I don’t think her comments were intended as a slight, but were just some ill-chosen words. Then Miss Couric overreacted and turned a proverbial molehill into a mountain. So when you think about it what did she say that’s so outrageous?
The network of Edward R. Murrow and Charles Collingwood, the network that once took on Joe McCarthy at his peak, caved to right-wing pressure and fired Dan Rather for daring to blow the whistle on our chickenhawk President’s war record and replaced him with with a lightweight cheesecake anchorwoman that can’t win the public’s respect. Couric has become a joke that’s dragged the CBS Evening News’ ratings to record lows. Rather has talked about the Evening News being “dumbed down and tarted up.” Rachel Smith is just starting her career, and she doesn’t want it to end that way; who would?
For the record, before she was Miss USA, she earned a journalism degree magna cum laude from a prestigious college and served an internship in the news department of a local TV station, so she’s entitled to her opinion on the subject. She’s already achieved far more than most young women her age (22), so based on her record there’s a good chance when she’s Couric’s age she’ll be taken more seriously than Couric is now.
And since you had the ill grace to mention her fall, I may as well set the record straight on that as well. The MSM usually attempt to justify the Mexicans’ booing by echoing their line it began after her fall. In fact, she was harassed and heckled every time she showed her face in public for weeks prior to the televised finals, and was even booed that night before she even came out on stage when tapes of the national costume competition were shown. Conditions were so threatening that night that pageant organizers had to increase security for fear that the hostile mob would storm the stage. Although her remarkable self-possession keeps it from showing in her expression, it was an act of courage for her even to appear on stage before a hostile mob numbering in the thousands; given the fatigue resulting from weeks of harassment and the added stress of possible physical danger, can we ever forgive a moments loss of focus resulting in a slip and fall? This was not a beauty pageant, this was a racist ambush, aimed not Rachel Smith but at you and me for our national origin, and Rachel Smith was the innocent victim who happened to be the scapegoat.
You might want to take a look at the videos of that pageant and consider the awesome grace, courage, and character with which she rose from that fall and faced alone the hatred of thousands directed against the national origin we all share.
I believe we are honored to be represented by such an extraordinary young woman.