The Other McCain

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In Which @BrittMcHenry Destroys Her Career ‘In the News, Sweetheart’

Posted on | April 17, 2015 | 92 Comments

A bad case of “Don’t You Know Who I Am?” Syndrome:

ESPN reporter Britt McHenry has been suspended for a week after video surfaced of her berating a parking lot attendant and telling the attendant to “lose some weight, baby girl,” The New York Post reported Thursday.
Washington-based McHenry was angry about having her car towed on April 6, The Post reports, and began dressing down the attendant despite being told the incident was being captured on security camera.
“I’m in the news, sweetheart, I will (expletive) sue this place,” McHenry said in the video published online by LiveLeak.
“Yep, that’s all you care about, is just taking people’s money,” McHenry said. “With no education, no skillset, just wanted to clarify that. … Do you feel good about your job? So I could be a college dropout and do the same thing? Why, cause I have a brain and you don’t?”
As she walks out of the lot, she tells the attendant to “lose some weight, baby girl.”

More at Fox News and the New York Post.

She posted an online apology, which probably won’t be enough to retrieve her from permanent infamy. Does she really believe that her career at ESPN is because “I have a brain and you don’t?”

She’s from the New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia and attended Stetson University (annual tuition $40,040). She graduated with high honors and attended Northwestern University grad school. So, yes, she’s obviously smart, but does she think the parking lot attendant had those advantages and opportunities? Does Britt McHenry think her looks had nothing at all to do with her getting hired at ESPN?

Look, I’m not an egalitarian. Quite the opposite. To quote John Randolph of Roanoke, “I am an aristocrat. I love liberty; I hate equality.” Yet the true aristocrat does not behave the way Britt McHenry behaved. Certainly, no lady acts the way she acted. Anyone can lose their temper and say regrettable things — certainly I have — but no true aristocrat would treat working people that way. No true aristocrat would flaunt their privilege by attempting to personally humiliate someone for doing their job.

Raised with the values of the Poor But Proud yeomanry, I have a dim view of the Elite University set, the beneficiaries of fortune who assume they are naturally superior to any Ordinary American. And the very worst such creatures are the Daddy’s Precious Darling types, the snooty rich girls who consider their mere existence to be an achievement. If you’ve ever encountered Daddy’s Precious Darling, you know what I’m talking about. Two of my favorite songs — “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan and “Rich Girl” by Hall and Oates — are about this type of female. In the Dylan song, he describes an upper-class girl who has fallen on hard times:

Once upon a time you dressed so fine,
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?
People’d call, say, “Beware doll, you’re bound to fall.”
You thought they were all kiddin’ you.
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin’ out.
Now you don’t talk so loud.
Now you don’t seem so proud,
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, and the children of fortune ought to exhibit gracious humility as a becoming expression of gratitude for God’s blessings. Yet so often, they’re the “Rich Girl”:

High and dry, out of the rain.
It’s so easy to hurt others when you can’t feel pain.

This was exactly Britt McHenry’s attitude toward that parking lot attendant. Young, privileged and pretty, an up-and-coming media personality, mocking an obscure working woman as having “no education, no skillset” and boasting “I’m in the news, sweetheart.”

Surely by now some feminist has interpreted the online rage against Britt McHenry as “misogyny,” but that misses the obvious point: Everybody knows her type, and everybody hates her type. A good-looking girl gets all the breaks, especially if she’s a rich good-looking girl, and our universal contempt for the spoiled-rotten Suburban Princess isn’t because we’re sexists, but because everybody who’s ever had to deal with one of those high-maintenance brats knows what vicious, selfish sadists they can be.

The kind of hideous cruelty displayed by Britt McHenry is an unfortunately common consequence of Special Snowflake™ Syndrome. We may contrast Britt McHenry to Justine Sacco of #HasJustineLandedYet infamy. Nobody had ever heard of Justine Sacco. She wasn’t a TV star, but BOOM:

“I cried out my body weight in the first 24 hours,” she told me. “It was incredibly traumatic. You don’t sleep. You wake up in the middle of the night forgetting where you are.”

