about journalistic ethics, but that’s so peripheral to the nature of the conflict. This wasn’t about best media practices, Portnoy’s past offenses, misogyny or even pizza really. Instead it was, as Logan Roy once said about life, “a fight for a knife in the mud.” Barstool is winning that fight and the Washington Post, in its current incarnation, is losing and currently bleeding.