I doubt that there’s much more that could or should be said about the Duggars that hasn’t been covered in places like Gawker. Dad Jim-Bob’s reasonable centrist view that incest should be punished by death is far more interesting now that we know that his oldest son is a practitioner of that ancient sin. Re-watching old Duggar interviews with the knowledge of what went on in their house sure is creepy. And can we finally call Mike Huckabee’s race to the bottom finished now that he’s jumped to Josh’s defense? (Probably not–I’m sure there’s some Quiverfull puppy strangler who’s being unjustly attacked because he’s a bible-believing Christian, and we all know Huckabee will be there to defend him.)
What’s more interesting to me than the Duggars is their enablers, TLC. Without their specials and reality show, the Duggars would be another set of inbred yokels using God’s special gift of food stamps and Medicaid to raise their dozen-plus homeschooled child abuse victims. Their highest moment of fame would be a few minutes at a tent revival, or a feature piece in the local Penny Saver, next to the ad for driveway repair.
Instead, these despicable morons had years of sympathetic publicity for a show that should have been titled “When will Michelle’s uterus finally explode?”. Their Quiverfull nonsense is now nationwide news, thanks to the molester-enablers at TLC. Almost 10 years ago, Oprah’s production staff heard the rumors about the Duggars and cancelled their appearance. The only reasonable conclusion from that fact is that TLC didn’t know that the Duggars were harboring a child molester because they didn’t look. Similarly, TLC didn’t know that Honey Boo-Boo’s mom was dating a convicted child molester because they wanted the fat stacks to keep on coming.
How much more profit will TLC be able to make from the misery of children before they are shut down?
Betty Cracker
Good question about TLC’s role in this mess. But I must take issue with your alternate title for the now-cancelled show about these hyper-fertile, child-molesting lunatics — it should have been called “Vagina: It’s Not a Clown Car.”
jon
The Lernin’ Channel and The Histry Channel have finally become what y’alls intended: the place to watch actors in Redneck Face do their thang.
Not all of them are actors? Oh, never mind that! Unless we have to.
ThresherK
@jon: But where else would I learn about Sasquatch mating with aliens if the History Channel did not provide?
constitutional mistermix
@Betty Cracker: That is a better title. Also, that pic was probably taken around the time that Josh had fallen in league with Satan…
Kathleen
I heard on the radio this morning that several big advertisers have bailed, General Mills being the first. Southern Beale had an interesting post/discussion about whether Discovery (the parent company) could be held legally liable for anything. If nothing else, I would think shareholders might have a possible suit if profits/dividends suffer. But yes, they enabled this abuse if they knew, and I have to think someone in that organization had to know.
https://southernbeale.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/was-discovery-communications-complicit-in-covering-up-a-crime-inquiring-minds/
PurpleGirl
When I first got cable service (1993, because it took NYC 20 years or more to fight out the franchise stuff for the outer boroughs and Manhattan above 96th St.), The Learning Channel was great. The other Discovery channel that has changed (and not been improved) is Arts & Entertainment. Discovery Communications, Inc. is right to refer to them with initials because they have little to no connection to former content.
Both channels had good documentaries and series. The Silk Road was incredible; it has a complicated and convoluted broadcast history but I so wish it could be seen again. Another show I remember and wish I could see again, was about the Eleusian Mysteries and worship. My Saturday afternoon line up was Silk Road, Renegade and Highlander.
Pee Cee
The Learning Channel never made it into the 21st century. Its brains were scooped out, and it’s been a zombie ever since. Now, it merely feasts on the brains of whoever is unlucky enough to tune in.
Patrick
TLC showed its colors when it gave so much airtime to Sarah Palin a few years ago. Since then I just treat it like I treat FoxNews, ie I never have it on.
Mr. Twister
I don’t watch any of the big three network news shows, so my question is how much has this been covered on the “Nightly” news by the MSM ?
gogol's wife
I think People magazine has to take a hit for this too. They have Duggars on the cover every other week.
