Miss America head Carlson seeking to mend pageant rifts
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox News host now in charge of the Miss America Organization, says the organization needs to heal a rift that has seen over a dozen state groups call for her and other top leaders to resign.
In an interview with The Associated Press that Carlson said would be her last on the subject, she said Miss America officials at all levels need to be “on the same page” and she hoped that would happen before the next Miss America is crowned in Atlantic City on Sept. 9.
“It would be important that we all try to come together and have a healing process,” she said.
Yet Carlson, chairwoman of the Miss America Organization, dismissed critics as “a noisy minority” unhappy over the elimination of the swimsuit competition from this year’s nationally televised broadcast and resistant to change in general.
Carlson, who was Miss America in 1989, also said on Tuesday the decision to eliminate the swimsuit competition has made the pageant more relevant and has been praised by many supporters who considered the pageant outdated and demeaning to women.
Twenty-two state-level pageant officials last month signed a letter expressing no confidence in Carlson, president and CEO Regina Hopper and the current board, claiming “Miss America 2.0 is simply a new title for the same old tactics of obfuscation and fear-based governance.” Three states have since disassociated themselves from the letter, the organization said Wednesday.
Several opponents told the AP actions are being considered for the week of the Miss America competition, including litigation, news conferences and public demonstrations outside Boardwalk Hall, where the pageant will take place. However, at least 30 former Miss Americas have voiced confidence in the current leadership.
Hopper said critics are unhappy that Miss America is eliminating the swimsuit competition, a staple of the pageant since it debuted in 1921.
Many opponents say Carlson and others presented the swimsuit elimination as an ultimatum.