Dave Portnoy, the founder of sports news and entertainment outlet Barstool Sports, said he refuses to hire graduates from schools like Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) due to their presidents refusing to affirm that calling for the genocide of Jews constitutes “bullying and harassment.”
“It’s common sense,” Portnoy said in a Monday appearance on Fox Business to host Stuart Varney. “There’s a difference between free speech and hate speech,” he went on. “And when you’re endangering people and causing harm, I think you got to put a stop to it.”
Learn the benefits of becoming a Valuetainment Member and subscribe today!
Presidents Claudine Gay (Harvard), Sally Kornbluth (MIT), and Liz Magill (UPenn) were questioned over their universities’ harassment protocols by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) last Tuesday, leading to a viral exchange which Stefanik uploaded to X. “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment?” Stefanik asked each of the presidents. All three responded with a variation of, “it’s context-dependent.”
Portnoy, himself Jewish, had first made this announcement on his Instagram last week in response to the infamous Congressional testimony (which has garnered tens of millions of views and was reposted by Israel’s official X account). “That is calling for the murder of myself, my parents and my entire family,” Portnoy wrote. “And these ‘leaders’ refuse to condemn this as hate speech on their campuses? … Not that this will make a huge difference but moving forward I will not hire any student who graduates from any of these schools until these Deans step down.”
Just to reiterate I will never hire a Harvard Grad again. Your diploma is useless to me. The entire country should do the same. pic.twitter.com/X76ZMuSPAl
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) December 12, 2023
Following backlash from the testimony, UPenn President Liz Magill resigned on Saturday, Dec. 9th. UPenn’s Board of Trustees claimed her departure was voluntary, and announced that Magill would stay on the university’s body of law school tenured faculty members.
Meanwhile, Harvard President Claudine Gay seems to have plagiarized parts of her PhD thesis. Despite this and her comments in Congress, Harvard announced that it had decided to permit Gay to remain as President. “In this tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously stand in support of President Gay,” the school’s leadership wrote.
The Harvard Corporation: “In this tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously stand in support of President Gay.” https://t.co/stSvH4t1BP
— Harvard University (@Harvard) December 12, 2023
Portnoy said he stands against speech condoning genocide of any form. “I don’t know how, if you can’t condemn genocide, I don’t care whether we’re talking Jews, Muslims, any group of people, then you don’t deserve to be in a position of power. You got to get out,” he said.
As Valuetainment previously reported, Portnoy initiated the sale of Barstool in 2016 and completed it in 2020 for $551 million. After the buyer, Penn National Gaming, failed to succeed in its strategy to leverage the company for the profits of its gambling operation, Portnoy bought Barstool back for $1. At the time of the purchase, Portnoy said Barstool would be returning to its politically incorrect roots, and that it would be around for “another 20 years, 30 years.”
“For the first time in forever, we don’t have to watch what we say, how we talk, what we do.” Portnoy said. “It’s back to the pirate ship. By the way, I’m never going to sell Barstool Sports. Ever.”
Add comment