Ad Disclosure
The Big Story on Action News is Barstool’s Dave Portnoy Calling Out Channel 6 for “Bait and Switch” Interview (UPDATED)
Published:
THE BIG STORY ON ACTION NEWS is Dave Portnoy alleging that 6 ABC pulled some kind of bait and switch and went after Barstool while he was being interviewed about this past weekend’s “fuck the Jews” bottle service incident:
We don’t actually hear the question the Action News reporter asked Portnoy, and I don’t recognize the voice from what little I can discern, but the story published on the web is attributed to Katie Katro* and the voice in the recording is female. So do with that information what you will. Maybe we fire up the ole’ television here in an effort to confirm.**
The CliffsNotes is that Portnoy is saying that Channel 6 made some sort of suggestion or allegation that Barstool is problematic and/or contributes to toxic bro behavior coming from white men. That seems to be attributed to some professors at some undisclosed university (I believe she’s saying UVA in the video, University of Virginia).
Says Portnoy: “they say that Barstool Sports creates a culture of harassment, and basically that I’m responsible for this happening at my own bar…”
In a separate tweet he says “…I just got in a screaming match with ABC Philadelphia scumbag reporter who tried to blame me and Barstool and white men for the “Fuck the Jews” sign.“
If anyone at Action News wants to respond or share their side of the story, just get in touch with us. I know you rarely respond to PR requests because there’s a Disney/family image to protect, but we will happily share whatever you want to say because we’re fair and balanced.
*EDIT – think it’s worth pointing out, that at least in that Action News web story, there’s nothing accusatory aimed at Barstool. it’s just a straightforward news piece with quotes and whatnot. whatever that exchange was in Portnoy’s video, it’s not represented in the digital writeup
**EDIT 2 – Okay, so here’s where we’re at. The Katie Katro web story is a writeup from the Sunday night broadcast, published at some point Monday morning before this Portnoy thing was recorded. He’s on the west coast, three hours behind, so the interview was done at some point after the Monday morning news, before the noon show. The quotes in the Katro story look like they’re from Portnoy’s initial video message, posted on Sunday. It looks like ABC didn’t actually do anything with this new interview, at least not yet. We’ll have to pull up the 4pm news and see if there’s a different reporter fronting a package or a live shot.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com