Does Anyone Want Dave Portnoy in Politics? Dave Portnoy Doesn’t Care.
Shakespeare. Dante. Goethe. Einstein. These are some of the names emblazoned on the walls of the stately theater at the92nd Street Yon the Upper East Side of Manhattan, which has previously hosted events. . .
Shakespeare. Dante. Goethe. Einstein. These are some of the names emblazoned on the walls of the stately theater at the92nd Street Yon the Upper East Side of Manhattan, which has previously hosted events featuring literary luminaries includingTruman Capoteand Dylan Thomas. The newly minted author taking the David Geffen Stage on Monday night arrived with a very different set of credentials. “I hadn’t read too many books” before launching a weekly sports newspaper, Dave Portnoy writes in the opening pages of his memoir,Cancel Me If You Can,which was released on Tuesday. What the bard of Barstool Sports, the media behemoth that Portnoy founded in 2003 before going on to launch such franchises as “Smokeshow of the Week” and “One Bite Pizza Reviews,” lacked in erudition, he has made up for in longevity and impact. Over the past several years, Portnoy has weathered controversies includingworkplace dramas,corporate feuds, and allegations of sexual misconduct that, as the title of his book suggests, ultimately served to cement his standing. As he discussed his trajectory before a loyal audience of Barstool fans—Stoolies, as they’re known—with the company’s former CEOErika Ayers Badan, they both gleefully entertained the prospect of naysayers arriving at the event. Theo Wargo/Getty ImagesThe crowd Portnoy draws “can be all over the map,” he said. The “people-hate-my-guts crowd. A couple of them may show up, so you never know. ”Badan wondered what the over/under on protesters might be. Alas, there were no obvious objectors to be seen. The audience at the 92nd Street Y had an air of conspicuous consumption—a Gucci bag here, a Louis Vuitton there—cut with a mix of polyester golf polos and fraternity-appropriate streetwear. Most of all, there was Barstool merch: Stu Feiner, a sports handicapper, wore a T-shirt with his own face alongside Portnoy’s, and led a brief chant for the arrival of his fellow Barstool personality Frank “The Tank” Fleming, a diehard New York Mets fan known for his viral meltdowns and weight-loss journey. (“Some could even argue that Barstool’s natural gravitational pull for weirdos has been our secret sauce throughout the years,” Portnoy writes inCancel Me If You Can. “We’re the best there is at finding people who have no business existing in real life anywhere but with us. ”)Over his two-decade run in media, Portnoy has functioned as a reality show unto himself, buttressing his company’s flood of content and events with his own unflagging online narration of his life. To describe his following as parasocial might sell it short. His boasts on Monday (“I ran Steve Cohen off Twitter”) were met with hearty applause, never more so than when he said he wrote his book because he wanted to see it at airports, “not that I go to public airports anymore. ”The other biggest cheers of the evening arrived when Portnoy teased some political aspirations, primarily by way of bashingZohran Mamdaniand the victorious democratic socialist candidates whom the mayor backed in last week’s congressional primary. “I can’t wrap my brain around it,” Portnoy said, “and I don’t know if it’s scary or I should be scared, or, like, I got to get in politics. ”“Unlike Mamdani who’s never had a job,” he added, “I’ve had a real job and I’ve actually done a lot of good when I wasn’t doing it to run for office,” citing Barstool’s COVID-era fund for small businesses and the attention that Portnoy’s popular YouTube reviews have brought to local pizzerias. Portnoy made similar comments in an interview with Fox News’s Jesse Watters on Monday. Rumblings about Portnoy’s potential political future have sometimes circulated in recent years alongside the concept of “Barstool conservatism”—roughly, a male-centric, Trump-era cultural libertarianism fused with anti-wokeness. Maine Senate candidateGraham Platner’steam reached out to Portnoy in May in an effort to attract the Barstool audience, only for Portnoy to promptly publish the communications on social media and repeatedly describe Platner as a “Nazi. ”After Portnoy and Badan’s discussion finished and the audience streamed out into the Manhattan night, I canvassed some of the attendees for their opinions on Portnoy’s prospects. Two young men who live in the neighborhood and work in tech and accounting thought he could pull off a political career—if he actually wanted to. “He’s got opinions, he’s got thoughts, he’s got money,” Andrew said, declining to provide his last name. “So he knows what he’s talking about most of the time or tries to. ”Josh Lobel/Michael Priest Photography“I also don’t think he would actually ever run for politics,” Greg countered, “because I know he hates it, but he’ll say that to invoke an extreme reaction and I know he also loves that. ”“He was exactly true to form,” said one half of a couple from Florida passing through town. “He says everything that’s on his mind and there’s just no filter. ”“There were some accusations with women and all that,” she added, noting that she’d looked into the matter and concluded, “I think he’s a better guy than you think. ”She was referring to a 2021reportforBusiness Insiderby my now colleague,Vanity Fairtech and money correspondentJulia Black, who spoke to three young women who said that they met Portnoy for sex that began consensually but turned violent and humiliating in a manner that they would not have agreed to if asked. Two of the women said Portnoy filmed their encounters without consent. Portnoy vehemently denied these allegations and filed a defamation suit againstBusiness Insiderthat was dismissed. Josh Lobel/Michael Priest Photography“What is the Barstool Difference, by the way?” Portnoy writes in his memoir. “Well, it’s had a lot of connotations over the years. But to me, it essentially means when the stupidity of Barstool is fully on display but somehow ends up benefiting us. ” He goes on to claim that he doesn’t look for controversy—he merely declines to run from it. But Portnoy devotes a full chapter ofCancel Me If You Canto “Business Fucking Insider” and Black, writing that “there are still massive unpaid debts for everybody who was involved in this hatchet job on my life” and appending a photo of bottles of champagne engraved with the names of the reporter, the outlet, and its cofounder and former CEO Henry Blodget. (“A trademark of mine is to pop bottles of champagne when my enemies fail,” Portnoy writes. “I actually get them personalized in advance, with the names of my enemies engraved onto the bottle, and I stow them away for the day when they fall. ” In a statement,Business Insiderspokesperson Ari D’Angelo said, “We continue to stand by our reporting. Dave Portnoy suedBusiness Insiderin federal court over these articles and lost. ”)“I have a lot of support in this area,” Portnoy said on Monday night. “To me, I think Barstool’s the American dream. I really do. ” As he saw it, he has been under siege. “I had been attacked by everybody,” he writes. “On and on and on it went. I had been called racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. ,” though he didn’t particularly sound like he minded. “And not only was I still standing,” Portnoy continued, “but I was seemingly coming out of it at the height of my powers. ”Blackpink’s LisaPulls Back the Curtain on the Life of a K-Pop ShowgirlHowGarth FisherBecame the Go-To Plastic Surgeon for the West Coast EliteBen ShapiroHas No Regrets. Except Hiring Candace OwensExclusive:José Mourinho’s First Interview Since His Sensational Return to Real Madrid