Massachusetts v. Portnoy [1]

David Portnoy runs a sports and humor blog entitled Barstool Sports [2], which the Boston Globe calls a "popular and controversial [3]" website. Late in the week of August 8, 2011, Portnoy posted a picture of toddler child Benjamin Brady, son of New England Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady and model Gisele Bundchen. The picture was taken by a paparazzi photographer while the family were vacationing at a beach. The toddler was naked in the picture, with genitals exposed.

According to Boston's Weekly Dig [4] and Deadspin [5], Portnoy, among other things, referred to the child's genitals as a "howitzer." This prompted widespread condemnation and outcry [6]. Portnoy also created a series of t-shirt designs [7] depicting the nude toddler with an actual howitzer in sexually suggestive positions.

Portnoy initially received a cease and desist letter from a modeling agency that represents Gisele Bundchen, which Portnoy claims he ignored [5]. Following this, according to the Globe [3] and The Smoking Gun [8], Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley dispatched police officers to visit Portnoy's home in Milton, Massachusetts on Friday, August 12, 2011 [8]. Portnoy describes the encounter on his website [9], saying that the police were "friendly, non threatening and basically just said they were getting lots of complaints . . . and it would be in the best interest of everybody involved if I’d just take [the photographs] down." Attorney General Coakley told the Globe [10] that her office had  received several complaints about the photographs and that the photographs were "troubling, to say the least."

Portnoy complied with the request to remove material [9], and AG Coakley has indicated that she views the matter as closed.