Former ESPN reporter and current Fox 5 DC political host Britt McHenry joined Outkick the Coverage Thursday to talk about a recent New York Times article citing a 2013 incident in Costa Rica concerning a Washington Redskins team cheerleading function that included beach photo shoots and promotional events.
The article alleges that the Redskins cheerleaders faced uncomfortable beachside working conditions apart of a bikini photo shoot for the team’s official calendar, including girls being ‘required’ to pose topless in a beach resort setting that reportedly allowed men close access to the shoots.
The article also stated that the cheerleaders had nightly assignments as ‘personal escorts’ for individuals who were FedEx Field suite holders. The activities did not include sexual advancements, but one woman mentioned in the article said it felt like the team was ‘pimping them out’.
McHenry, who has spent much of her career covering DC sports, including time with the Redskins, says she believes the Times article greatly souped up the victim angle on the story, and doesn’t really believe the women were as helpless as the article made them out to be.
“All these words were skewed, like ‘They HAD to be escorts’. NO, this is what cheerleaders do at charity events; they go into box suites and they accompany rich men watching the game. That’s part of promoting the team.”
McHenry said she wonders why the positive movement of women being empowered by proudly revealing their bodies in recent years is suddenly being manipulated by the New York Times and labeled as ‘objectification of women’, when females, of a cheerleading team no less, are asked to pose on a beach.
“I find it funny that people are saying ‘these cheerleaders shouldn’t be sexually objectified’… WHAT? Cheerleaders wear next to nothing on football fields. They knew they were going down to a foreign country to take a sexy photo shoot."
McHenry wonders why individuals who felt uncomfortable didn’t just leave, or pass on certain requests, and said the article was so dramatized about the idea of the girls being entrapped that it almost resembled another installment of the ‘Taken’ movie franchise with Liam Neeson.
“You’re telling me that one of these girls couldn’t say ‘this isn’t what I signed up for’ or 'I don’t feel comfortable to put on my swimsuit’? You’re really telling me somebody in that crew is going to say ‘absolutely not, that’s not allowed’? No, Of course not.”
Both McHenry and Clay Travis agreed that the most 'scathing' detail of the report that has gotten the most attention, that the girls' passports were collected, is actually pretty standard procedure for many high-end tourist hotels in other countries where theft and robberies of American passports could present a major liability, especially on a trip with that many people.
“If you’re going on a huge trip with thirty-six girls, I’m guessing that there was a coordinator, a ‘Mom’ of the group, that said ‘Hey everybody, we’re going to put these in a safe because the team doesn't want to be held responsible if someone is left behind.”
Clay Travis: "When my wife and I checked in at a hotel they took our passports and we said ‘Why do you need our passports?’ and they said ‘Because we have an issue of them getting stolen, even in these fancy hotels, so we’d rather keep them for you in our safe behind the desk and we will give them to you when you check out’ and they did.”
McHenry thinks it’s just another classic case of media hypocrisy.
“It’s just perpetuating victimhood with every story we see now coming out,” McHenry said. “I’m sorry, America doesn’t feel sorry for you that you went to a huge boat party. You didn’t have to go on the yacht and you didn’t have to fly down – all expenses paid – to a beautiful island resort and take a photo shoot."
Listen to the full audio from this segment below:
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