Barstool fired blogger for mocking missing U of Utah student

Thank you, @Raven. It took years of therapy but I'm almost over it.

Denton had a massive, strange sculpture hanging in his living room. It was made of, like, 10,000 pieces of styrofoam, like a mobile, and the closest thing I can say it resembled was the Death Star. It was huge, maybe six or eight feet across. I was going to stand there and start pulling pieces off it and tossing them to the ground to see if anybody would say boo to me. I was there as a guest—it was a book launch for a friend, and he had begged me not to fight anybody—so I decided against being a vandal, but I definitely walked around cock-first, hoping to provoke. Nothing. That gang was vicious with their keyboards, but in the flesh, they were, and I imagine still are, a bunch of cowering, stammering simps.

 

That's some restraint right there. I don't really know you, but given the crap they gave you over the years (and your predilection for violence/crossthread) this really seems like a missed opportunity to smack some faces.

 

I made an agreement with my friend that I wouldn't start a fight. I would be allowed to continue a fight. I honoured that agreement.

The most satisfying part of an unsatisfying evening, maybe, was when their media reporter, JK Trotter, emailed me after to ask me about the scene that surely ensued. (There had been much Twitter banter when my name had shown up on the guest list.) I told him that nobody said anything. He couldn't believe it. I told him something like, "These are the people you work with. These are your friends."

Daulerio wasn't there. I think he might have been the one to take me up.

 

Cocaine's a hell of a drug.

 

Of course none of the above is true about Barstool/Portnoy but I don't blame those of you who are unfamiliar with the site and just believe what you read in Deadspin and other media. I think people want to equate Portnoy with Howard Stern who was a racist and misogynist who used Robin Givens for cover.

I think part of the confusion is the comment section which attracted racists. But all open comment sections attract racists when the stories are about black people, be it ESPN back in the day, or the Daily Breeze. Barstool being about sports and culture had many such stories.

I give Portnoy credit by addressing the problem and limiting comments to paid subscribers only, which most certainly cut page views.

Non-Barstool related. Going back to the murdered woman, if you read between the lines or go to the tabloid media apparently whatever else she was, she was a prostitute who made a date with her murderer, a man she never met, at a public park at 2:00 AM. If this was a black or male celebrity, that part certainly would not have been (oops can't use the b.. word here).

 

How often do you get into fights with reporters?

 

LOLOLOLOLOLOL. Yes, Portnoy is just an innocent bystander in all of this, who are you kidding?

Most of the confusion stems from the fact that Portnoy himself has repeatedly going on his many platforms and spewed ignorant filth at many female journalists, including ESPN's Sam Ponder and Deadspin's Laura Wagner, which in turn emboldened his army of knuckle-dragging frat shitheads to target those women on social media and through their email inbox.

The popularity of everything on Barstool will never cease to amaze me. The content is garbage and the "personalities" are complete turds that most reasonable people would attempt to get away from if they started talking with you at a party.

But, hey, no one ever went broke underestimating the stupidity of the general public. Christ.

 

And only the latter is honest.

 

Wouldn't 500 YF posts on here suffice?

 

I was getting close to including SJ threads, believe me. Fifty is a lot.

 

What’s the requirement in Canada? You know hockey is a sport and you have to smile when you affirm that?

 

What interested me about the firing of Francis Ellis is that he was the only actual frat bro to work for the company. He is a Harvard graduate who was a blonde lacrosse player from a rich family in Maine. He always had a smirking "I am above all this" vibe. He was very talented but somewhat out of place with his Lampoon sensibilities in a Mad Magazine culture. I enjoyed his piano bar videos which have been scrubbed from the internet.

What has not been addressed, either by him or his critics is the reason he made his post. I am a Barstool fan and check the site a couple of times a day so I am going to venture a guess here.

He was high as fuck.

Barstool is the only semi-mainstream sports/entertainment site that authentically deals with marijuana use. Francis showed up at one event, glassy eyed and bragging about his consumption of edibles.