Barstool Sports’ Francis Ellis Recalls Shock After He Was Caught on Hot Mic Bashing Fox News

Francis Ellis reflected on his hot mic moment from December in which the Barstool Sports host said Fox News was “trafficking in hate.”

Back in December, Mediaite reported that Ellis had been caught on hot mic discussing a handful of appearances he had made on Jesse Watters’ show. He discussed that after a recent appearance on the program he was “disappointed” with himself.

Ellis recalled that his wife told him, “‘Let’s be honest, like, do you want to be working with these fucking people? I watched the rest of his show — he’s a fucking joke.'”

The discussion continued as Ellis talked with the other hosts of Barstool Rundown expressing to them his concern that the Fox audience would not understand that his political jokes were just jokes.

Ellis recently sat down with Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini for an episode of her podcast Token CEO, to discuss the incident.

In describing the incident, Ellis said, “My mistake is, no matter what, I’m still in front of cameras with a microphone on me.”

“You know, how many times do you need to learn that lesson” Ellis added.

“It’s kind of a stupid lesson to learn, but it happens to everyone,” Nardini replied.

“I guess so,” Ellis said.

He described that after one of the show’s producers notified him that the episode had been posted with the private conversation included, “I was like, is this for real?”

“Maybe this won’t mean anything. Maybe nobody will care and people cared in waves. Then I got The Daily Beast email. The dreaded Daily Beast email,” Ellis said. “Then some — Mediaite, which I’d never even heard of, wrote an article saying, you know, ‘Barstool Sports Star,’ which I thought was generous.”

He claimed he was ridiculed by both the left and right for comments.

“The left took this thing, the left outlets and spun it as he’s almost already an employee of Fox News,” Ellis said.

“Actively being courted by Fox News,” Nardini laughed.

“‘Here’s someone from within the ranks speaking against the establishment,'” Ellis said. “‘And even though he spoke truth and said they’re terrible, he still admits that he’d accept a job. Like can we really hold him up as a true speaker?’ And it’s like, oh my God, guys, make up your mind!”

“Then the right was like, ‘Fuck this guy… He blasted the network that’s given him such a big opportunity and yet he still says he’d accept a job.’ So I got it from both sides,” Ellis added.

Ellis elaborated that he also received hate directed at his wife.

“I didn’t like it because I had evoked and quoted my wife and had said that. She said, ‘Do you really want to be working with these people?’ So a lot of the hate that I got was like ‘fuck your wife.'” Ellis said.

“By the way, I think I should say that if I had been doing these sarcastic appearances on CNN, it is just as likely that I would have said something disparaging of them,” he added.

Ellis recalled that the next day, Barstool President Dave Portnoy told him, “I texted Tucker (Carlson) to let him know that you don’t speak for me… Tucker told me to tell you, ‘don’t let your wife dictate your life.'”

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