That’s where Britt McHenry is now. We have to wonder if public disgrace will teach her a lesson, or if other Rich Girls will study that lesson.

 

Comments

92 Responses to “In Which @BrittMcHenry Destroys Her Career ‘In the News, Sweetheart’”

  1. PeterP
    April 17th, 2015 @ 3:41 am

    If this gal isn’t careful, she’s gonna end up like Laura Branigan’s “Gloria”

    “Gloria, don’t you think you’re fallin’?
    If everybody wants you, why isn’t anybody callin’?”

  2. Daniel Freeman
    April 17th, 2015 @ 3:47 am

    I saw this reported earlier, and haven’t been able to bring myself to watch the video. I’ve been underemployed before, and have been berated by stuck-up pricks for doing the job that I was paid to do.

    What got me through it without losing my temper (and my job) was reminding myself of several facts. One, they were either stupid, manipulative, or bullies. I didn’t make the policies, and if they didn’t know that they were stupid. If they knew that and were just trying to get their way, then they were manipulative. If they knew that and were just taking out their frustrations, then they were bullies, because odds are they wouldn’t dare talk that way to the policy makers.

    Two, they didn’t know anything about me. I might as well have been a cardboard cutout. They were talking to a mental construct in their imagination, using me as a prop for their little melodrama.

    Three, they only had as much power over me as I let them have. If I chose to keep my cool, they couldn’t make me not. If I chose to brush off their words as those of a fool, they couldn’t make me not. And at the end of the day, I could get away from them, but they could never get away from themselves. My gain, their loss.

  3. Francis W. Porretto
    April 17th, 2015 @ 3:57 am

    The I-am-special mindset that media types share with politicians is the strongest common factor they have. Their propensity to mistreat us lesser types, as if we should automatically give way before them, should not be ignored as a coincidence.

  4. Daniel Freeman
    April 17th, 2015 @ 4:02 am

    I’ve witnessed it among everyone from lawyers to manual laborers. Some people think they’re better, and some just can’t get out of their own heads. Either way, the effect on your day is the same.

  5. Daniel Freeman
    April 17th, 2015 @ 4:49 am

    OT: Philip Klein provides a good framework for categorizing foreign policy positions. Seems to favor Cruz at the moment, but it’s still very early and I have a lot to learn.

  6. Francis W. Porretto
    April 17th, 2015 @ 5:48 am

    What you say is quite true. However, persons in certain occupations and “life paths” tend to “act it out” more than others. Celebrities of any sort are particularly prone to this. It’s a good argument against what I call celebritarianism.

    In some sense, we can’t help feeling special. After all, my perception of the universe is centered on me, yours on you, and so forth. No matter how hard we try, it’s impossible ever to really “see it through the other guy’s eyes.” That doesn’t make the attempt pointless, of course; it merely illuminates the difficulties involved in “doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

  7. Xmas
    April 17th, 2015 @ 6:04 am

    I havent watched the video yet, but I have already read that the tow company is notorious for towing cars that were legitimately parked. I’d blow my top too if my car was towed from the parking lot of the restaurant I just ate at.

  8. Adjoran
    April 17th, 2015 @ 6:24 am

    Of course, the ignorant didn’t notice that the clerk’s comments were deleted from the carefully edited video. Her car was towed from a Chinese restaurant’s parking lot while she was inside eating. Now, of course, you would have paid the fine pleasantly, wouldn’t you?

  9. Adjoran
    April 17th, 2015 @ 6:26 am

    But you don’t know the clerk “kept her cool” at all, because her comments are deleted from the video released. Don’t you wonder WHY they would be edited out?

