Howard Stern slams blogger for posting nude pic of Tom Brady’s son
Aug 16, 2011, 1:01 PM EDT
Reuters When Howard Stern thinks you’ve gone to far, perhaps it’s time to rethink your position. Sports blogger David Portnoy has been at the center of a huge controversy since posting a photo of Tom Brady’s naked 2-year-old son on his site, Barstool Sports, last week. As part of the post, Portnoy added a few remarks about the size of the toddler’s genitals, which prompted even more outrage — and it all resulted in a visit to Portnoy by the Massachusetts State Police, who “advised” him to take the post down. Which he did.
Then Portnoy visited Howard Stern’s Sirius radio show this morning, and was probably surprised that even Stern was lined up against him.
Stern introduced David Portnoy with a surprising statement saying, “Dave, people said you must take this down, it’s kiddie porn. And I saw the picture and, quite frankly, I do think it’s kiddie porn. I don’t think you should put a picture of a 2-year-old nude.”
Other highlights from Portnoy’s visit to Stern:
Howard asked Dave if he has kids. Dave said he does not. Howard said he would never post a picture of a child and comment on their genitals. He said that maybe not having a kid is part of that. Howard said it seems like something you wouldn’t do. He said it seems kind of seedy. Dave said he doesn’t think it’s seedy at all. He said that he didn’t think it was an issue either.
Howard asked why he took the picture down if he didn’t think he did wrong. Dave said that he didn’t want to deal with the complaints. He said he felt he was selling out by taking it down.
All of that aside, what really makes this story ugly is what’s happening over at Barstool Sports itself. The comments section has become a cesspool of kiddie penis references, and some readers are contending that Portnoy is killing comments that are critical of him or his site — in effect engaging in the very censorship of which he’s claiming to be a victim.
Meanwhile, the overarching, sad fact remains that Gisele Bundchen can’t even take her toddler to the beach without igniting a s***storm of controversy. Sad, really.
H/T to reader j0esixpack.
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Shock Jock Stern: Brady Baby Pics Are Porn [The Boston Channel]
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- sasquash20 - Aug 17, 2011 at 6:53 AM
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I agree with Stern. Its just wrong.
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- j0esixpack - Aug 17, 2011 at 10:39 AM
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Thanks for the H/T
It of course wasn’t just the photos – it was David Portnoy’s commentary and that of his loyal “stool sample” readers sexualizing the young child and even going so far as to make comments about children having sex with each other that might have crossed the line from exceptional poor taste to something illegal.
There’s no question Portnoy was trying to profit from exploiting this child – he admits it on his blog.
Portnoy and his cronies also spent all day Monday chest thumping the notion that they hit pay dirt being invited on Stern’s show. You can almost hear Portnoy’s jaw drop as he realizes how much this stunt backfired as Stern – a father – made it clear that Portnoy’s gone where no man has gone before – going lower than even Howard Stern has gone
As much as Portnoy and his stool samples were playing up his “big moment” on Stern’s show – insisting that Stern is still the relevant king of all media, as soon as it was over he wasted no time trashing Stern as washed up and irrelevant. Figures.
Portnoy maintains he was within his legal rights – but just because something’s legal doesn’t mean it is right to do. Many people have made it clear to the Barstool Advertisers they do not support his exploitation of children. http://boycottbarstool.wordpress.com/
Most advertisers have responded, but MSN continues to host a pop up ad, and Budweiser continues to allow copyright infringement with Portnoy selling T-shirts with a Budweiser likeness. Hopefully they respond as well. New Era sports hats and products still seemed to be advertising there recently as well as a few others, but most have left.
It may have been the child of a famous couple in this case but I think all parents know it doesn’t matter if the kid is famous or not – it’s not acceptable, and hopefully anyone else thinking of profiting from this type of stunt will see how Portnoy, on the cusp of making it big, refused to admit a mistake and was pushed back under the hole he crawled out of.
