Unwrapped Meat Wrap-Up

From The WaPo's Right Now:

And more reader insight:

No surprise here. Affirmative action was first applied in beauty contests for black women to win in the 1980s, then it was the turn of Latin, brown skinned women, and now it's Muslims. That's why most people ignore these rigged "events." They are money losers and require controversy.

This comes not from a penny ante blogger but from a former State Department staffer, former member of the United States Institute of Peace (holding a recess appointment after being filibustered by Democrats), and former adviser to Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign. Just wow.

Double fucking wow. We are particularly amused because the brief bio given is almost word for word from one we read in the last wk. or so, though we can't remember the cretin's name. Someone who cared might look it up, but we can't imagine anyone caring.

The extrapolation & projection that the scaredy-pants crowd applies to these pageants strikes this reporter as even odder than their approach to actually (Potentially, at least.) entertaining culture, summed up at alicublog (And Mr. Edroso's summary of the pageant reax.):

These guys seem to think all film, video, and broadcast products are documentaries. It's a wonder they haven't denounced Citizen Kane for its anti-business message.

That we can understand. It's product that people give a shit about, because they pay for it, often going so far as to leave the house to consume it. Plots, characters & themes change, straw-graspers can find something to interpret to their advantage, & box office returns can be used to back one's point. But beauty pageants are strictly tee vee phenomena, time- & channel-fillers virtually unchanged since the Roaring Twenties. The channel-occupying hasn't been so hot lately either. The Miss America mess, from March of this yr.:

There she is, Miss Homeless America.

TLC announced on Monday that it wouldn't renew its deal to run the Miss America Pageant, the one-time major TV event that has fallen on hard times over the past decade.

Decision came despite the event's ratings uptick this year -- thanks in part to the controversial decision to tap Rush Limbaugh as a judge.

"We are happy that TLC was part of the modernization and revitalization of the Miss America pageant," the channel's execs said in a statement. "This year we delivered record ratings, besting any of its prior performances on cable. However, our three-year deal has concluded, and we have chosen not to renew. We wish the Miss America Organization well."

Miss America has been struggling to find its relevance ever since NBC dumped the pageant after 30 years in 1997 -- embarking instead on a relationship with Donald Trump and Miss USA.

ABC picked up Miss America in 1997 but watched as the franchise continued its ratings decline (nearly 50% during its nine-year run) -- and finally dropped the pageant in 2005. After that, CMT stepped up to save the event, running it in 2006 and 2007. TLC then took it over for the last three years.

Why such uproar over cultural product that's increasingly ignored? The controversy ginned up by reaction to a raghead win is because, per Weigel's correspondent waaaay up there, these are money losers that require controversy. Did the short-fingered vulgarian put the fix in because he's in debt to a bunch of Ay-rabs? Or just for the controversy, which some typists are more than happy to provide him, perpetuating the money losers, which need the contro ... Aaaaahh!

Head spinning. Must get breakfast.

Note: No T&A images, though it could appear perfectly legit. Also resisted urge to post a picture of Trump or a reactionary & type: "Ass! Ha ha!"