Oblivious In The Bloggersphere

So it's turning out to be a Porn kinda week over here at The Daily Dandy, and if you read on you'll get what I mean.

One of us screwed up real bad. I'm talking about Boston based Barstool Sports blogger who got himself into quite a bru-ha-ha over something he posted on Barstoolsports.com. El Presidente, aka David Portnoy, last week posted and commented on pictures of My Tommy's 2 year old son, Benjamin, frolicking naked on the beach while on vacation in Costa Rica with his mom Giselle. The photos were of a naked Baby Ben's "privates" and his comments, considered both controversial and inappropriate, set off a firestorm that went from bad to worse for El Presidente and Barstool Sports.

Portnoy, who at first refused to remove the pictures because of complaints, argued that the pictures were all over the Internet and that he was just posting what was already out there. And that's exactly when his carefully constructed house of cards began to fall. "Babygate" as it has been dubbed, caused the fall out to start almost immediately. Portnoy, a regular contributor to WEEI's Dennis and Callahan radio sports show, was immediately banned from the radio station. WEEI's Vice President of programming, Jason Woolfe tweeted in response to caller's complaints:

“No we will not have portnoy on again. What he did was completely irresponsible. It’s not about whether he was allowed to do it or not. It’s about common decency. And he showed none.”

Then the Massachusetts State Police, under the direction of AG Martha Coakley's office, showed up at the door of his home and requested that he remove the pics from his site. According to Portnoy, he was told that it would be in his best interest to remove the pictures so that the complaints would stop deterring them from getting back to their real police work.

But the biggest blow of all came from none other than The King of All Media, Shock Jock Howard Stern who invited Portnoy to his radio show yesterday morning to discuss "Babygate". In Portnoy's own words,"an ironic twist of fate", Stern told Portnoy he had crossed the line.

"I have three daughters and I gotta tell you, Dave, I would never post a picture of a child and comment on their genitals, and I’m known for outrageous commentary,” Stern said on his syndicated Sirius XM radio show.

Stern also added:

“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,” he said. “I don’t think you can put up a picture of a 2-year-old nude.”

Portnoy told the Boston Herald that he thought Stern would be in his corner and ridicule the mainstream media for their reaction, but was subjected to the exact opposite. Although he told Stern he was torn over removing the pics and felt like a "sell out", Pornoy still maintains he was within his rights to post the pictures, but admittedly was unprepared to wage this battle.

For me, I think that Portnoy made a common error that of us some bloggers make and that within the confines of our little domain, we rule all. Or so we think.

Do I think that Portnoy is a "kiddie pornographer"? Hell no.
Do I think that a bad joke turned super bad. Hell Yes.
Did Portnoy think something was funny when it really wasn't? Oh yes.

While The Daily Dandy has not the following nor the revenues that Barstool Sports has, the commitment is nonetheless similar. Heck, over here at Candy's Daily Dandy I am the Queen, and what I say goes.

I think that Portnoy's problem's stem from an over-inflated feeling of self importance within the Barstool Sports world. He forgot the golden rule. It's the first rule I learned in graduate school. "Journalists", if that's what we choose to call ourselves, must report responsibly or face the consequences. Period.

What do you think?