I have a whole lot of thoughts about all of this, but I realize that I only consume a small, targeted portion of Barstool content. The company itself fascinates me from a business case perspective and how they're growing in the new media landscape, and I think in 5 years we'll be looking back in awe of how they've grown.
Beyond that there isn't a lot of there there unless you want to go full on meathead.
I disagree with this. I personally listen to/follow Pardon My Take, Spittin Chiclets, Fore Play, and KFC Radio, which is just a small portion of the content they produce. None of that is "bro" culture or meathead or anything like their typical reputation. Just people talking about sports I like, or life in general while being funny. Beyond that, there's Chicks in the Office, there's the Barstool Radio shows (which is a crazy diverse lineup), there's 2 different baseball podcasts (ok..Carrabis is kind of a meathead), there's Zero Blog Thirty, there's the fashion podcast they do (I forget the name), and then there's a bunch of meathead bloggers too as well. But it depends how you consume them. There social media content is focused on young people (naturally) and is way more meathead, but also mocks it. Their blogs are just...there. Their podcasts are certainly much more mainstream focused.
It's tough criticizing his way of thinking since obviously he's been successful and is set for life now but I can't help but think of how much money he's cost himself and his employees with his attitude. Barstool Van Talk being the best example that we know about. He's burned a lot of bridges.
I disagree here too. They went from a $10m company to a $100m company in less than two years. I think they actually benefited from BVT being canceled in multiple ways. ESPN looked stupid, they realized traditional TV might not be the way to go, and the PMT guys are openly honest that they're ultimately thrilled it got canceled (once they got past the embarrassment of it) because they really underestimated how much work it was going to be. PFT was on the Evening Yak Sirius show last night with Carrabis and Hank and got pretty open and honest about this topic, among a lot of other things as well. I think BVT getting canceled was a blessing in disguise, long term.
For this Chloe Kim topic - it's a guy on Dallas Braden's brand new radio show that I've literally never heard of before. He's been suspended from the show (by Dallas Braden himself, not Portnoy or management) and they've actually handled the situation pretty well in my opinion. As they expand into radio, they're going to have more of these moments where people try to fill time or try to be funny and cross the line, so they're gonna have to figure out a way to handle it.
Lastly, and I know this was a long post, but today's KFC radio podcast was very interesting in light of this discussion. They go into about a 25 min convo about the definition of masculinity and being a "bro" in response to Michael Ian Black's twitter thread about the Florida school shootings. It's exactly the opposite of the traditional portrayal of Barstool's culture, which is interesting coming from 2 of the longest tenured employees at the company. What's also interesting though is how they discuss Portnoy and how he does fit into that "bro/alpha mentality" as well. It's pretty quick - I encourage everyone to take a listen for themselves.
https://app.stitcher.com/splayer/f/37886/53344063
Here's the twitter thread: