The towing company released the video of McHenry to the site LiveLeak; yesterday, LiveLeak released it to the world. As a result—McHenry being a popular personality on ESPN—a hefty chunk of the Internet has witnessed McHenry’s comments. (Deadspin’s post on the fracas has gotten more than 1 million views.) Even if you don’t watch sports TV, there’s something irresistibly sad—and intriguing, and thought-provoking, and sad once again—about a famous woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Regina George sneering at an anonymous service worker, “I’m on television and you’re in a fucking trailer, honey.”
Many news outlets, in reporting on the video, referred to the exchange as a “meltdown” on McHenry’s part. It was not, to be clear, a meltdown. Sure, McHenry may have been frustrated and flummoxed and angry—who wouldn’t be, after having had a car towed?—but her reaction did not, fundamentally, reflect frustration or anger. It was instead a very measured, ad-hominem attack on a person whom McHenry clearly deemed to be—in terms of appearance and education and wealth and class and status—beneath her.
McHenry, after the video was released, apologized for the behavior it revealed, explaining, “I allowed my emotions to get the best of me and said some insulting and regrettable things.” She has also been suspended from ESPN for a week. And you could debate, the outrage economy being what it is, about whether those punishments and compensations are too punitive or too lax. You could debate about whether the video is, at its core, evidence of “fat-shaming.” You could also join #teambritt by pointing out that towing companies can occasionally be rapacious, which is both true and laughably besides the point.
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