So that's why Television Without Pity killed the "Housewives" thread

As we noted yesterday on the Ticker (thanks Sanj), TV Without Pity killed off the "Real Housewives of Orange County" thread at the advice of lawyers.

We thought: Strange.

Now the other shoe has dropped.  Bravo is buying TWoP ... which supposedly had been losing money and once almost shut down.

But don't pity the loss of a supposedly independent TV critblog. I'm in sympathy with the poster to Alan Sepinwall's blog who wrote,

"TWoP gets far more press than is warranted. ... The ‘without pity’ portion of their name is the biggest joke around. They have the position of 'snark' and lobbing spitballs from the back row, but do not allow any other poster the same luxury if they have a different opinion. Nothing gets you banned faster than just a simple disagreement with the general consensus of the board. It really is a lesson in cult formation and mind washing to see how complicit the posters on that board become in relation to the moderator."

In the case of TWoP, it seems the answer is “out.”

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MO' FROM MO: Maureen Ryan transcribed the conference call today. 

I'm still not sold.  The episode descriptions on TWoP are interminable, the discussions are impenetrable.  And I'm reading too many comments from ordinary viewers about the "Hitlerish" forum moderators on TWoP.  I guess things haven't changed much since I stopped reading.  But maybe that's why the site appeals to Hollywood types — finally, viewers as insecure as we are!