Britt McHenry

Last updated

Britt McHenry
Britt McHenry Lions at Redskins August 20 2015.jpg
McHenry at FedExField in August 2015
Born
Brittany May McHenry

(1986-05-28) May 28, 1986 (age 38)

Brittany May "Britt" McHenry (born May 28, 1986) is a television personality. She is the host of a show on WTTG Fox 5 in Washington, D.C. [1] [2] McHenry was formerly an ESPN correspondent and a commentator on Fox Nation. [3]

Contents

Personal

McHenry, the daughter of an Air Force Lt. Colonel, [4] [5] was born in Mount Holly Township, New Jersey, and grew up in Satellite Beach, Florida, where she graduated from Satellite High School in 2004. [6] A four-year varsity starter for the women's soccer team, she was teammates with future United States women's national soccer team player, goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris. [7] McHenry attended Stetson University and played on the Hatters soccer team as a midfielder for the 2004 season. [8] [9] She also spent time as a model in college, working for the Wilhelmina Models agency. [4] After graduating magna cum laude in 2007 from Stetson, McHenry went on to Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. At Medill, she started covering stories in Chicago, Illinois. [10]

On February 27, 2020, McHenry revealed via Twitter, that on February 25, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and that "surgery is imminent". [11] [12] [13] She had brain surgery on March 4, 2020. [14]

Career

After graduating from Medill School of Journalism, [15] McHenry began her career working for WJLA-TV, ABC Television's Washington affiliate, and its sister station NewsChannel 8 as a sports reporter and fill-in anchor. After two weeks at Fox Sports San Diego as a dugout reporter on the San Diego Padres telecasts, she returned to ABC 7. [16]

In March 2014, she left ABC7 to join ESPN as a Washington, D.C.-based bureau reporter. She served as correspondent for various shows including SportsCenter , Outside the Lines , NFL Live and Baseball Tonight . [17] On April 27, 2017, McHenry announced on Twitter that she was being let go by ESPN, with the NFL Draft being her last assignment. McHenry was part of a 100-person layoff that included Ed Werder, Jayson Stark and Jay Crawford. [18] [19] In May 2018, McHenry tweeted that she was fired because she "was white and paid too much." [3]

Sexual harassment allegation

In 2019, McHenry accused FOX co-host and wrestler Tyrus of sexual harassment after he allegedly sent her a series of lewd text messages. [20] According to Fox News, the matter was investigated and resolved. However, on December 10, 2019, McHenry filed a sexual harassment suit [21] against Fox News and Murdoch. Subsequently, McHenry claimed that she lost the phone containing text messages she says are central to her claims. [22] In July 2021, she voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit and left the Fox network, apparently as part of a legal settlement. [23]

Towing incident

On April 16, 2015, a video of McHenry verbally berating and mocking a tow lot employee, Gina Michelle, using foul language was posted on LiveLeak. [24] McHenry later apologized on Twitter:

In an intense and stressful moment, I allowed my emotions to get the best of me and said some insulting and regrettable things... I am so sorry for my actions and will learn from this mistake. [25]

In response to the incident, ESPN suspended McHenry from the network for one week. [26] A day later, the towing company released a statement saying they did not want to see McHenry suspended or terminated as a result of her comments. [27] [28] [29]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medill School of Journalism</span> Journalism school of Northwestern University

The Medill School of Journalism is the journalism school of Northwestern University. It offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. It frequently ranks as the top school of journalism in the United States. Medill alumni include over 40 Pulitzer Prize laureates, numerous national correspondents for major networks, many well-known reporters, columnists and media executives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WJLA-TV</span> ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C.

WJLA-TV is a television station in Washington, D.C., affiliated with ABC. It is one of two flagship stations of Sinclair Broadcast Group, and is also sister to Woodstock, Virginia–licensed low-powered, Class A TBD station WDCO-CD and local cable channel WJLA 24/7 News. WJLA-TV's studios are located on Wilson Boulevard in the Rosslyn section of Arlington, Virginia, and its transmitter is located in the Tenleytown neighborhood of northwest Washington.

