I want a chopper...can you please get that arranged? Or a tank. That'd be pretty badass too.
The difference is this guy used it as an attention grab by forwarding it to the media.
Needless to say, Pollard should already know how to deal with criticism at all levels, including people making offensive remarks via email, phone, in person, etc. If you have a job as "high profile" as his, it's something you hopefully know how to deal with after a handful of years on the job regardless of whether you've made the mistake of "lashing out" at someone and then regretted it or not.
Even if you are extremely angry at what someone says to you and it's even majorly offensive to you, if you are in that high profile position and your words have your name (or image) attached to them, you should probably take a step back and realize what you're saying. You are not only representing yourself, but you're representing an entire part of, or whole of, an organization.