Miss New Jersey girl just wanted to have fun!

It was perhaps the most ridiculous story I've ever seen on "The Today Show." The winner of the nearly insignificant Miss New Jersey beauty pageant, Amy Polumbo, found her victory in jeopardy because of pictuers she had privately posted to her Facebook profile.

As this once-respectable NBC News morning show descended into a new level of tabloid hell, Palumbo appeared mortified, deciding to reveal "in a TODAY show exclusive" the photos that created this maelstrom of controversy for people who obviously have nothing better to do than judge a 22-year old girl who took some pictures of her party moments.
Most of us, I am sure, have had these "party moments" in one form or another. Polumbo had pictures of -- gasp -- her boyfriend consensually grabbing her breast, or her drunkenly raising her legs in a suggestive manner fully clothed. What is so shocking and disconcerting about any of this?
It's not the nature of those photos, I think only the repressed, judgmental and perhaps even sexist would dare suggest that the photos she took were disturbing. These are photo moments we all have tucked away somewhere, or perhaps, in what may be a bad move, posted them on the Internet.
What is most disturbing is that these photos were taken long before she decided to compete for the Miss New Jersey Beauty Pageant (a beauty pageant for New Jersey has a irony all its own), long before she ever intended to be a public figure. But who is so blind and naive to society to think that a 22-year old doesn't drink alcohol or flirts with her boyfriend? Who cares if they took pictures? Why is this even on TV?
As TODAY breathlessly began its segment this morning and slapped that EXCLUSIVE banner all over its shameful broadcast, Matt Lauer asked Polumbo how she felt about her drunken photos being revealed on a national-television slideshow: "I feel sick to my stomach, I really do," she said, almost in tears. "They were meant to be private."
But she said it was a pre-emptive strike to keep her beauty queen crown, an effort to save her Miss New Jersey title. As the photos streamed across the screen, one could only wince at the stupidity of it all. I couldn't help but feel squeamish looking at moments she never intended for me to see, almost apologizing to Matt Lauer for being drunk or letting a friend of hers playfully touch her boob.
Midway through this ridiculous photo montage, Matt Lauer uttered perhaps the most sane statement of the whole segment: "Part of me is looking at these photos, saying, thank goodness they didn't have Facebook when I was in college because I'm not sure what would be out there right now of me."
He should have gone on to state that it really isn't so bad to have fun, and that it is time for us to stop turning every harmless moment of private fun into something public.