On Thursday, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy slammed Forbes for an apparent “incoming hit piece” on the 43-year-old, a day after a video of Portnoy criticizing excessive and indefinite lockdown measures went viral.
“We’re writing up a story on your video and wanted to reach out for comment before we publish,” an apparent email from Forbes reporter Jack Brewster said. “In the story we point out that [Dr. Anthony] Fauci’s comments were slightly more nuanced than your characterization and wanted to make sure to give you a chance to clarify.”
“Was that a question or just clarifying an upcoming hit piece is coming?” Portnoy responded to the email.
On Thursday, the businessman posted a screenshot of the exchange to Twitter, adding the caption, “I got to be honest. This doesn’t seem like fair reporting [Forbes].”
I got to be honest. This doesn’t seem like fair reporting @Forbes pic.twitter.com/tZbLsQZa5R
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) May 15, 2020
During the monologue, Portnoy questioned Fauci warning against a reopening, claiming it would cause death and destruction.
“What the f*** is going on?” he started the video. “When did this become, ‘flatten the curve’, ‘flatten the curve’, ‘flatten the curve’, to we have to find a cure or everyone is gonna die?”
“Like, [Dr. Anthony] Fauci, seems like a nice enough dude, I was always like, this guy has no agenda … [He] gets in front of the Senate, he’s like, we’re reopening the country too fast everyone’s dead,” Portnoy said. “Where’d that come from?”
Dr. Fauci, a key member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, recently warned opening “too early” — though it’s been weeks since the White House’s “15 Days to Stop the Spread” has lapsed — would lead to “needless suffering and death.”
“If we skip over the checkpoints in the guidelines to: ‘Open America Again,’ then we risk the danger of multiple outbreaks throughout the country,” he said in an email to The New York Times. “This will not only result in needless suffering and death, but would actually set us back on our quest to return to normal.”
“What I’ve expressed then and again is my concern that if some areas, cities, states, what have you, jump over those various checkpoints and prematurely open up without having the capability of being able to respond effectively and efficiently, my concern is that we will start to see little spikes that might turn into outbreaks,” Fauci similarly told the Senate.
Portnoy’s speech noted that indefinite shutdown orders would destroy businesses, which it has already. Over 36 million Americans have filed unemployment claims since widespread shutdown orders were implemented in mid-March.
“And what about people who own businesses,” he said. “You can’t say closed indefinitely. Imagine working for a year, five years, ten years, two decades, grinding your fingers to the bone to build your businesses — Barstool, thank God, will be alright — I’m talking about other businesses. People who have jobs and have worked their whole f***ing lives to put food on the table and create a happy living. They’re just gonna go out of business? They’re just gonna wake up whenever this thing ends, when the mayors say them they can go back to work? Work to what? Your company is gonna be out of business, the economy is gonna be in the s***er, there’s gonna be no jobs, how the f*** are you gonna pay for your family, put food on the table, all that s***? What are you doing? You gotta give these people a choice.”
“If you told me, because of corona, I lost Barstool, I had to get a nine-to-five and start f***ing over, I’d rather die of corona, seriously, or at least take my chances,” continued Portnoy. “I’m not saying everyone would do that. I would. But if I’ve dedicated 20 years of my life, I don’t wanna start over. I’ll f***ing deal with corona. You can’t just make everybody stay inside and basically start over. It’s insane. Like, what the f*** do they think is gonna happen?”
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