Dave Portnoy: Barstool is no longer an underdog, but still isn’t mainstream media

Dave Portnoy has been making the rounds to promote his new book recently, dropping various insights and nuggets about Barstool Sports’ past, present, and future along the way.

In an interview with PBS News, Portnoy discussed how he no longer sees the prominent sports and bro culture brand as an underdog, but bristles at the idea that it’s now considered mainstream.

As part of a wide-ranging interview, Settle In host Amna Nawaz said that she is struck by how Portnoy still seems to see himself as an underdog despite his personal success and the success of the Barstool brand, citing the many criticisms and controversies he seemed to be constantly weathering.

Portnoy started by noting that even this interview makes his heart “start beating a little bit quicker” because “it brings up some of the stuff that drives me insane, like the Business Insider [story] and things that have been said.”

“Things have been done to me that’s so wrong and dirty with the mainstream media that I get upset even talking about it, still drives me nuts,” he said. “So, it’s not the underdog, because I know we’re not. And in fact, even we’ll maybe see with this book, I used to be able to drive people to go drink this, go do this when we’re more on the up. Now it’s harder because we’ve made it, and people see my lifestyle and how it’s like, ‘we don’t necessarily need to support Dave.’

“So it’s not the underdog, but I don’t like being done wrong, and it still upsets me some of the things that I feel I’ve been really wronged over the course of my career.”

Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) says Barstool Sports does not carry “the same weight” as the established, mainstream media.

“The main Barstool stuff is still, generally, 98% of the time, meant to make you laugh,” he told PBS News’ @RealAmnaNawaz. “It is sort of a comedy brand.”… pic.twitter.com/Fy3bLnBV2p

— PBS News (@NewsHour) July 3, 2026

Nawaz then asked Portnoy if he and Barstool, which garner millions of viewers, podcast listeners, and readers each day, are part of that mainstream media now.

“If you say Barstool says something versus CNN, NPR, New York Times, Washington Post, that doesn’t, like, hit. We’re different,” said Portnoy. “I certainly do the politics, but the main Barstool stuff is still, generally 98% of the time, meant to make you laugh. Like, it is sort of a comedy brand. I’ve gotten bigger. Politics, I’ve said, stay out of it. I get so wrapped up in it that sometimes I don’t follow my own advice. And we’ve become big enough where it’s like, okay, what’s the worst that can happen?

“When you say mainstream media, seeing a quote from Barstool still does not carry for most people the same weight, I don’t think, as like established blue blood-type news organizations. Nor should it, really.”

Portnoy is right in a sense, though the specifics between the question asked and the answer given leave some grey area. Yes, from a news perspective, very few people look to Barstool as a breaking news resource. So in that sense, it’s not a mainstream media news source.

It’s obvious that the Barstool owner also harbors bitterness toward various stories from “mainstream media” sources that were critical or accusatory, and would want to distance himself from that.

However, for better or worse, the mainstreaming of Barstool has been hard not to notice in recent years, especially given certain cultural and political influences. Portnoy has interviewed Donald Trump and regularly appeared on cable news networks. Barstool and Fox Sports have an ongoing partnership that has put their programming on national airwaves and banked on Portnoy’s visibility to drive audiences. The company has been a dominant force in the podcasting world and helped create some of the biggest names in the modern media landscape (Pat McAfee, Alex Cooper, etc.). Even Portnoy’s appearance on PBS says something about his, and Barstool’s, mainstream appeal.

It’s a semantic difference, and one that Portnoy employs several times during the interview. It’s also the kind of mythology that makes Portnoy and Barstool appealing to their audience: An anti-mainstream mentality even when they’re very much in the mainstream.