Gretchen Carlson's detractors fear she's attaching her #MeToo mission to the Miss America pageant

The Washington Post

Carlson's leadership, including last month's shock announcement that the swimsuit competition would be scrapped, has divided the Miss America pageant world. According to Amy Argetsinger, "many feel that Carlson’s team misled the pageant world about the reason for last month’s surprise announcement to drop the swimsuit competition and that this year’s contestants are left with a hazy sense of the rules for the Sept. 9 competition. Carlson responded in an interview: 'Change is difficult.'" Argetsinger adds that Carlson's detractors fret that she "is projecting her own brand — as a fierce, brainy commentator who helped launch a movement when she sued Fox News CEO Roger Ailes for sexual harassment — on an organization that, for all its eager attempts at social relevance, still wants to be fun." Carlson's critics also say they are concerned about "transparency." State pageant directors were told the swimsuit competition might affect Miss America's home at ABC, but they then noticed that ABC already shows more risqué subject matter on The Bachelor. Meanwhile, Carlson denies misleading anyone, and calls her detractors a "vocal minority."