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Similar to Pat McAfee, who finally acknowledged his role in the situation earlier this week, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has expressed regret over the role his company played in proliferating a false rumor about civilian Ole Miss freshman Mary Kate Cornett.
Mary Kate Cornett, an 18-year-old freshman at Ole Miss University and the target of a vicious online harassment campaign, said in an interview earlier this month, her first public appearance since the situation, that she plans to file a lawsuit against The Pat McAfee Show and other programs that spread disinformation about her.
Those companies evidently include Barstool Sports, whose cynic college football employ “Jack Mac” posited a video about Cornett.
“It’s a vicious rumor. I’m sad, and I wish we didn’t play any part in it,” Portnoy said.
“Morally we were wrong. I was bragging that morally I thought we were right,” he told NBC News, adding that he wanted to ‘throw up’ after learning of his company’s involvement.
According to Portnoy, lawyers for Cornett offered Barstool two options: litigation or mediation. Portnoy has chosen the latter.
“Her family’s lawyer has said she believes Cornett was the victim of cyberbullying and has grounds for a defamation suit.”
“Cornett previously said that she and her family were harassed and faced a barrage of insults in the weeks after the rumor took hold.” [via NBC News]
Similar to Portnoy, McAfee has also begun to express regret over his role in Corbett’s anguish. Whether that’s because they realize the horrendous impact they’ve had on this young girl’s life or are worried about being sued is up to interpretation.
“Just like the current situation that is happening where I have a lot of people saying that I should be sued. I want to say this: I never ever want to be a part of anything negative in anybody’s life,” McAfee said during a live show in Pittsburgh.
“I didn’t want to add any more negativity as it was taking place. … We will try to figure that out and make some sort of silver lining in a very terrible situation. So you can have that promise from me. It won’t be as impossible to be a fan of mine going forward.”
In late February, a rumor began circulating on social media claiming that Mary Kate Cornett, an ordinary freshman at Ole Miss with no public profile, had slept with her boyfriend’s father. McAfee then discussed it on the February 26 episode of his nationally televised show on ESPN.