WJLA 24/7 News is an American regional cable news television channel in Washington, D.C., operated by ABC-affiliated station WJLA-TV owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. The channel provides 24-hour news coverage primarily focused on Washington, northern Virginia, and suburban areas of Maryland within the Washington metropolitan area. The channel shares studio facilities and offices with WJLA-TV and the Rosslyn-based Circa News in Arlington, Virginia. WJLA 24/7 News reaches more than 1.2 million cable television households within the D.C metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gretchen Carlson</span> American broadcast journalist (born 1966)

Gretchen Elizabeth Carlson is an American broadcast journalist, writer, and television personality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisa Bloom</span> American lawyer (born 1961)

Lisa Read Bloom is an American attorney known for advising Harvey Weinstein amid various sexual abuse allegations, and for representing women whose sexual harassment claims precipitated the firing of Bill O'Reilly from Fox News.

Pamela Ashley Brown is an American television reporter and newscaster. She is currently CNN's Chief Investigative Correspondent. She formerly worked for ABC Washington, D.C., affiliate WJLA-TV, and she is also fill-in and substitute anchor for CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and Erin Burnett OutFront. Brown occasionally provided the lead-in to "Politico's Video Playback"—a daily recap of the previous night's U.S. late-night talk shows.

Throughout its history, ESPN and its sister networks have been the targets of criticism for programming choices, biased coverage, conflict of interest, and controversies with individual broadcasters and analysts. Additionally, ESPN has been criticized for focusing too much on men's college basketball, LeBron James, Aaron Judge, Lionel Messi and football and very little on other sports such as the National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Baseball (MLB). Other criticism has focused on issues of race and ethnicity in ESPN's varying mediated forms, as well as carriage fees and issues regarding the exportation of ESPN content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rose McGowan</span> American actress and activist (born 1973)

Rósa Arianna "Rose" McGowan is an American actress and activist. After her film debut in a brief role in the comedy Encino Man (1992), she achieved recognition for her performance in the dark comedy The Doom Generation (1995), receiving an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Debut Performance. She had her breakthrough in the horror film Scream (1996) and subsequently headlined the films Going All the Way (1997), Devil in the Flesh (1998) and Jawbreaker (1999).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Rosen (journalist)</span> American journalist

James Samuel Rosen is an American journalist, television correspondent, and author, who is a former Washington, D.C. correspondent for the Fox News Channel.

Lisa Fletcher is an American television journalist. She is an investigative reporter and news anchor who has covered stories around the world - both for ABC News as a correspondent and various major-market television stations. She was previously the host of The Stream on Al Jazeera America based in Washington DC. She is currently with WJLA-TV in Washington, which is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Will Cain</span> American television host and political analyst (born 1975)

Charles Williams Cain is an American columnist, political analyst, and sports commentator. He is currently the co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend on Fox News. Previously, Cain had been a contributor for ESPN, joining the network in March 2015, working with the features unit and E:60 and appearing on First Take. He was the host of The Will Cain Show on ESPN Radio, which ran from January 2018 to June 2020. He has also been a contributor for Blaze Media and CNN, appearing frequently on Soledad O'Brien's morning program Starting Point.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laci Green</span> American YouTuber

Laci Green is an American YouTuber. Her content focuses on sex education; Green also hosted Braless, the first MTV YouTube channel, as part of a 12-week deal with MTV. The first episode aired November 4, 2014. In 2016, Time named her one of the 30 most influential people on the Internet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mina Kimes</span> American sports journalist (born 1985)

Mina Mugil Kimes is an American journalist who specializes in business and sports reporting. She has written for Fortune, Bloomberg News, and ESPN. She is a senior writer at ESPN and an analyst on NFL Live.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Spain</span> American sports reporter (born 1980)

Sarah Colby Spain is an American sports reporter. She works as an espnW.com columnist, ESPN Radio host, ESPN television personality and occasional SportsCenter reporter for ESPN.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kat Timpf</span> American television personality and comedian

