A federal judge in Boston this week dismissed Barstool Sports publisher David Portnoy's lawsuit against another Web site that accused him of manhandling women during sex, ruling that as a public figure, he had to prove malice but he failed to do so. Read more.
Barstool Sports
Barstool Sports founder David Portnoy today sued a news site that wrote last fall that he engaged in violent, scary sex with young women even though, he charges, it and its reporters knew that simply isn't true. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court today dismissed Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone's lawsuit against a New York blog and one of its writers under the state wiretap law, because the guy asked if he could record a phone "interview" with Curtatone, and the wiretap law only bars "secretly" recorded conversations. Read more.
Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone sued Barstool Sports and contributor Kirk Minihane today for an interview about the Barstool/Bruins towel controversy he claims Minihane conducted without his permission - while pretending to be the Globe's Kevin Cullen. Read more.
And is moving to Manhattan (put the earbuds in if you play the video at work, unless, of course, you work at Barstool).
David Portnoy is staying on as El Presidente.
You may have seen the video of Gov. Baker doing the ice-water challenge yesterday. You may have noticed the Free Brady T-shirt he was wearing.
What you might not have seen was the seething anger that unleashed at Barstool Sports, where founder David Portnoy and his toadies unleashed a torrent of angry tweets at both Baker and Pete Frates - the guy who came up with the whole ice challenge, the guy who himself has ALS and who can no longer walk, speak or even swallow - because the Free Brady shirt was a knock off, not one of Barstool's own line of Free Brady shirts. How dare the governor do that when Barstool is local and Portnoy says he came up with the idea?!? Even worse: How could Frates possibly have let the governor do that?
But don't worry: Boston Magazine, which captured all the hate tweets, reports Baker apologized and he and Portnoy are now planning to share an ice-cream soda or something again.
Our own Barstool Sports is suing a California company that claims it holds a trademark on the phrase "Back to Back World War Champs" before that company can sue Barstool. Read more.
The Herald reports Barstool Sports will be moving its college Blackout parties somewhere more festive, like Worcester, after state and local authorities let in only 500 of the 2,000 or so people who'd paid for tickets for a BC party at the House of Blues, for some like totally bogus reasons, like, oh, the 300 fake IDs collected by state inspectors.
So David Portnoy tells the Globe's Joanna Weiss how he was moved by tales of sexual assault at a rally against his Blackout party:
Portnoy showed up, intending to take the microphone himself and offer a half-satirical, half-serious response: Naming a few comedians, for instance, who have joked about rape, with little consequence. But then he saw that women were sharing real, painful stories about sexual assault. So instead, he stayed silent, and watched.
“It was kind of emotional," Portnoy told me last week. "We're just as anti-rape as they are ... It's not our intent, with jokes, to poke fun at rape victims."
Aw, brings a tear to the eye, it does. Unfortunately, Portnoy's own video shows a different story: He went up front, did some bla-bla-bla hand motions as protesters cursed him out, then finally got shouted out of the rally. Just like organizers of the event described:
The Huntington News reports at least three students got in a touch of trouble before they ever got to Barstool Sports' Northeastern Blackout shindig at the House of Blues, including two found on Columbus Avenue:
Not everybody at Northeastern will attend Barstool Sports' Blackout Party for Northeastern at the House of Blues on Thursday.
A group called Knock Out Barstool plans a protest march outside the House of Blues at 7:30 that night:
A couple of Staties visited David Portnoy of Barstool Sports and suggested it might be best for all concerned if he took down the nekkid photos of the Brady kid, if you know what they mean, and they think you do, so he did. At least, for today.
David Portnoy at Barstool Sports discusses how Glenn Ordway tries to get me murdered (literally) over Brady Babygate.
The page at the center of it all (contains photo of naked kid).
When Ordway went after Universal Hub - no calls to murder, though.