Dave Portnoy Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Barstool SportsPoliticsBy Ben Axelrod on

On Monday night, the New York Post reported that Barstool Sports CEO Erika Ayers Badan is leaving the company.

The following day, Ayers Badan (formerly Nardini) posted a video message confirming the news, making it clear that she was leaving the company on good terms.

But while most Barstool employees spent the day celebrating Ayers Badan’s seven-plus year run at the company, founder Dave Portnoy also used it as an opportunity to take aim at the reporting regarding her departure. In particular, “El Presidente” took issue with Ryan Glasspiegel — who co-authored the Post‘s report with Andrew Marchand — reaching out to him for comment before publishing the story 19 minutes later. The report noted that Ayers Badan and Portnoy couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

“I hate the media so much. You should have your head cut off when you say you reached out for comment and I didn’t respond when you gave me 19 minutes to respond,” Portnoy wrote, while attaching a screenshot of Glasspiegel’s direct message to him.

Portnoy later added, “By the way this wasn’t some huge secret. I just HATE when reporters say they asked for comment cause they were taught that in Big J school but don’t actually care about your comment. Just don’t say you asked me when you publish 19 minutes after DM’ing me.”

Unsurprisingly, Portnoy’s criticism served as red meat to Republicans, who were eager air their own grievances with the media.

As for the actual criticism, it’s hard to understand what Portnoy is actually taking issue with here. Had the Post‘s story only said that Ayers Badan and Portnoy couldn’t have been reached for comment, that would have been one thing. But by using the qualifier of “immediately,” the story made it clear that it had only been a short time — 19 minutes, even — since they had been contacted.

While not necessarily ideal, such is life in the world of breaking news and, if anything, Glasspiegel deserves credit for attempting to get a comment. Ultimately, the Post was confident enough in its reporting — which was accurate — that it was comfortable moving forward with the story before hearing back from Portnoy, whose comment would have only been ancillary to the news of Ayers Badan’s departure.

About Ben Axelrod

Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.

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