Gin & Tonic
@Kathleen: Walgreen’s is out, too. Once this kind of thing starts, there’s no going back.
GregB
TLC already has a new show queued up to replace this debacle.
Meet the Goat Fuckers.
Belafon
About the only objection I have with your statement is that TLC didn’t enable the child molesting: He would have done it regardless.
rikyrah
NOT ONE of these right-wing muthaphuckas have stood up for THE VICTIMS.
THE VICTMS OF CHILD MOLESTATION.
NOT ONE of them have spoken up for the victims.
Kathleen
@Mr. Twister: I heard on the Today Show yesterday morning that the TV critic for WaPo wrote that TLC should keep the show on because it would be great reality TV if viewers could watch the Duggars deal with this on the show. I did not read the article myself, so I can’t attest to Today’s interpretation. (I believe the Duggars were somewhat regular guests on the Today Show.)
Since I don’t watch nightly “News” on any channel, I don’t know if or how the mainstream media are “reporting” this but agree that it would be interesting to know. I may have to break down and watch broadcast “news” tonight just to see.
dubo
Not much more to be said? I’ve seen some commentary on the hypocrisy, but I’ve been waiting for the exploration of “Imagine if an LGBT (or even black) celebrity and leader in their rights movement was outed as a child molester, and then it was further revealed that their entire community knew and covered it up, and that furthermore a significant number of authority figures in the community were ALSO child molesters, and a liberal presidential candidate leapt to their defense and attacked their critics… Jesus christ can you IMAGINE the reaction of this country and its lawmakers?”
SuperHrefna
I beg to differ. The only reasonable conclusion from that fact is that TLC have known about this the whole time and have been hiding it from us so they could continue on with the show.
The amazing thing to me is that they still haven’t cancelled it, even after major advertisers blackballed it. They’re not screening it right now, but it still isn’t cancelled. They’re still hoping to carry on with this mockery of a wholesome family. There needs to be a boycott, and an investigation into what is going on at TLC now that their two biggest shows have descended into admitted child molestation.
Belafon
@PurpleGirl: I blame a lot of this on Wall Street. We watch a lot of Cartoon Network, and one day they decided to include a live action show. “But we’re Cartoon Network.” Other than occasionally showing a kids movie, there’s almost no live action on the channel (ignoring Adult Swim).
TLC was told “you have to make more money than last year” rather than just sticking with what they are good at.
PurpleGirl
@ThresherK: You forgot the conspiracy theories swirling around The Freemasons.
DanF
TLC: See no evil, hear no evil, make a pile of cash.
I wonder what affect the Internet has had on programming choices by TLC and the “History (of aliens and Nazi’s) Channel”. What is the demographic for Honey Boo Boo’s Family Eats and Meet the Duggar’s Va-Jay-Jay? My initial reaction is probably very little, and that these shows appeared because of the low-cost and relative popularity of reality TV, but maybe not. These channels have really gone down the cultural crapper the more people seek their entertainment on line. Are the same people who watch these programs the same people who only have extended basic cable? Need moar data.
Kathleen
@rikyrah: rikyrah, I don’t know if anyone in the media have spoken up for the children. What little coverage I’ve heard is focused on well he was just a kid and how did the family handle it and have the victims forgiven him and are they doing OK blah blah blah. I guess no one in the media wants to “offend” its affluent God fearing white Christian demographic.
TaMara (BHF)
People watch this crap. I can’t even….TLC sucks for offering these shows – didn’t they also do the car crash known as Jon and Kate plus 8 – or watch our marriage dissolve before your eyes? They were the gateway drug to the rest of this having more children than you can support sideshow.
But people watch and that is what makes me crazy.
DanF
@GregB: Starring Mickey Kaus.
Pee Cee
@SuperHrefna:
To be fair, the “never admit you’re wrong” defense does actually work well with the type of person who’d watch the show. See also, Duck Dynasty.
