The Revamped Miss America Pageant Is Under Attack, Again

THERE SHE IS

As Gretchen Carlson and Regina Hopper try to make over the competition, they can’t seem to catch a break.

by KENZIE BRYANT

AUGUST 20, 2018 2:42 PM

Gretchen Carlson smiles on a red carpet.
By Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images.

A growing group of Miss Americas are mobilizing against the current leadership—namely to criticize Regina Hopper, president and C.E.O. of the Miss America Organization and former Miss Arkansas ’83, and Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox News host and whistleblower against Roger Ailes’s alleged sexual abuses at the network, who was named chairwoman of the M.A.O. board in January. (Carlson was also crowned Miss America in 1989.) On Friday, reigning Miss America, Cara Mund of North Dakota, spoke out about what she described as a lack of respect toward her from the new board, claiming for the first time publicly that the board has “silenced me, reduced me, marginalized me, and essentially erased me in my role as Miss America.”

Now, Suzette Charles, Miss New Jersey 1983, and Heather Whitestone, Miss America 1995, appeared on Megyn Kelly’s NBC morning program as a show of support to Mund. “Gretchen has been bullying for a long time. Actually, she’s bullied my sister here, Heather Whitestone,” Charles told Kelly on Monday. “There were some incidents in the past that she’s bullied. Our current office in Atlantic City—five people resigned in the office . . . this person [Carlson] has taken no responsibility for the way she’s treated our current Miss America.”

Mund and the others join a vocal group of state-level directors that spoke out against new leadership in July. (Twenty-two people originally signed a petition of “no confidence.”) The new board was instated after an e-mail leak in December 2017 exposed vulgar language that Sam Haskell, the longtime executive chairman and chief executive officer of Miss America, used to refer to the crowned winners. In the e-mails, he disparaged their sex lives, weight, and their looks. He and another member of the board who participated in denigrating pageant winners resigned.

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Carlson, Hopper, and several other former titleholders were appointed to the board to do damage control and reimagine the pageant—rebranded “competition”—for a post-#MeToo world. One of their first big ideas was voting to cut the swimsuit portion entirely. Ever since, they’ve dealt with backlash from former winners and pageant participants who have accused the new leadership of manipulating and strong-arming, all while working to deliver what they call “Miss America 2.0” to ABC in time for the September 9 broadcast.

Mund, a Brown graduate who has expressed hopes of running for office in her home state, wrote a five-page letter to former Miss Americas that alleged a pattern of bullying. “My voice is not heard nor wanted by our current leadership, nor do they have any interest in knowing who I am and how my experiences relate to positioning the organization for the future,” she wrote. Mund said she was given three talking points to work with that included noting the relevancy of the organization, that “the #MeToo movement started with a Miss America,” referencing Carlson’s efforts to expose Ailes, and that both she and Carlson went to an Ivy League school. She alleged that because sponsors weren’t secured, she had to pay for her own clothes, her wardrobe choices were criticized, and that she‘s been left out of interviews. Hopper once referred to her by the wrong name, she said.

Charles, whom Carlson appointed to work with the competition’s host, Atlantic City, told Kelly on Monday morning, “I think there was a conference call this past weekend that she sent an e-mail to 63 of the former Miss Americas. I responded that there are no words in the English language that would suffice her justifying how this young lady was treated,” and called for her resignation along with the rest of the board.

Kelly, who was Carlson’s former colleague at Fox News and joined her in accusations against their boss at the time, has spoken out about the decision to get rid of the swimsuit portion of the show. “The reality is: no one is going to want to watch the pageant,” Kelly said in a June segment on her show. “If you're looking for the smartest woman in America, you should be at M.I.T.—you shouldn’t be at Miss America, with all due respect. The people watch for the bathing-suit competition, among the other pieces of it, but not to get a dissertation on whatever it is they are going to be talking about.”

When asked why Mund had been “downgraded to appearances at a Dairy Queen,” Whitestone said, “It’s all about her. She wants to be the face of the Miss America Organization. Gretchen.”

Elsewhere in the morning-show universe, Miss America 2010 Caressa Cameron-Jackson told Paula Faris on Good Morning America that the board, and especially Carlson, should resign.

“I feel as though all of the leadership, to include the board of directors, is complicit in this,” she said. “In order for us to move forward and to actually heal, we need to do the right thing right now, so that we can move on and focus on who’s gonna be crowned Miss America.”

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Carlson responded to Mund’s letter, telling People, “I want to be clear that as a proponent of women my entire life. I have never bullied Cara Mund. We have supported Cara for her entire year, and we will continue to support her. It’s just disappointing that she chose to air her grievance publicly and not privately.”

She also wrote a letter of her own, and one that’s in part directed to Mund. “Actions have consequences," Carlson wrote. “Friday, as an organization, we learned that $75,000 in scholarships which would have been the first scholarship increase in years, is no longer on the table as a direct result of the explosive allegations in your letter.”

“The impact won’t stop there,” Carlson added. “We are already seeing a negative ripple effect across the entire organization, and I am so concerned that it will dilute the experience for the next woman selected to wear the crown.”

She wrote that she was disappointed that Mund chose a public avenue for airing her grievances, and that their team has reached out privately to address the issues.

Carlson declined to comment further on the calls for her resignation. Hopper has not issued a personal statement.

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/08/miss-america-20-gretchan-carlson-calls-for-resignation