Former Miss Americas Insulted By Organization's Request To Find New Leaders
Recent reports have revealed that e-mails between the chief executive officer of the Miss America Organization and a telecast Lewis Friedman contained offensive content against their pageant contestants. Further reports indicate that former Miss Americas have called the ensuing situation "insulting."
The e-mails between Haskell and Friedman were revealed by Huffington Post and it reveals the seemingly skewed morals of Haskell and those in the industry. Further e-mails reveal the correspondence between the chief executive officer, the board members, and pageant writers were able to ridicule the appearance, intellect, and identity of the contestants.
As is expected, it was met with outrage and as a result of the revelation, the board members called on the former Miss Americas to help them identify a new head of the organization. Former Miss Americas Mallory Hagan and Gretchen Carlson have found their request to be offensive and continue to ask the entire board to resign.
"The statement from the remaining Miss America board of directors is an insult to every Miss America and volunteer's intelligence," Hagan said, as reported by The Guardian. "Implying that the complicit members of the current board will now choose the new leadership for the forward movement of the Miss America Organization is laughable. I will not stop until Miss America is led by the people who embody the morals and values that the organization holds dear. Whether they knew about these emails or not only confirms their inability to effectively lead this multimillion-dollar nonprofit."
Miss America 1977, Dorothy Benham and former Miss North Carolina Jennifer Vaden Barth seem to share the exact sentiments of Hagan. Dick Clark Productions has meanwhile cut all their ties with the organization. The turbulence caused by the revelations is expected to worsen in the coming weeks and fans are waiting for more information on the future of the pageant itself.