  10. RS
    April 17th, 2015 @ 6:45 am

    The fact that media types continue to have these meltdowns–regardless of the backstory about the towed care–in this day and age where everything is photographed, videoed and recorded is beyond my comprehension. It’s not like we’ve not witnessed scores of these “celebrity caught being a jerk on video” stories before.

  11. jakee308
    April 17th, 2015 @ 7:38 am

    For her sake I hope she socked away some of that dough working as eye candy on ESPN. Justine didn’t have the luxury of that.

    And it’s so true. As soon as I heard about this and saw her, even though I don’t watch ESPN, I immediately knew exactly the type of person she is.

    She says: “In an intense and stressful moment, I allowed my emotions to get the best of me” AND MY REAL SELF CAME OUT.

    It’s a bitch, bitch.

    Maybe you can get a job at that parking lot. *snerk* plus I hear the pron industry is undergoing an upheaval due to health issues. I’m sure there’s some “openings” there.

  12. jakee308
    April 17th, 2015 @ 7:41 am

    If I arrogantly parked where I wasn’t supposed to or was there too long, then yeah, I’d suck it up and pay the price for the risk I took.

    I’m guessing this self important little bitch took it upon herself to park where it was convenient for her thinking no one would have the nerve to tow her. That didn’t work out so well.

  13. robertstacymccain
    April 17th, 2015 @ 7:57 am

    The point was not whether or not the car should have been towed, or whether McHenry was angry. The point was the insulting tone — the Entitlement Mentality — McHenry expressed in her rant.

  14. robertstacymccain
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:01 am

    I expect questions of policy will have little if anything to do with who wins in 2016. It will be a test of strength between the Morally Depraved Democrat Scum and the Decent Patriotic Christian Citizens.

  15. Art Deco
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:01 am

    And the very worst such creatures are the Daddy’s Precious Darling types, the snooty rich girls who consider their mere existence to be an achievement.
    If you’ve ever encountered Daddy’s Precious Darling, you know what I’m
    talking about. Two of my favorite songs — “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob
    Dylan and “Rich Girl” by Hall and Oates

    I spent some time (in the era of Hall & Oats) in a handsome suburb southeast of Rochester and have also spent time employed in higher education catering to that clientele. I’ve seen almost none of this. Young women three sheets to the wind screeching at 3:00 am, yes. Abuse of service personnel, no. Back in the day, the haut bourgeois and patriciate were particular about manners and had a horror of ‘making a scene’. Of course, I grew up in a provincial city of middling size, not in New York (much less Los Angeles).

    The real problem you get with affluent people (and to a lesser degree, wealthy people, who are more aware that their situation is odd) is the casual assumption that life cannot be well-lived without certain handsome features and the notion that those handsome features are far more prevalent than in fact they are. (Abigail Thernstrom has referred to a subset of this nexus of misconceptions as the ‘Yale or jail fallacy’).

  16. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:13 am

    She could always get a new gig on Hillary Clinton’s staff. I bet she would fit right in.

    I understand the anger about the tow, but take it up with the tow company manager (not some employee who is not the responsible party) and don’t be an idiot and make it personal (and on tape) with a bunch of expletives and disparaging personal remarks. That says way more about the person saying it than the tow company’s bad behavior.

  17. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:15 am

    If I were legally parked, I would have paid the fine (unhappy but paid it) then sued the tow company, the chinese restaurant and gone to the media.

  18. ConstantineX1
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:15 am

    With God as my witness I didn’t know cheerleaders could read.

  19. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:16 am

    that is exactly right, it’s a character tell. Hillary has it too.

  20. ConstantineX1
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:16 am

    When she drops her mask she’s ugly enough for Her Thighness.

  21. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:17 am

    Not all media types have it, some are adults and know why it is important not to lose one’s temper (like that).

  22. ConstantineX1
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:18 am

    She can read a teleprompter and has a pretty face. That’s hardly extraordinary. There are millions of girls that are both prettier who could read words on TV. Positions like hers are a lottery ticket.
    But it’s like stripping, her career will be over soon as she has a kid or two or reaches age 35.

