News of Jimmy Kimmel! being axed for the host’s comments about the death of Charlie Kirk has sparked controversial opinions, one of them being Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy. He posted on Instagram, making his thoughts clear on the late-night show’s removal not being about cancel culture, but about consequences.
“Here is my take on the Kimmel suspension. I think I may be in the minority here but this isn’t a free speech or cancel culture issue for me. This is simply a case of the juice not being worth the squeeze for an employer with an employee causing major headaches with year over year declining ratings in a world where late night tv is being phased out,” he captioned the post.
In the video posted, Portnoy further explains his stance on what he thinks “cancel culture” is and how it plays into the situation.
“To me, this is not cancel culture at all,” said Portnoy.
“What cancel culture is, is when you don’t like someone. Say me. ‘We want to get rid of Dave. So we are going to comb through everything Dave has said for the past 20 years, and we are going to find things we don’t like that don’t fit in this time period,’ whatever. That’s cancel culture to me,” he added.
Portnoy explained in his video that Nexstar’s decision to remove Kimmel from the air isn’t an issue about “free speech,” but “consequences for actions in real time.” He goes on saying that the jokes Kimmel made were simply not in his favor with the higher-ups.
“This is not a free speech issue to me. I have always said to our employees, you can say whatever you want on your personals, but your speech has consequences. If advertisers or people start putting pressure on me because you’re saying things that they don’t like, this is a capitalist market — if the juice isn’t worth the squeeze, decisions have to be made…,” he said.
The Bartstool Sports founder also added that he believes Kimmel’s ratings were down, and was “creating, clearly, headaches for ABC and the affiliate.” He calls Kimmel “not a journalist.”
Portnoy also took to X to address claims that an intern in his company was fired and “yelled at” for sending prayers to Kirk’s family. The post says Barstool Sports has a “no politics” rule that the intern violated, to which Portnoy responded that the rules are set in stone from day one. As well as Portnoy saying the intern fought with people in the comments, and has “no sympathy” for someone who calls him a “fraud.”
