Britt McHenry’s one-week suspension is an embarrassing slap on the wrist from a network that has been doling out so many harsh suspensions recently that it’s like Roger Goodell on a power trip. McHenry, as you may know by now, was caught on video cursing and belittling a tow-truck company employee in a video that quickly went viral on Thursday. For that, ESPN sidelined her for a single week.

While Bill Simmons gets a three-week suspension for calling out his bosses and Tony Kornheiser is set aside for two weeks for commenting on Hannah Storm’s wardrobe, McHenry was shelved for just seven days for her mean, caustic diatribe. It’s a misguided system of justice: ESPN considers ESPN-on-ESPN smack-talk to be worse than ESPN sneering at the rest of the world. It’s a joke.

It’s a joke that will soon be on ESPN, though. Caught-on-video rants that spread across the web don’t blow over as quickly as silly comments from Stephen A. Smith. They are kept on the Internet and mocked forever. Britt McHenry will be the Christian Bale of a new generation. (Link and video are NSFW.)

While McHenry’s apology starts off with a mini-defense of herself, it eventually hits the right notes, even if she never actually apologizes to the employee — the only person who deserves one. But it’s all phony. That wasn’t the attitude of someone having a bad day. That wasn’t someone frustrated by an employee at a tow-truck operator and looking to blow off a little steam. We’ve all been there and (hopefully) didn’t denigrate the man or woman responsible for not having a degree, nor rip on a cashier for simply doing her job. A bad day is cursing at someone or driving away from that tow-truck company and flipping the bird. Those are the sort of slip-ups that make us human. What McHenry did is an attitude based on power and entitlement.

I’m sure countless famous people have done the same thing, without the misfortune of being videotaped. But you can’t feel bad for McHenry on that one: She kept going after she knew the video camera was running.

The reason Brian Williams likely won’t be back at NBC isn’t because he’s a bad guy or can’t read the news. It’s because, in theory, he’s supposed to be held to a higher standard. He comes onto our TV sets every night to deliver the news. If he can’t be trusted, then his value to NBC is next to nil.

McHenry didn’t lie, she just reamed out an employee who was presumably doing her job, playing the old “don’t you know who I am?” card in the process. She used her own good looks and relative wealth and stature to belittle a woman working a gig that can’t pay much more than minimum wage.

Reading off basketball scores isn’t like reporting from Syria but, at their essence, the job of Williams and McHenry is the same: Represent your company well and have the comportment, confidence and trust of someone we want to let into our homes every night.

After that video and the seven-day vacation it brought, how can ESPN expect anyone in America to do that for Britt McHenry?