  23. You can always tell someone’s real character by how they treat wait staff: Hillary Clinton Stiffs On Tip | Batshit Crazy News
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:24 am

    […] just like Hillary’s arrogant behavior of not tipping, parking in handicap spots, etc. TOM: @BrittMcHenry destroys her career Instapundit: The way to get back is to sue them (in Hillary’s case to call her […]

  24. Steve Skubinna
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:25 am

    This is a repeat of that clown berating a Chik-Fil-A drive through cashier. Only difference is that he deluded himself that he was striking a blow for social justice, but to everyone else it looked as if he was abusing a working class person in order to preen and strut.

    Which is exactly what he was doing.

    I really wish some of the SJWs infesting academia could get exposed like this. Sometimes they do, as with that professor at Berkeley that physically assaulted a pro-life protestor. Sadly, when that sort of thing happens the SJW mean girls clique closes ranks.

  25. Steve Skubinna
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:27 am

    I would not have crapped all over the closest handy working stiff who had nothing to do with policy.

    Talking Head Britt is not addressing the possible injustice of her car being towed, but personally abusing somebody.

  26. Robert What?
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:29 am

    It is an unfortunate occurrence that Liberal rich white women who have been given everything, come to believe that it is because they deserve it.

  27. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:35 am

    Which is why conservatives should not go on liberal media news shows where they control editing, or if they do tape it themselves too.

  28. Dana
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:40 am
  29. RS
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:53 am

    I’m curious how that’s accomplished. In my area, tow trucks are not out “on safari” without official imprimatur. That is, for a vehicle to be towed, the request has to come from a law enforcement officer, who’s made determination that the vehicle is illegally parked. That protects everyone: business owner, vehicle owner and towing company.

  30. Ruy Diaz
    April 17th, 2015 @ 8:59 am

    I don’t know, the clerk was working at a towing company impound lot. McHenry’s comment that she wouldn’t work in a ‘scumbag place like this’ seem spot on. Not even the rich and pretty deserve the kind of abuse towing companies engage in.

  31. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 17th, 2015 @ 9:12 am

    sure, but the damage is done. She is still an idiot.

  32. CrustyB
    April 17th, 2015 @ 9:12 am

    Intelligence and Wisdom are two different stats on the character sheet.

    Where’s my dice bag…

  33. Toastrider
    April 17th, 2015 @ 9:24 am

    Yeah, I’m not feeling it here. Yes, McHenry let her mouth get ahead of her brain. But evidently this tow company in particular’s got an interesting habit of towing folks under specious circumstances, doing damage to vehicles, and even towing cars with children and pets inside.

    Taking it out on the clerk is pointless. They don’t set the policies. You need to escalate it up the food chain and peel strips off the supervisors and management.

  34. Daniel Freeman
    April 17th, 2015 @ 9:28 am

    Like I said, I haven’t watched the video. I’m happy to no longer be in a position to have to put up with that kind of crap, and don’t care to be reminded of it.

  35. Daniel Freeman
    April 17th, 2015 @ 9:29 am

    ABR = Always Be Recording

  36. Coulter76
    April 17th, 2015 @ 9:31 am

    I’m not going to defend what she said, but tow yards are the scum of the Earth. I can completely understand someone getting nasty with one, they’re borderline criminal cartels.

  37. Daniel Freeman
    April 17th, 2015 @ 9:31 am

    And Oregon is unlikely to have any influence whatsoever on the choice of nominee, but it will still be interesting to watch and form an informed opinion. 🙂

  38. Daniel Freeman
    April 17th, 2015 @ 9:35 am

    Here, if it’s in a private parking lot, then it’s a private matter between the lot owner and the tow company that they contract with.

    ETA: The tow driver reports it to the police, but that’s just in their best interest so that their involuntary customers find out who to pay when they go to report the car stolen.

