I’m not sure that’s even accurate, though. That podcast is 8 employees calling for accountability. Obviously Chernin/Penn don’t care that Portnoy is a shithead, but I’m not sure that “barstool doesn’t care” is accurate. Like what we talked about yesterday, this is an example of the non-Portnoy content folks.
By employees of a company. Come on Tegg, there's been absolutely no response from the management or ownership of Barstool Sports. Taking the position that Barstool cares about an issue because some of the employees have made some tepid statements is disingenuous. Nobody with power to do anything to Portnoy has done anything but support him.
I never disputed that. I made my points yesterday, and you asked for examples of the non-Portnoy content/calls for accountability. That’s the context of my response here. There’s a whole lot of barstool beyond Portnoy, even if he’s the most forward-facing part. I think there’s confusion, even within Barstool’s management/ownership about what makes it popular. I don’t think it’s the unapologetic/non-P.C. Portnoy shit. That’s not unique. Like Lyrtch said yesterday, he’s likely more in the way of their success at this point than he’s the reason for it.
You and I fundamentally disagree about this: I don't think it's fair to say that Amazon particularly cares about employee safety even though a shitload of the employees do, for example.
The difference being that "Barstool" is made up of content creators. They're much more part of the "Barstool" brand than an Amazon employee is. That the content creators are upset is a good sign and does show that "Barstool doesn't care" isn't quite accurate. Portnoy doesn't care because he's a POS. The CEO doesn't care because that's the business model. And I say that not to defend "Barstool", because I htink it's largely a joke and I consume very little of its content, but their employees represent their brand much more than an Amazon employee does.
These two paragraphs back-to-back make no sense to me. You're saying the company does care because individuals (who have no real power within the company) spoke about it. And yet the company has made very clear that they don't care, by words and by actions. You even point out that it's their business model. How anyone can defend Barstool and claim they care is beyond me, they literally haven't done a single thing to show they care.
My goodness, some of you have lost all sense of reality. Do any of you consume Barstool content or just read the Deadspin-y headlines that they need to write to stay relevant?
barstool has to write deadspin-y headlines to stay relevant? you don’t see the similarities of this to when trump does something stupid like retweet a white supremacist’s account and everyone spends a couple days saying how concerning it is while actually doing nothing until the statue quo is restored and it eventually happens again?
The deadspin types write headlines about Barstool because it generates clicks and discussion. The Samer guy electronic was quoting listened to an hour+ long podcast just to pick and choose how well their black employees criticized their boss. I don’t really see a lot of similarities. They’re breaking down an off the cuff show from 4 years ago where Dave said racist shit. I don’t disagree that it was racist, but wouldn’t there be a lot more examples in the last four years if that was the status quo?
The Barstool brand is more than the company. I think it's fairly easy to see what I'm saying, but maybe not.
shame on us not keeping a running log of what Dave Portnoy said on every appearance he has made on Tucker Carlson the past 4 years
Seems like the content creators care about not being lumped into the super shitty part of the company, yet they won't stand up for themselves or what's right. If you are against something, but are afraid to stand up, you're part of the problem.
I think that a lot of people ITT overestimate Portnoy's involvement in barstool content. A lot of it exists completely independent of him. He's not listening to and editing Spittin' Chiclets and they're not talking about him. A big part of their brand success is that content creators have so much autonomy.
I'm not attempting to be thick here but isn't the Barstool brand the company? What do you mean the brand is more than the company? Regardless, if I have a founder who is a racist asshole and is high ranking in the company, the company should do something abt it. But Barstool isn't and doesn't. So they don't care. A good parallel would be Papa Johns. The owner/CEO was a racist asshole, and he's no longer with the company.
That makes it more cringe-worthy that they aren't willing to get rid of him them. If his involvement is that little then it should be easy to kick him to the curb. But they don't want to, because they clearly don't care.
I don't think you're being thick, I just think we're looking at it from two different angles. I'd say the content creators represent the brand. Portnoy also does. So when I talk about "Barstool", I mean the collective, the brand. I don't mean the company. I think it's obvious that at least part of that collective is upset and does care about how the brand is being represented by its face
That was the worst part of that podcast. Among the people he asked if he should do that was their black female head of security. She said, "man, I wouldn't do that" and he did it anyway.
I guess I am just viewing it from the perspective of a business. If there is an employee in the business that is actively doing/saying racist, asshole things, the business should fire that racist asshole. Hard stop. Barstool continues to employ and support him and continues to give him a platform to do his racist, asshole things. That action (or inaction) shows to me that the company or brand just don't care enough to do anything about it. They are solely focused on making money and that is all.
Though I don't want to get too off-topic here, Clay Travis is still a plagiarizing, no talent assclown.
It’s always baffling to me how the defense of Barstool goes “I only listen to Pardon My Take and agree that Portnoy sucks, BUT!”
What about all the content that Barstool blatantly rips off from other people? He’s always the first guy to say tough shit to the people who want their due credit.
On the social media side? I've discussed that on here before. I'm sure the posts aren't hard to find.
"but understand that the consequences of that will mean that our black coworkers will have to suffer blame, shame, and embarrassment that they don’t deserve and that’s fucked up." Ergo, he should feel like he did something wrong.
i agree with that. dave shouldn't cave to outside pressure if he doesn't really believe he did anything wrong. then barstool can deal with the confirmed knowledge that their boss prioritizes his racism over his staff and it's unlikely a tenable situation for most the staff.
Would be great if some major players actually unionized to see what Portnoy would actually do in that awkward position.
I understand he’s in a precarious situation but there’s a lot of unnecessary qualifiers in there imo. He’s in a position as Barstool’s most beloved staffer to take a hardline position on his boss’s behavior but he hedged instead.
I have a lot of thoughts about that article. The first being that this situation was maybe the most foreseeable thing I’ve ever thought about, so being so caught off guard is pretty lame. I do think PFT is a pretty introspective guy, and this was a good/necessary thing to state publicly. I also think the “I don’t know how to fix it” thing is a total cop out, though, especially to just leave it there. Do some fucking leg work. Talk to people who are affected. See what change you can actually make. This is a good start, but the proof will be what happens next.
I can’t stand this deadspiny barstool slander any longer therefore I will be taking my talents to Old Row.
PFT imo stupidly has some loyalty to Dave vs realizing he brought far more to barstool than what they gave him. Saying the situation isn't long term tenable is for him pretty stark language.