Katherine Clare Timpf is an American libertarian columnist, television personality, reporter, and comedian. She is currently a regular panelist of Fox News Channel's Gutfeld! and appears as a contributor on various other Fox News shows. In 2017, Timpf co-hosted Fox News Specialists alongside Eric Bolling and Eboni K. Williams. As of June 2019, she hosts the Fox Nation show Sincerely, Kat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lauren Duca</span> American journalist

Lauren Duca is an American former journalist and political columnist. She formerly worked at Teen Vogue, where she had a column from 2017 to 2018 called "Thigh High Politics". Her book How to Start a Revolution (2019) is on young people and the future of American politics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Payne (American football)</span> American football player (born 1994)

Donald Payne is an American football linebacker for the Arlington Renegades of the United Football League (UFL). He played college football at Stetson and was signed by the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent in 2017 as the first player from Stetson to play in the NFL. He has also played for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Washington Football Team, Miami Dolphins, and San Francisco 49ers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MeToo movement</span> Social movement against sexual abuse and harassment

#MeToo is a social movement and awareness campaign against sexual abuse, sexual harassment and rape culture, in which people publicize their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. The phrase "Me Too" was initially used in this context on social media in 2006, on Myspace, by sexual assault survivor and activist Tarana Burke. The hashtag #MeToo was used starting in 2017 as a way to draw attention to the magnitude of the problem. "Me Too" empowers those who have been sexually assaulted through empathy, solidarity and strength in numbers, by visibly demonstrating how many have experienced sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BethAnn McLaughlin</span> Scientific researcher

BethAnn McLaughlin is an American neuroscientist, activist, and hoaxer. She is a former assistant professor of neurology at Vanderbilt University. Her research at Vanderbilt focused on neural stress responses and brain injury. After being denied tenure in 2017, she sought to have the decision overturned. The decision to deny tenure was upheld, and her employment at Vanderbilt ended in July 2019.

The National Women's Soccer League has undergone many allegations and reports of sexual harassment, misconduct, manipulation, pressure to lose an unhealthy amount of weight, sexual, verbal and emotional abuse, racist and sexist remarks, and the list goes on. These allegations of crossing professional boundaries with players led to formal investigations on the NWSL and many of its teams and coaches. Former US attorney general Sally Yates wrote in her report regarding the investigation how "Abuse in the NWSL is rooted in a deeper culture in women's soccer, beginning in youth leagues, that normalizes verbally abusive coaching and blurs boundaries between coaches and players," The investigations ultimately concluded that multiple forms of emotional abuse and sexual misconduct were systematic in the sport and were not a one-time occurrence; they impacted many teams, coaches, and players. This led to public protests by players and as a result, multiple coaches have been reprimanded for their behavior. Five out of 10 head coaches in the 2021 season were fired or stepped down due to misconduct allegations. Some of the more significant allegations include Coaches Riley, Dames, Burke, and Holly, who all faced harsh punishments resulting in being completely banned from coaching as well as having involvement in activities pertaining to the NWSL.