  39. Daniel Freeman
    April 17th, 2015 @ 9:51 am

    I’ve never had my own car towed, but the regulators here are notoriously lax. I’ve only heard of one bad tow driver getting what was coming to him, and that’s because he was an idiot that had a beef with the police and tried to tow a cop car while the cop was on duty, dealing with a disturbance at an apartment complex.

    They laid down spike strips, got him out of the truck, and arrested him. It was a feel-good story.

  40. Gary Trudeau is Contemptible | Batshit Crazy News
    April 17th, 2015 @ 10:17 am

    […] Trudeaupeia, and what’s good for Harry Reid is… This Britt McHenry Tow Truck meltdown is a character tell, just like Hillary’s arrogant behavior of not tipping, parking in handicap spots, etc. and […]

  41. Quartermaster
    April 17th, 2015 @ 10:27 am

    That’s why she’s on ESPN. Or was, anyway.

  42. Art Deco
    April 17th, 2015 @ 10:29 am

    I would not say that from personal experience. The chaps working the last place I was towed did have a sketchy vibe (illegal aliens, I would guess), but they neither did nor said anything disagreeable. I have not been involuntarily towed often, of course (just twice in 30 years).

  43. Art Deco
    April 17th, 2015 @ 10:32 am

    Sorry to quibble, but has it been established that she was born well-to-do or holds to a certain sort of politics? My first guess would be that she’s like that because the entertainment business attracts histrionic personalities and because beauty and the day to day business of her trade do not put the brakes on certain disagreeable character traits.

  44. Quartermaster
    April 17th, 2015 @ 10:34 am

    My guess as well. Such people tend to have toadies answering her whims and that tends to exacerbate the problems they already have.
    I liked the way Reagan put it on the subject of Hollywood. He said, to the effect, they didn’t go Hollywood, they just acted out what was already inside.

  45. Ruy Diaz
    April 17th, 2015 @ 10:37 am

    I was towed once… after my car was stolen and abandoned in another county. I couldn’t pay the bill immediately, so I borrowed money, went back two days later, and they had tacked ‘late payment fees’ on top of yard fees. Couldn’t pay that then. The bill went over 1,500 dollars, which I couldn’t pay because I was working at near-minimum wage when I first came to the United States. They wouldn’t even consider lowering the bill, and were pretty disagreeable during the whole interaction. So, yeah, I’m bitter. My car was stolen, then my credit ruined for the next seven years. Wonderful people those who work at towing yards.

  46. Art Deco
    April 17th, 2015 @ 11:43 am

    That’s actually a species of extortion and should be unlawful and actionable.

    I was charged $71 when I was towed in 1985. I’ve forgotten the charge the more recent time.

  47. Art Deco
    April 17th, 2015 @ 11:51 am

    It depends on the person. I’ve known with people who’d had encounters with Barber Conable (ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee) who told me he was both impressive and unpretentious in private.

    I also had a friend who was put to work on Bobby Kennedy’s 1964 Senate campaign and met with Kennedy and his staff in a hotel room (in Auburn, N.Y., IIRC). He was poleaxed by Kennedy’s behavior with his entourage and was pounding the pavement for Eugene McCarthy in 1968 in consequence of that.

  48. Britt McHenry Career Meltdown Rule 5 | Batshit Crazy News
    April 17th, 2015 @ 12:00 pm

    […] When you are a “special snowflake” sunlight is not your friend  Instapundit: Tow companies are notoriously bad But you need to be smart in dealing with asshats […]

  49. Art Deco
    April 17th, 2015 @ 12:06 pm

    http://www.yelp.com/biz/advanced-towing-arlington

    Ye gods! Read these reviews. Maybe, she had a point. The reviewers mention an office employee who may be the person in question.

  50. Bob Belvedere
    April 17th, 2015 @ 12:12 pm

    A tip of the fedora for the John Randolph Of Roanoke reference.