'The Five' host Jessica Tarlov questions journalism ethics of WaPo writer over hit piece on Dave Portnoy
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: The Washington Post has become the subject of criticism because one of its writers attempted to write an alleged hit piece on social media sensation and businessman Dave Portnoy.
Jessica Tarlov, as someone associated with journalism herself, came in to criticize the writer's ethics on her Thursday 'The Five' appearance.
The writers from WaPo were working on a call-out article about Portnoy's notorious misogyny but had approached their subject in the wrong way, which led to the businessman exposing them through a recorded call.
While Tarlov is critical of Portnoy herself, she wasn't on board with what the writers have done.
Jessica Tarlov's advice to WaPo writers
Portnoy recently exposed Emily Heil from WaPo for contacting his sponsors for an upcoming Pizzafest and asking about their association with a person who was infamously a misogynist.
Tarlov talked about how approaching his business partners for something completely separated from his ideologies was not an ethical way of writing a hit piece that focused on his conduct.
"You do need to think about, in advance, the subject of your piece," Tarlov stated, "If you are trying to write this piece with this angle, you are going to ignore the pizza component and you want to go for the misogyny, there's plenty of Dave Portnoy misogyny on record!"
Segment-lead Greg Gutfeld then asked Tarlov to point out some of Portnoy's questionable comments for which she brought up Portnoy calling ESPN host Samantha Ponder a "sl*t" and defending Harvey Weinstein.
Beyond this, Tarlov also had issues with how the exposé of WaPo had helped Portnoy's public image.
Jessica Tarlov on WaPo "martyring" Dave Portnoy
The Fox News host mentioned how people were readily able to move on from Portnoy's misogyny and blatant sexism because of the journalist's mistake.
"What she did is she martyred him," Tarlov said, "I was reading the comments when he posted the video, and then people are saying 'I don't really like Dave Portnoy but this is horrible. How could the Washington Post do this'. So, he walks out of this as king of the castle."
Tarlov also said that this whole incident gave Portnoy a window to promote his good deeds from back when he helped several small businesses from closing down.
"He got to remind people which was an amazing thing that he did," the host said, "How much money he raised for folks during Covid when the PPP loans weren't necessarily coming through and became a bit of a small business hero there."
Tarlov concluded her thoughts by saying that Heil's work was "disappointing" and that this was "not the correct way of how journalism works" which was a defense Heil made during the call with Portnoy.
"She slandered a lot of very good journalists who would not have led with an email saying 'Dave Portnoy doesn't have to do with pizza, I just want to talk about all the bad stuff'," Tarlov said.