UPDATE: Britt McHenry among the large group of reporters laid off by ESPN
The story of ESPN reporter Britt McHenry is not going away. The video (watch it here ICYMI) of her berating a tow company employee landed on all the homepages. Five days later, she’s still a hot trending topic. That’s a very long time in today’s news cycle, which moves in minutes and hours, not days and weeks.
If a news event lasts beyond three days, it’s a big deal. McHenry is scheduled to return from suspension on Thursday, and she is slated to cover the NFL Draft a week from Thursday.
Despite the fact that Britt McHenry committed no crime, she’s been found guilty in the court of public opinion, and she happens to work in the most image conscious business imaginable. Over the weekend, details emerged that paint a picture of her personality. It’s a picture matching the image projected by her tirade.
We spoke with individuals connected to Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, who choose to remain unidentified.
The feedback was overwhelmingly negative. Britt McHenry was described as having a serious attitude problem and lacking respect for others. They also conveyed that McHenry possessed a tremendous amount of arrogance and a severe sense of entitlement. They did indicate that the ESPN reporter has good sports acumen, but also an attention seeking personality.
Her Northwestern peers described her in a manner consistent with the source who reached out to Deadspin. We spoke with two of her former contemporaries and both of them were neither shocked nor even the least bit surprised by the vile behavior she exhibited in the video.
TMZ reached out to ESPN, and their sources corroborate this idea. We reached out to ESPN PR for comment, and our messages were not immediately returned. McHenry and ESPN have said as little about the viral video as possible; for obvious reasons.
TMZ’s sources in Bristol match Deadspin’s Medill sources which match our Medill sources; McHenry does indeed seem to have an attitude.
As indicated in the Deadspin piece, McHenry had a dismissive Twitter exchange with 2013 MLS MVP Mike Magee. As you can see from the Tweets below, she’s never heard of the Chicago Fire Forward, or pretends that she hasn’t. Either way, it’s another red flag.
If she’s never heard of Magee, what does it say about her sports acumen, given that she’s a former Division I soccer player, working in sports media, with extensive Chicago ties?
If she’s lying, then what does it say about her professionalism?
According to the TMZ piece, McHenry’s future at ESPN now hangs in the balance. Remember, nothing she did was criminal, and all of her behavior, as vile and repugnant as it is, occurred off company time. TMZ’s piece did not interview any ESPN higher-ups who make hiring and firing decisions. It’s quite possible, despite the fact that she seems to be highly disliked by her co-workers, she somehow emerges unscathed from all this. Image is everything in this business, and McHenry’s image has suffered severe damage. It’s not irreparable damage though.
Britt McHenry went to a station in a top ten market upon graduation. That’s incredibly rare in this business; a privilege usually reserved for those coming from well-connected families. By age 27, McHenry found herself with a high profile national gig at ESPN- that’s even rarer.
You have to be extremely connected to the right people to reach that rung of the ladder before age 30. There are thousands of people just as talented, just as attractive as McHenry, who could take her place yesterday.
However, the unknown and unidentified causes behind her rapid rise to stardom could be the same forces that propel her career past this public relations black eye. The phrase “no publicity is bad publicity” certainly applies to media personalities who are cast as the villain; a role that seems to suit McHenry just fine.
McHenry bares an uncanny resemblance, from both a physical and a character standpoint, to Regina George, the antagonist played by Rachel McAdams, in the 2004 film Mean Girls.
Like Charles Barkley says, “nobody tells pretty girls the truth.” (And when Medill personnel tried with McHenry, she apparently didn’t listen)
Perhaps this moment will be her wake-up call, and she’ll become a better person for it. Maybe she’ll realize some deeper truths. Now’s the time for McHenry to, paraphrasing her own tirade, “lose some attitude, baby girl.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and Instagram (@paulmbanks)