ESPN’s Britt McHenry Says The Stress From Belittling Towing Employee Last Year Nearly Made Her Blind, Uhh What?

It’s been a year and a half since ESPN reporter Britt McHenry was suspended for a week from her job after going on a personal tirade against an Arlington, Virginia tow truck employee while paying to get her car from the lot.

The tongue-lashing went as viral as a piece of content possibly could, and despite McHenry’s incessant apologies and “This isn’t who I am” schtick, social media absolutely lambasted her–resulting in a petition for her to lose her job at ESPN which amassed 10,000 signatures within the first hours it was made public.

For those who haven’t seen it, or need a reminder of how lit it is, see below or read the insults in text below the video:

That’s why I have a degree and you don’t

I wouldn’t work at a scumbag place like this. Makes my skin crawl even being here.

That’s all you care about is taking people’s money. No education, no skill set, 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, cuz I have a brain and you don’t?

Maybe if I was missing some teeth they would hire me huh?

I’m on television and you’re in a trailer, honey.

Lose some weight baby girl.

GULP.

Fast forward a year and a half and the sports reporter claims that the stress of dealing with a ‘tornado of vulgar and sexist insults’ has affected…her eyesight?

McHenry claims that the the vision in her right eye had become blurry and the eye itself looked cloudy.

‘I went to a retinal specialist, who diagnosed me with CSR, a condition in which vision is impaired, often due to trauma or extreme stress,’ McHenry told Marie Claire.

‘The first time I watched the needle approach my eye (yes, you’re awake for this!), I broke down, halting the process until I could regain my composure. I was a wreck, not so much because of the injection, but because of what had brought me to that point,’ she said.

‘The doctor says the vision in my eye might never improve.’

Gotta love McHenry making herself the victim here. Perfect public positioning–“The world saw me be a huge condescending dickface but now I’m blind because of it so BACK OFF.” And, for the record, I hate tow companies. They can all sit on a cactus. But I also believe that some people take jobs for a paycheck to survive and their place of an employment isn’t a direct reflection on them so that doesn’t give anyone a right to take a verbal dump on someone because they parked in front of a fire hydrant. There are rules here, Britt. This isn’t Florida.

[h/t Daily Mail]

Matt Keohan Avatar
Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.