References

  1. Bondner, Brett (February 28, 2018). "Britt McHenry to host weekly news TV show". NY Daily News. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  2. "'Like It or Not,' Britt McHenry returns to D.C. airwaves with a weekly show". Washington Post. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  3. 1 2 Katz, A.J. (July 26, 2018). "Former ESPN Reporter Britt McHenry to Join Fox News". AdWeek.com. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  4. 1 2 "The ESPN reporter (and future Mrs. Chris Hemsworth) explains her quick rise up the sports television mountain and tells why her career aspirations have shifted from Mia Hamm to Robin Roberts". JeffPearlman.com. December 2, 2014. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  5. "ESPN's Britt McHenry: "I Blame Myself, but the Video Is Not Who I Am"". marieclaire.com. December 12, 2016. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  6. Sangalang, Jennifer. "ESPN lays off Britt McHenry, Satellite High grad". floridatoday.com. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  7. Manahan, Kevin. "ESPN disciplines snotty Mount Holly native Britt McHenry for obnoxious rant at attendant", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, April 16, 2015. Accessed October 8, 2017. "McHenry, 28, was born in Mount Holly Township in 1986. She graduated from Satellite High School in 2004, where she was a teammate of professional soccer player Ashlyn Harris."
  8. "All-time letterwinners". Stetson Women's Soccer 2009. Stetson University. September 24, 2009. p. 25. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
  9. "#29 Brittany McHenry". Stetson University. Archived from the original on January 16, 2005. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
  10. McHenry, Brittany (May 27, 2008). "Remember the troops, Army vet says, but get out of this war". Medill Reports. Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University. Archived from the original on September 30, 2011. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
  11. @BrittMcHenry (February 24, 2020). "MRI tomorrow for neck and brain. Never had one before, pretty nervous" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  12. @BrittMcHnenry (February 25, 2020). "I had good & bad news today. Overwhelmed by the support by friends & strangers alike. With the best surgeons and doctors. Just another thing to take on . Please I can't stress enough, make your check-ups. Get an MRI early. It could have saved me" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  13. @BrittMcHenry (February 27, 2020). "I was trying to keep this relatively private. But as usual, things are being said without my consent. I have a brain tumor. I'm with an amazing medical team and surgery is imminent. Thank you for continued support and understanding at this time" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  14. @BrittMcHenry (March 4, 2020). "I have brain surgery today. I'll be out recovering but had to say THANK YOU to former bosses, colleagues & friends from ESPN. Class act people. To @fox5dc, Fox News colleagues & @FDRLST for support. To EVERYONE reading this. Your kindness & words provided strength. #Fight pic.twitter.com/v5D7TRRrm8" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  15. "Satellite Beach Sportscaster Shines In Nation's Capital -". SpaceCoastDaily.com. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  16. Steinberg, Dan (March 12, 2014). "Britt McHenry on going to ESPN, but staying in D.C." Retrieved January 19, 2018 via www.WashingtonPost.com.
  17. "Britt McHenry". ESPN MediaZone. Archived from the original on April 17, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2015.
  18. Bonesteel, Matt; Boren, Cindy (May 1, 2017). "ESPN's massive round of layoffs hit familiar faces, including Marc Stein, Andrew Brandt and Adam Caplan" . Retrieved January 19, 2018 via www.WashingtonPost.com.
  19. "ESPN's former host Britt McHenry implies she was laid off over conservative views". FoxNews.com. June 27, 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  20. Ali, Yashar (July 11, 2019). "Fox News Contributor Tyrus Sent Lewd Texts To Colleague: 'Pull Your Boobs Out'". HuffPost . Archived from the original on July 12, 2019. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
  21. Darcy, Oliver (December 10, 2019). "Fox Nation host Britt McHenry files sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News". CNN . Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  22. Ellefson, Lindsey (January 21, 2021). "Fox Nation's Britt McHenry Lost the Phone Linked to Her Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Claims". TheWrap . Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  23. Falzone, Diana; Baragona, Justin (July 19, 2021). "Britt McHenry Settles Sexual Harassment Lawsuit With Fox News". The Daily Beast. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
  24. Raissman, Bob (April 18, 2015). "Gender bender at ESPN? If Britt (Brat) McHenry was a man, she'd be out of a job". New York Daily News. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
  25. Britt McHerny Tweet on X
  26. Mandell, Nina (April 16, 2015). "ESPN suspends Britt McHenry:Emotions [got] the best of me". ftw.usatoday.com . Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  27. Yates, Clinton; Larimer, Sarah (April 17, 2015). "Towing company releases statement following Britt McHenry suspension". Washington Post . Retrieved April 19, 2015.
  28. Parker, Ryan (April 17, 2015). "Tow company forgives Britt McHenry for rant, others out for blood". LA Times . Retrieved April 19, 2015.
  29. Freed, Benjamin (April 17, 2015). "Arlington Towing Company in Britt McHenry Video Has a Long History of Complaints". Washingtonian . Retrieved April 19, 2015.