The best defense

Dave Portnoy schools us all in how to handle media operating in bad faith

1. ) How to deal with smarmy media tactics.

Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports went on the offensive when he got word a WaPo reporter was planning a hit piece on him.

He obtained an email she was sending to sponsors participating in his “One Bite Pizza Festival.” It asked them why they were supporting a person with a “history of misogynistic comments and other problematic behavior.” Portnoy called reporter Emily Heil, and recorded their call. It’s worth listening to the entire thing. After first denying that she criticized him to sponsors, Heil then called her email “a reporting tactic.” 

She claimed WaPo planned to reach out to him the next day, and he pointed out that they seemed to have their minds made up well before any interview with him. They did schedule an interview for the next morning … and then the Post canceled. 

They ran the story anyway, without Portnoy’s interview … and when they shared it on X (formerly Twitter), the community quickly checked them.

And that’s how it’s done. 

2.) The real privilege

A new book, The Two-Parent Privilege, reviewed in The National Review, lays out the data proving that one of the biggest advantages kids can have – more than race, more than gender – is growing up in a two-parent household. It shows that Americans started falling behind when more and more children began to be raised in single-parent, usually single-mother, households. 

3.) And finally, some good news

In a media world that seems to love their doom and gloom, here’s a bit of good news. Figures released by a rhino conservation group indicate that the global rhino population increased to about 27,000 from 26,272 in 2021. Southern white rhino numbers increased for the first time since 2012. Not everything is going extinct.