When last we checked in with Britt McHenry, the former ESPN employee who found an opportunity with a Fox News web-based venture and ran with it, the Washington Post spent a lot of space to consider her as a person with depth, one who thinks carefully about the arguments she makes. Last weekend, she shared some insight on people who travel with children.
Via a reader:
Look, nobody enjoys a crying child in a public place, but it takes maybe a half-second of awareness to recognize that it isn’t a nice thing to say out loud, and the parents sure as hell don’t want their kid to shriek. Who’s exactly happy with that situation? That child’s probably not having a fun time either! It will pass, though. The tyke will calm down, and you can get back to an overpriced airport drink that would’ve been half as much anywhere else.
McHenry followed up this poor observation by emphasizing that she didn’t feel bad for it—a classic tactic with a low rate of success anywhere outside of a Fox News channel. One mom replied with a brutal firsthand experience, and McHenry followed that up with a doozy. (Please note the lil’ Facebook emoticons.)
It’s unclear how the rest of that conversation went, because I didn’t see the thread before it was deleted. The tipster had this update, though:
I should have clipped it all before she deleted it, but she ultimately allowed for an exception for cancer-stricken children. Huge credit to her.
She did go on to make an equivocation between children on planes and dogs being banned from the subway.
Outside of that just a lot of very angry moms.
After the dust settled, McHenry gave an apology to all the moms. Shoutout to the moms.
We all learned something today: Life is precious, but when it comes to transportation, just drive those suckers cross-country.