What did Dave Portnoy say about facing daily antisemitic attacks?

Barstool Sports' creator, Dave Portnoy, talked about the surge in hateful anti-Jewish comments he's getting online - lately, it's gotten way worse. In a sneak peek from his interview with CBS reporter Tony Dokoupil, Portnoy said there's been a clear change in how people talk, explaining that nasty remarks used to pop up every now and then, but these days they show up almost daily.

His words arrive as more folks worry about hate spreading fast and divisions deepening nationwide.

In his words (via New York Post):

"I've seen in my own experience, just being Barstool, the difference between how much hate I get. I never got, I mean, occasionally you get 'hey k**e' or 'Jew' or whatever. It's every day now. There’s a definitive shift in what's going on."

Dave Portnoy opens up about facing antisemitic hate and why he feels obligated to speak out against it

In the same interview, Dave Portnoy says his sense of duty to speak up is swelling as hatred, both observed and personally endured, has been on the rise. The Barstool Sports founder, whose bite‑sized "One Bite" pizza critiques have gone viral and amassed a following, noted that being a public figure obliges him to confront such incidents head‑on rather than look away. He said (via CBS News): 

"For me, being a Jewish person, like, you got to step up. You're kind of someone people look up to in the Jewish community. You have to be, like, 'All right, this is not normal ha-ha with the guys. People are coming up with real hate.' "

His stance follows an episode in Starkville, Mississippi, where a passerby hurled a slur at him while he was filming near Boardtown Pizza. The outburst instantly provoked an instinctive reaction from the surrounding crowd; a handful of onlookers stepped forward, confronting the heckler in Portnoy's defence.

The incident, captured on video, marks the time this year that Portnoy has been subjected to such harassment; another eerily similar episode unfolded during a summer shoot in Toronto. Reflecting on these encounters, he noted that they have outgrown the realm of jokes or casual mockery, instead flagging a deeper, more virulent strain of hate that is now alarmingly visible in everyday public spaces.

Portnoy remarked that he regards it as his responsibility to wield his platform to denounce conduct and to maintain a stance against it, especially now that overt displays of prejudice seem to be on the rise.

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