A journalist has been fired from her anchor job after claiming that she had been mistreated an exclusive restaurant in Mexico City, and harassing of one of its employees in a viral video.
Claudia Mollinedo and three of her female friends gathered for Saturday dinner at upscale restaurant Bagatelle, but stayed well past the venue’s official closing time of 1am.
The former actress claimed that after running up a bill of 25,000 pesos – around $1,330 – the staff turned on the lights at 1:30 am and then began to clean the restaurant before telling them it was already time for them to leave.
The upset group stood in front of Bagatelle while Mollinedo went on a full tirade.
‘[We are] outraged because here in this restaurant called Bagatelle in Polanco where we paid almost 25,000 pesos for the bill, they kicked us out, they left us outside,’ Mollinedo said in the recording that she posted on her Instagram Stories.
‘In the street, literally, 1:30 in the morning’ one of her friends then said while cutting her off.
Mollinedo then jumped in and said that they were told to leave ‘because they had to close.’
Her friends appeared bothered that the workers asked ‘four ladies’ to abandon the restaurant ‘because they close at 1.’
Mollinedo explained that the workers brought out their brooms to start cleaning and slammed them for treating them like thugs and kicking them out.
‘They turned on the lights, started sweeping, and still escorted us out. It was as if we were criminals, not having paid the bill, and a bill as expensive as the one we had to pay,’ she said.
‘We’ve eaten in much nicer places, where they respect your stay until the last minute, and here they treated us like criminals.’
Moments later, Mollinedo confronted one of the workers who allegedly had led them out of Bagatelle.
‘Then, it was this man who escorted us,’ she said while focusing her cell phone’s camera on him. ‘Look, this man was the one who escorted us.’
The worker then snapped, ‘Here we close at 1, it’s not how you want.’
The viral confrontation caught the attention of Mollinedo’s bosses at Imagen Television, where she was fired Monday, local news outlets reported
Mollinedo was also suspended from her columnist gig at El Independiente.
‘Our media outlet does not share your point of view and will therefore suspend its weekly collaboration until the events are clarified,’ El Independiente said in a statement.
Imagen Television has yet to publicly comment on Mollinedo’s termination.
The veteran journalist took to Instagram on Monday evening and offered a mea culpa for her actions.
Mollinedo acknowledged that her video was ‘reckless and, above all, poorly presented’ and that she used poor judgment in posting it online.
‘I understand that the video seemed arrogant, haughty, and even overbearing,’ she said. ‘I assure you that’s not me, and those who know me professionally and personally and have been with me for more than 14 years of experience know this.’
Mollinedo accepted Imagen Television’s decision to dismiss her and admitted that her position at the network didn’t place her above anybody else.
‘I don’t consider myself superior to anyone, I don’t consider myself untouchable. It was never my intention to use my voice to harm or discredit anyone,’ she said.
‘If I offended anyone, if I created an offensive image, and unintentionally contributed to hate speech that doesn’t respect my values, I sincerely apologize,’ Mollinedo added.
‘I’m going to take this time to reflect and, above all, to rebuild myself with truth and empathy.’
Mollinedo’s social media followers did not warm up to her apolody.
‘The video didn’t “seem” like it, the video *showed* your way of being and that of your friends,’ one person commented.
‘By the way, you apologize to half the world, but doesn’t the worker you exposed and filmed without permission deserve an apology,’ another follower said.
‘Your tone of voice and body language are so neutral that it seems dishonest,’ one person said. ‘I don’t know who’s advising you, but it’s awful.’