Dave Portnoy discusses his Barstool Fund with Brian Kilmeade
Small business owner, who received financial support from the Barstool Fund, thanks Dave Portnoy in person and encourages other business owners not to give up hope.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is fighting back after a liberal Toronto-based blog attempted to get him banned from area pizzerias by digging up allegations of sexual misconduct against the media mogul, which he has denied.
"It’s a shame that blogTO’s clear desperation for clicks and relevancy came at the expense of local Toronto small businesses. If they paid as much attention to what they are doing on a daily basis as opposed to what I’m doing, maybe they wouldn’t need my publicity to make their page-view quota," Portnoy told Fox News Digital.
BARSTOOL’S DAVE PORTNOY RIPS INTO INSIDER'S ROUGH SEX ‘HIT PIECE’ AGAINST HIM
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is fighting back after a liberal Toronto-based blog attempted to get him banned from area pizzerias by digging up long-denied allegations of sexual misconduct against the media mogul. (The Dave Portnoy Show With Eddie & Co/Youtube)
Last year, Portnoy – who set up a non-profit to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic – denied all wrongdoing but admitted he’s "scared" of cancel culture after Insider.com published a lengthy feature accusing the media mogul of having rough sex with women who regretted it afterwards.
Portnoy also sharply criticized the piece with an hour-long video explaining his side of the story. Insider published another negative feature about Portnoy in February, and the Barstool mogul denied all accusations in the follow-up piece, too.
Portnoy has since filed a lawsuit against Insider.com over "false and defamatory" stories that he referred to as "hit" pieces. But the Barstool founder’s adamant denials and lawsuit didn’t stop a liberal Canadian blog from urging Toronto business owners to reject Portnoy.
Portnoy, who travels the world reviewing pizza as one of his many pieces of recurring content, was in Toronto when blogTO published a piece headlined, "Toronto restaurants offering controversial Barstool Sports pres. Dave Portnoy pizza." It called the allegations "revolting" and lined to the Insider story – which is behind a paywall – but didn’t explain the allegations.
"He announced he'd be visiting Toronto in a video posted to his social media, to the delight of many restaurants and food lovers," the blogTO staff wrote. "It's possible some Toronto restaurants just aren't aware of the controversy swirling around him and are offering him food in the hopes of getting some promotion on his super popular social media channels."
Barstool founder Dave Portnoy denied all wrongdoing but admitted he’s "scared" of cancel culture after Insider.com published a lengthy feature last year accusing the media mogul of having rough sex with women who regretted it afterwards. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images) ((Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images))
The blog, which recently published the article "Bra for non-binary teen en route from Toronto dad who made swimwear for trans girls," even reached out to Toronto-based pizza establishments to make sure the staffers were aware of the allegations against Portnoy.
"Italian bakery San Remo had offered Portnoy food in a comment, but changed their mind about it after blogTO reached out, and the Taverniti restaurants were also unaware of the allegations. Ambassador has also retracted their invitation," blogTO wrote.
Other Canadian establishments told blogTO that they were excited Portnoy was in town because a positive review from the Barstool pizza guru would significantly aid their business, as thousands of fans flock to try his favorite slices.
The blogTO piece initially featured the byline of Amy Carlberg, but the liberal publication replaced her name with simply "staff" once backlash began pouring in.
Portnoy quote-tweeted the article and threatened to purchase the blog.
"These f--king guys are too much. I should Elon Musk them," he wrote. "Imagine calling local places to warn them I may eat their pizza."
"Apparently some blog I’d never heard of till tonight (blogTo) removed the author of the articles name and no longer thinks this is fun," Portnoy tweeted.
BARSTOOL FUND GIVES BOOST TO HELP SMALL BUSINESS RECOVER FROM 'DARKEST TIMES': PORTNOY
Dave Portnoy founded Barstool Sports in 2003 as a newspaper he handed out in Boston.
Ambassador, one of the establishments that blogTO reported would no longer welcome Portnoy, posted a story on Instagram indicating that a comment was never given and "anyone and everyone" is welcomed to dine there. A Toronto-based bakery also tweeted they are "disappointed" with the tone of the article.
"Apparently you guys are liars blogTO," Portnoy tweeted to accompany an image of Ambassador’s note.
Portnoy also posted a satirical video of a blogTO staffer screaming as Portnoy eats a slice of pizza, sending up the famous "Here's Johnny" scene from "The Shining." He invited "any of you losers" from blogTO to discuss the situation on his podcast.
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"Apparently some blog I’d never heard of till tonight (BlogTo) removed the author of the articles name and no longer thinks this is fun," Portnoy tweeted.
As backlash poured in, blogTO tweeted, "Apparently some guy who eats pizza is tweeting about us," but many were quick to point out it had started the feud.
"Yeah the guy who never heard of you till you not only wrote an article about me but were literally calling pizza places to warn them I was coming. But yup ‘just some guy,’" Portnoy responded.
blogTO senior editor Lauren O’Neil told Fox News Digital that she stands by the report.
"We cover news in the City of Toronto and that's all this was -- we had no intentions to make it a Dave Portnoy hit piece. It's all about the pizza. That's what our audience cares about," O’Neil said. "We removed the author's name for their protection after hundreds of lame dudes started harassing her on Twitter, Instagram and through email."
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