Washington Post Admits It Smeared Dave Portnoy Just To Get Barstool Pizzafest Sponsor To Respond

The Washington Post is writing a hit piece on Barstool founder Dave Portnoy. The apparent intention of the piece is to shame sponsors of his upcoming "Pizzafest" into pulling out of the event.

One of the sponsors alerted Portnoy of the outlet's inquiry, reading, to the effect, ‘Dave’s a misogynic racist. Do you want to defend yourselves advertising at this event?’”

Portnoy posted a screenshot of the email on the Barstool blog, showing the exchange between Emily Heil, the paper’s national food writer, and a redacted sponsor:

Portnoy next cold-called Heil about her emails and recorded the video.

"I caught wind The Washington Post is writing a hit piece about me and my Pizzafest, so I did what I do. I went on the offensive," Dave explained to Heil.

“I’m sorry. Who are you?” she asks, unbeknownst Portnoy was aware of her article plans.

"I'm Dave. The guy you are writing about," he responded.

Portnoy questioned why she did not ask him for comment but went to his sponsors instead, to which the "journalist" insisted she had yet to come up with “specific questions” for him.

Oh.

Heil denied that she called Portnoy "misogynic" and "problematic" in her email to the sponsor. Portnoy then read her the email to prove otherwise.

"Well, that email was the most pointed because I was trying to get a response," responded a dishonest Heil.

In other words, Heil admits she slandered Portnoy to increase the chances the sponsor would respond to her email.

Does the Washington Post condone smearing a story subject in order to force a party to respond? Is that common practice at the outlet?

We sought to find out. OutKick emailed the Washington Post asking those very questions. Unfortunately, the outlet has yet to respond.

If it does, we will update the story accordingly.

Portnoy and Heil eventually agreed to speak at length at 10 a.m. on Thursday. However, Heil canceled those plans late Wednesday night, "proposing 5 p.m. instead.”

“I said 10 a.m. or nothing. They refused,” Portnoy commented on X.

Dave Portnoy vs. The Washington Post. (Getty Images)

Notice in her email she didn't ask the sponsor if it thought Dave was "misogynistic." She instead arrested it as a fact.

“The Washington Post, which is a wildly left-leaning publication, you have things you’ve said. You hate Trump. You hate Elon. Not that I’m those people. To think you’re gonna give me a fair shake. I wasn’t born yesterday," said Portnoy.

“Anybody who’s listening to this, to think that you were going to give me a fair chance when you’re leading to our sponsors before you talk to me is crazy."

So true. And it's refreshing to see a hit-piece subject turn the tables on the vultures.

Emily Heil is a smear merchant. She is no different than her colleague Taylor Lorenz.

She set out to ruin Dave's event, pressure sponsors to pull out, and frame him as a bigot without ample evidence.

It’s called tortious interference.

The video, which ultimately exposed Heil, has racked up over 28.5 million views as of publication, a number the hit piece will fail to exceed.