UPDATE (5:30 p.m. ET) — ESPN has suspended reporter Britt McHenry one week, effective immediately, according to the network’s Josh Krulewitz. A video was released Thursday of McHenry berating a tow lot employee in Arlington, Va.
ORIGINAL STORY: ESPN’s Britt McHenry made headlines for all the wrong reasons Thursday.
A video recently surfaced of a woman who appears to be McHenry berating a tow lot employee after her car apparently got towed.
The actual incident happened nearly two weeks ago, when the ESPN reporter tweeted that her car had been towed in Arlington, Va., by Advanced Towing, which locals claim has developed a very bad reputation for shady towing practices.
[tweet https://twitter.com/BrittMcHenry/status/585084036600692736 align=’center’]
McHenry then went to retrieve her car from an attendant named Gina Michelle, according to Busted Coverage. McHenry, clearly agitated, was caught on camera delivering an expletive-filled tirade in which she degraded Michelle about her appearance and lack of education — even after Michelle warned her she was being filmed — and told her to “lose some weight, baby girl.”
Michelle had been trying to go public with the video since April 6, Busted Coverage reports, and wrote to ARLnow.com about her encounter with McHenry. McHenry, ironically, wrote the following post on Facebook about a week before her alleged meltdown.
[tweet https://twitter.com/tlschwerz/status/588786201294843904 align=’center’]
Shortly the video was released Thursday, ESPN released a statement to several news outlets, including Deadspin.
“We are aware of a recent exchange between Britt McHenry and a towing company employee,” the statement read. “We are now reviewing the matter with her.”
McHenry, meanwhile, used social media later Thursday to issue an apology, calling the situation an “intense and stressful moment.”
Click the link below to see a video of McHenry’s outburst. Warning: The video contains explicit language.
Watch Britt McHenry berate a tow lot employee >>
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@sportingnews
