Towing Firm Doesn't Want ESPN Reporter to Lose Job

The towing company involved in the viral video that got an ESPN reporter suspended appears content to let the matter drop and doesn't want to see Britt McHenry get fired. In a statement, Advanced Towing of Arlington, Va., cuts McHenry some slack after she got caught viciously berating a company clerk. The towing business is "contentious by nature," it says, and McHenry "is human and errors in judgement can be made in the heat of the moment." The statement, printed in full at the Washington Post, adds that the clerk, Gina Michelle, "holds no ill will toward Ms. McHenry."

Its use of the word "contentious" is right: The Washingtonian reports that Advanced accrued 44 police complaints last year and has an F rating with the Better Business Bureau. McHenry herself has apologized for the rant, but some think she's getting off easy with only a suspension. A typical view there: "We all get mad," writes Rex Huppke at the Chicago Tribune. "We all say dumb things. But most of us don’t say cruel things repeatedly and with such apparent ease." (More ESPN stories.)