Is political incorrectness by a sports website scandalous enough to merit major media coverage? NBC News seems to believe so.
Using Antonio Brown’s release from the New England Patriots as the hook for a laundry list of Barstool’s politically incorrect content, NBC published an article bashing Barstool Sports for their “chauvinistic,” “conservative” and anti-“progressive ideas.” The smear was published on college gameday, probably to give it a small chance to take off before Barstool’s loyal flans — “stoolies” — found the comment section.
How did Barstool Sports President Dave Portnoy respond to the hit? “Not now woman. Football on. Me need touchdown, beer, wings, raw meat.” A very on-brand response for Portnoy.
The article’s hook wasn’t even directed at Barstool as a company. Rather, author Shannon Ho targeted fans who commented on Barstool’s post about Brown’s release from the Patriots, writing, “It was the comments on that [Barstool blog] that told the real story.”
The Barstool post Ho referenced included commentary on allegations against Brown: “This is one of those situations that, as it unfolds and information comes out, the last thing you want to be in on the wrong side of a snap judgement. Unless you’re someone who doesn’t care about being wrong, you just want to be first. In which case you’re a maniac.”
Barstool has produced tons of controversial content, from rating student-teacher abuse scandals by how attractive the offending teachers were to monetizing Portnoy’s arrest at an NFL conference. Considering all of Barstool’s content over the past 10 years, it’s strange that a mild post about Brown was the straw that ultimately broke the proverbial camel’s back, giving uptight journalists a reason to attack Barstool’s success and its fans.
Another thing NBC’s Ho took issue with? Barstool’s “smokeshow” section, which features scantily-clad women. Ho called it a “chauvinistic … subset of Barstool Sports that’s dedicated to posting hypersexualized photos of women.”
In any other context, NBC would denounce this attack as “slut shaming.” When women choose to pose for photos of themselves in revealing clothing for magazines or for social media, it’s “empowering.” When they do it for Barstool, NBC would have us believe, it somehow becomes wrong and chauvinistic.
Barstool CEO Erika Nardini isn’t interested in NBC’s ‘dangerous masculinity’ warning. Responding on Twitter Nardini said, “Female leadership team, #1 female podcast in the world, break out female stars, 60%+ female audiences on new platforms. @NBCNews here’s your fact check. You’re welcome.”
Numbers speaks louder than virtue-signaling opinion articles. Traditional TV viewership is dropping as millennials and younger generations look for news and media content from websites like Barstool. It makes sense that NBC is worried about competing for viewers.
As Barstool’s Keith Markovich pointed out in another post, this is the same company that tried to hide allegations of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein and allowed weirdo Matt Lauer to keep a secret button under his desk in order to lock women in his office.
People who are committed to making politically correct language the standard for entertainment hate that so many Americans love Barstool. They hate that Barstool isn’t playing the virtue-signaling game, and they hate that people like a company for entertaining them instead of giving a “wokeness” lesson in every blog post.
It’s clear that any good, decent person should hate Barstool’s humor and sports coverage, and instead give their time to righteous news organizations like NBC. Jokes aren’t funny, and you better remember that.
Patricia Patnode (@IdealPatricia) is the outreach director for Lone Conservative, a website dedicated to giving conservative college students a voice.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.