Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy on his growing feud with Business Insider over the outlet's article alleging Bill Ackman's wife plagiarized academic works. I expressed my opinion.
Mr. Ackman was furious that Business Insider's global editor-in-chief, Nicholas Carlson, continued to make false claims about his spouse, Neri Oxman, in a memo to staff, and he issued a social media campaign against Company X. They began a simultaneous attack.
Carlson wrote that the publication “stands by” the two articles in question.
In response to Ackman's post on Tuesday, X owner Elon Musk responded by saying he would “recommend litigation.”
portnoy There's a chime: “I tried that. It doesn't work because of backwards laws. [that] Protect scum journalists. ”
Portnoy famously sparred with the magazine, then known as Insider, over a 2021 “hit piece” that accused him of sexual assault against women.
after that ×post “It's like a bad dream to see Bill Ackman play the same villain and do exactly the same things I went through,” Portnoy wrote on Tuesday.
“Business Insider spent 18 months writing about me and never spoke to me,” Portnoy added. Portnoy made headlines in November for popping champagne and munching on a cigar to celebrate the departure of Insider CEO Henry Blodgett.
“To this day, they don't have an answer for hard facts that dispel all of their lies,” Portnoy said, adding that in 2022, he announced that the news site owned by Axel Springer was a woman. The suit accused him of publishing “false and defamatory” articles citing women who say he assaulted them. He has since vehemently denied any sexual contact.
Mr. Portnoy's case was dismissed after a judge ruled that he had failed to present sufficient evidence to prove that the insider had acted with “actual malice.”
Mr. Ackman began his feud with Business Insider last week after publishing two separate articles on X. The first alleges that his wife plagiarized four paragraphs from a 330-page doctoral dissertation she submitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The second alleges at least 28 instances in which the renowned scholar plagiarized information from other sources, including Wikipedia, without citation.
The billionaire founder of Pershing Square Capital Management vehemently denied that Oxman was a plagiarist. pointing out “MIT's Academic Integrity Handbook did not require a Wikipedia citation or even mention it until 2013, four years after Neri wrote his paper and used Wikipedia to define 15 words and terms. It wasn't.”
Mr. Ackman also questioned the motives behind BI's reporting, claiming that the editor of the article was a “known anti-Zionist.”
“The editor of Business Insider's investigative group who is leading the attack on my wife is John Cook,'' Ackman said. Posted on X on sunday. “He is known as an anti-Zionist. My wife is Israeli.”
In response, Axel Springer said it was investigating the store's “processes.”
However, both Carlson's company-wide memo and Axel Springer's statement stated that “the facts of the article are not disputed by Mr. Oxman or her husband, Bill Ackman.”
“Mr. Carlson is either lying or being misled by others,” Ackman fumed on Tuesday.
“I personally disputed the facts (and reporting process) of Business Insider's article,” he added in a lengthy post, adding that his scuffle with the media outlet “cost my wife @NeriOxman tremendous publicity and… It caused psychological damage.” ”
“Neri hired an attorney yesterday, but it will take several weeks to properly address all the allegations, factual errors and inaccuracies in all articles,” Ackman said.
It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Ackman will pursue legal action against BI or its parent company.
A representative for Mr. Ackman at Pershing Square did not immediately respond to The Post's request for comment.
The Post also reached out to Barstool Sports and Business Insider for comment.
