Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy sat down with Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson for an hour-long interview for Tucker Carlson Today. Among the topics discussed was the hot-button issue of “cancel culture,” and how it has affected Portnoy and the company.
“Ninety-nine percent of the people I see are super friendly,” Portnoy said. “The people who don’t like me, I probably wouldn’t like them first. To me, they’re losers and they’re crazy people.”
The Massachusetts native, who goes by the online moniker “El Presidente,” mentioned he believes the fact that Barstool identifies as counterculture has allowed it to withstand attacks from its adversaries.
“We have built and benefited in a way because the counterculture who likes us feels emboldened.”
That idea is proven regularly on social media as Barstool appears to be less of a media entity, and more of a lifestyle. “Stoolies” as the company’s passionate fans are called, not only don the apparel and fly the flag outside of their home, but often seem to be waiting at the guard on Twitter to take up for Portnoy and other popular figures at the company. Essentially, if ESPN is the institution, then Barstool is the revolution.
Portnoy’s bombastic nature and willingness to engage in the occasional coarse discourse on Twitter has brought on detractors from other media groups. He pointed to the way he has been covered in columns, saying readers should do more research into his background before making judgements on the media head.
“Just because somebody says something about a person or whatever, I dig into it, rather than just trust somebody,” Portnoy said. “We have probably four to six articles that have been written about me, that if I read them, without knowing myself and just trusted it, I’d be like, ‘this guy’s the next Hitler.’ I would honestly believe that if I read it.”
Barstool received universal praise in the last few months after raising nearly $30 million for small businesses in need due to lost revenue after the hit of Covid. Portnoy led from the front by donating $500,000 to the fund himself, but made it clear to Carlson he will not be venturing into politics anytime soon.
“I would never run for office, ever in a bazillion years.”