A Business Insider Writer Quit Because a Profile of Comic Tim Dillon Wasn't the Hit Piece They Were Looking For

You can't have had internet access in the English speaking world yesterday and not have heard about the hatchet job Business Insider spent eight months creating that portrayed Dave Portnoy as some sort of a deviant predator who belongs in a court-ordered ankle bracelet 1000 feet away from schools or whatever.

If you're a Barstool fan (and I'm going to assume you are or your eyes wouldn't be on this screen), it should come as no surprise because the Stool in general and Dave in particular have found ourselves on the pointy end of the drive-by journalism pitchfork since the mid to late 2000s. Which, not coincidentally, is around the time we started hitting it big, gobbling up huge chunks of the old media's audience and threatening their existence. At some point attacking Barstool not only became good business because it generated clicks that none of the rest of their content did, it became necessary to their survival. 

And if you're not a Barstool fan, welcome. (Buy some merchandise while you're here.) This BI hatchet job should come as no surprise to you, either. Because it's all part of their business model. As confirmed by one of their own to stand up and podcast genius Tim Dillon. 

That's how they operate. It's what they're in business to do. Whereas once upon a time in the long, long ago, a publisher would have a daily meeting in the newsroom with his/her editors, ask what the hot stories are that will engage their readers, challenge the elites, root out corruption and shake the Halls of Power to the core, that's so pre-Barstool. And it's not how BI functions. There, Lord Business asks his staff who are the popular public figures that are engaging and entertaining a mass audience. Who has broad appeal that his drawing the sorts of numbers he needs in order to become profitable.  I bet the company's mission statement reads, "We will determine who the popular people are and make them targets." 

I mean, think about that interview with Tim Dillon. If you listen to him for a minute (and I do just about daily), you know that conversation was gold. Dillon is hilarious. Brilliant. Outspoken. Unfiltered. Has zero sacred cows. There's no way that wasn't going to be an entertaining and worthwhile read. But engaging readers is not the name of the game at Business Insider. Destroying people who make you laugh in a way that BI disapproves of is. They don't want a conversation. They demand you contact every guy Dillon may have dated, find the ones who didn't have a positive experience, and there's your story. If the writer can't dig up any shit that will possibly ruin the subject's life and career, well then why bother posting it? Delete the file and move onto Joe Rogan or Adam Carolla. 

Of course, that's not reporting. It's management shooting and arrow and wherever it lands, paying someone to draw a bulleye around it. But it's all they got. Here's hoping that writer who's interview with Dillon got killed finds a great job with a good outlet right away. But I'm not sure personal integrity helps you get work in 2021.