Dave Portnoy shared footage of his “screaming match” with an ABC journalist after the pair clashed over a recent incident in which an antisemitic sign was held up by two college students at the Barstool Sports founder’s Philadelphia bar.
The incident occurred when patrons ordered bottle service at Barstool Sansom Street, a service which includes a personalized sign that was shown and displayed. The customers in question chose to show a sign reading “F*** the Jews.”
The Barstool president said Sunday he would be paying to send the pair involved to the Auschwitz concentration camp so they can learn from their behavior.
Portnoy, who is Jewish, said he wanted to turn the “hideous” incident into a learning experience, admitting it was “cliche and very unlike me.”
In a follow-up post on his X account, Portnoy wrote: “I just got in a screaming match with ABC Philadelphia scumbag reporter who tried to blame me and Barstool and white men for the ‘F*** the Jews’ sign.”
In a subsequent video post, he claimed that ABC Philadelphia had “begged” him to do an interview on the subject.
He went on to say that the reporter assigned to the interview changed at the last minute, and that after a few introductory questions she did “what a media scumbag does.”
He claimed she quoted a professor writing in a “made-up journal” to make the case that “Barstool Sports creates a culture of harassment, and that basically I’m responsible for this happening at my own bar.”
The Independent has contacted ABC 6 for comment.
A clearly irate Portnoy continued: “Oh, you’re saying some liberal college professor said they don’t like Barstool?”
He then cut to footage shot during the interview itself, in which he hit back at the reporter by claiming that the real responsibility for creating hatred lies with “all these colleges who let Jewish kids get harassed on campuses 24/7. I’ve been speaking out about this since it started.”
He asked the journalist: “Who would you say is creating more hate right now in the world: Barstool Sports and white men, or college campuses?”
After she declined to answer, Portnoy angrily closed his laptop to end the interview.
Temple University in Philadelphia has acknowledged that their students were involved in the incident.
In a statement, the University’s President John Fry said: “In the strongest terms possible, let me be clear: antisemitism is abhorrent. It has no place at Temple and acts of hatred and discrimination against any person or persons are not tolerated at this university.
“Our Division of Student Affairs is conducting an investigation related to last night’s incident, and they have identified one Temple student who is believed to have been involved. This individual has already been placed on interim suspension.”
