So I misspoke. I stand corrected. I talked about something last week about a guy named Dave Portnoy. He's very irreverent, very unapologetic, very in your face, really definitely unsolicited opinions and clickbit like shock, like a you know, designed to shock.
As Howard Stern has evolved into his phase of life of talking to Seth Myers or Bradley Cooper or Jennifer Aniston or Sarah Jessica Parker, Dave Portnoy is like in a in a direction that even Howard Stern wasn't in with like this this like real like oh tell us, like female anti female culture. So I know him as I mentioned to you, and he's been on this podcast, and I texted him at one o'clock in the morning, which he had to mention on his podcast the timing
as if it was sort of charged or nuanced. But at one o'clock in the morning, I got home from taking my daughter to a place an hour and a half away in Southington, Connecticut, where this restaurant is completely filled with lights, And while I was there, I got some texts and messages saying, did you know that this guy Dave Portnoy called Rachel from Van der Pumper Rules a trash bag, and I think you should say something,
even if you do it privately. So it's interesting that this ended up coming to pass because they said even if you do it privately. So I privately said do you know her? Because I thought if he knows her, then what the hell you know? Then he has his own opinion, and he said something and he said he didn't know her, only what he's seen on TV, and that she gave up a dog from a shelter and
that it's a good thing. He's not in the you know, in the business of caring what other people think, because I had said it's my opinion that he should apologize. So then I did a podcast talking about the fact that he broke up with his girlfriend. She's a TikTok star. She's a pretty young girl who has a good engagement and like talks about beauty and now breakups and she
just seems like a nice girl. And he did not speak poorly of her in talking about their breakup on his podcast, and he did reference the story with me, and he did. I thought that he hadn't doubled down and called Rachel a trash back bag this account, you know what, pointed out that he in fact did not only double down, but triple down because he called her a trash bag a couple of times, and then he said he talked about the situation with me, but I
had only seen clips online. I hadn't listened to the whole podcast, so because I don't listen to the podcast, and I thought it was a random shot that he fired, just calling her trash bag based on how she was quote unquote portrayed and a produced, edited, alcohol fueled, infidelity fueled show, and so on his show, his co host Brianna called her called Rachel a scumbag. I was later told that she kind of always says that she's said on other podcasts that she's never been faithful to a
boyfriend or I'm paraphrasing or something about infidelity. That's a but Brianna called Rachel a trash bag, and like, why do I care? I'm thinking about that, And Dave said, like, know your audience and about me. You know, who the fuck do you think you are? Or who the fuck does she think she is? And so I wasn't going to respond to it because I don't need to add fuel to his fire, and I presume that his shock
nature is designed for clickbait. And because I thought that I sort of foe knew him that just texting him in a very respectful way and then being very respectful about him on this podcast, that it wouldn't mean that he would go to the mattresses, and not because I'm afraid to throw down with anyone, because I'm not unlike him. I'm unafraid. I just don't go to a place where
I'm gonna be nasty and just fire random shots. And I'm not going to say about Dave Portner, who the fuck does he think he is, because it's just it's that intelligent way of communicating, just to call someone a trash bag, and then who the fuck does this person think they are? You're not really communicating, You're just sort of throwing out, you know, shocking things that you're saying, so then someone might be provoked or write about it, or someone might say something mean back to you. And
that's what goes on now with politics. It's just a lot of abuse. And so it was interesting to me because Dave mischaracterized my text to him by saying that, and I said that he owed her an apology. And I'm very particular about my words because I never said to Dave by text or in any other way, and I won't read the text because I have a code about reading other people's texts specifically or showing or screen grabbing.
But I did not say, you guys know no matter what, I know what I say and I mean what I say. I say what I mean, and I know what I said. I've been doing that for years on television. I said, it is my opinion that you should apologize. And he said on his show that I said, you owe her an apology, and I'll fucking owe her anything. I didn't
say he owed her an apology. Also, he said that he's not one to give unsolicited advice, you know, And he reached out to me when I did a story with Business Insider and I loved the story or talked to one of their reporters, I think it was, and he reached out to me to basically give me his unsolicited opinion that the guy at the magazine was an asshole and did a hit piece on him. And for those of you who don't know, Dave Portnoy had a big piece on him in Business Insider about being either
sexually degrading or demoralizing or abusive to women. And he really every day did these emergency press conferences talking about it. And then he I think, then I know went after Business Insider legally, and he recently dropped his lawsuit against them, So that was a big thing. And that's also like a lot of public and clickbait, and you know, it
was written about a lot. And so what I struggle with, though, is a man who himself has claimed to have been mischaracterized and portrayed in a negative light by a journalist and by a publication, so by the media, by a medium of form of communicating to the public about someone.
We get that every day. We see it on social media, we see it in the press, we see it on the news the way we're being communicated to, and we see it on reality TV, something that is designed to be put out there, to be marketed, to be digested by the American public. And vander Prompt Rules was the highest rated show they've probably ever seen and a phenomenon, and the show was going to be canceled, and these ratings revitalized a show that had been coasting and gave
it a whole new life. Of course, if you want to rate, you have to inflate. You've got to I mean, I've been in the process, and as I told Dave, I'm an expert on this topic. Matt pounding my chest, I didn't invent reality TV. I've done more than ten reality shows. I know. I've produced them, I've pitched them, I've been edited by them. I know how the machine works. And Rachel herself will tell her own story about the dog.
And Rachel herself is a person who's taken three months at a mental health facility, who, as Dave characterizes the entire reality show process. Isn't this something people sign up for for money and fame and to capitalize or to market your business. Thank you, Bethony Frankel. But yes, maybe let's just say that it is to sign up for just for fame and money. Rachel has not signed up for fame and money. Now, she did not go back
to the show. She did not sign up again. She could have made a lot of money, and she's walking the walk. She went to a mental health facility, did not go take take take the bag of money, did not go take the bag of Fame's been really discreet and really low key and has barely been seen, So to judge somebody based on the way a show portrays them is unfair, especially coming from someone who claims to have been unfairly discussed communicated about by business Insider. So
I just found that interesting. And another thing that I found interesting is that you know, college kids, high school boys, people into sports, the bro culture, that's who follows Dave Portnoy. You know, like it's like the jackass crowd, right, that's a big crowd. That's a money making crowd. That's a money paying crowd, and they just like edgy and they take risks and a lot of them are a bunch of fucking idiots, to be honest, and it's the idiot
bro culture. Great, go take your check. But when you know, Dave said, why I'm not apologizing. I'm not supposed to apologize for call her what millions of people called her. If I said the things that millions of people say on social media about somebody that's a public figure, it would be insane. Like he's supposed to be some version of a role model, And he could say I don't
want that responsibility. But he knows that when he talks people listen Dave Portnoy, a forty six year old man, calling a twenty nine year old girl a trash bag, basically normalizes, commends, and makes it okay for all of his followers to call women trash bags for their actions. Somebody does something wrong at college. A girl has sex with too many guys at college because she was drunk and insecure, or that's the model she saw at home from her mother, or she cheats on her boyfriend, or
she's going through something emotional at home. So this girl does something that she regrets in college, so the guys at that school should call her a trash bag. High school girl loses her virginity too earlier, she's known to get with a lot of guys. By Dave Portnoy's logic, everybody in high school should call that girl a trash bag because she made mistakes, because she did something wrong, because she's quote unquote a slutter, or you know, and
believe me, I've said things I regret on television. I said one thing I regret on television because it wasn't necessary and it's not necessary to do it, and it's not necessary to condone it. But to say that you're unapologetic because millions of people have called somebody who was edited and produced on a show that you're not apologizing
about that. It just it's sad. It's sad, and it's sad that a person that I reached out to to kind of know and you know, be a friend in the biz to just go publicly and like say, who the fuck does Bethany Frankel thinks she is? Bethany Frankel thinks she's a woman who has a philanthropic effort, is a mother, had the fastest growing liquor brand in history, turned a brand, was on the cover of Forbes magazine.
I've got my own bag of Benjamin's, I got my own homes, I got my own businesses, I got my own you know, billionaire friends, just like Dave Portnoy probably does. And I have my own female following, and none of them think it's okay for a man to call a woman a trash bag. So for Brianna, the girl sitting next to Dave, for her to come in and fire a double random shot, because she's probably got young girls looking up to her, Neither Dave nor Brihanna should be
condoning calling a woman a trash bag. At any time or in twenty twenty three, or calling anyone that for that matter. So it continues to perplex me and the people that Dave and I know in common, some of them are some pretty high profile, powerful people that he mentioned to me by text and that he was nervous about them disliking him. He didn't like that they disliked him. He said it caused a lot of problems because he has gone to war with some pretty major people. These
people are really close friends of mine. In fact, I'm going to their house for dinner tonight, and they texted me to say, like, you know, fuck that guy because that's not a great guy and we want nothing to do with him. So they they read about it. They heard about it, and they didn't like it. So I don't know why he would play the short game, but he's short