Aardvark Cheeselog
I don’t watch TV, so I know about this phenomenon only through osmosis. While aware of the Duggars in a general way, I didn’t realize their show was on TLC, the which I was under the impression was an educational channel. I just looked up the schedule of what they have on offer today. Holy shit, talk about a bill of fare that is guaranteed to make the viewer stupider after he watches than before he started.
The History Channel, I was aware that they seem to seldom actually have any history shows. I didn’t realize how completely irrelevant their name is to their programming until I looked at today’s schedule.
The executives of these organizations ought to be scourged to death with lashes of razor wire, for the cold-blooded murder of basic decency.
Karen in GA
What else would you expect from a proud papa?
@PurpleGirl: Yep, we got it in ’92 in Brooklyn. Being a teenager in the 80s without MTV so totally sucked!
But yeah, I remember TLC being informative, and Bravo showing foreign films. I feel old. (Get off my lawn, basic cable, and take your kiddy-diddlers with you.)
phantomist
The best-paid chief executive of a large American company was David Zaslav, head of Discovery Communications, the pay-TV channel operator that is home to “Shark Week.” His total compensation more than quadrupled to $156.1 million in 2014 after he extended his contract.
Les Moonves, of CBS, held on to second place in the rankings, despite a drop in pay from a year earlier. His pay package totaled $54.4 million.
Molestation pays.
Benw
The Duggars: we tuned in for the preachy moralizing, we stayed for the incest.
Karen in GA
@dubo: IOKIYAR. No matter what “it” is. That’s how mindless some of these bastards are.
PurpleGirl
@SuperHrefna:
They’re not screening it right now…
Yes, the Discovery channels cycle through their shows — each shows ‘season’ is different and they have other shows waiting in the wings for screening.
Pee Cee
@Aardvark Cheeselog:
Is there any cable channel that does show what was originally promised?
MTV? Nope.
M2 (spun off of MTV because there wasn’t room for music videos on MTV)? Nope.
VH1? Music first? Ha!
I guess the price we pay for having our nice “good TV” shows on places like HBO is that nearly everything else is absolute bottom-of-the-barrel “reality” trash.
FlipYrWhig
I miss What Not To Wear, my favorite TLC show. But the promos on that for other TLC shows were beyond repellent. Every show was almost literally a freak show. I know “reality” is cheap programming and a hit is pure profit but dayamn this has to end.
Barney
Hold on a moment, C-Mis. “Without their specials and reality show, the Duggars would be another set of inbred yokels using God’s special gift of food stamps and Medicaid to raise their dozen-plus homeschooled child abuse victims.” No, Jim Bob was not just a wingnut who decided to set up a website saying he was running for US Senator. He was already, in 2002, at the heart of the Arkansas Republican party.
This was a man who already had major influence over his state’s criminal law. It was the photo of him leading his Stepford Family that got him national attention:
NonyNony
@Pee Cee:
Note the difference in model for the basic cable vs. premium cable channels. If you want HBO or Showtime you have to pay directly for it, and that provides incentive for the channel to cater to a small number of highly loyal viewers. Basic cable channels are bundled together into blocks and so to justify their purchase to cable companies the channel operators have to have a broad viewing audience because otherwise either the cable company will pay a lower price for your bundle or just chop it altogether.
A la carte pricing would destroy most of the basic cable channels because they’re all channels that nobody cares deeply about but a large group will turn to if “nothing else is on”. But at this point I’d welcome the destruction – there are only about 5 basic channels that would be worth saving anyway. The rest of them destroyed themselves years ago.
Pee Cee
And now we have confirmation of exactly what that book title means.
JPL
@Kathleen: I read the article and the author was in denial because the duggar’s would not confront the issue honestly. The next day another WP writer wrote a more accurate post.
She mentioned Elizabeth Smart’s struggle because she thought no one would want a used body. The victims of the Duggar’s apparently didn’t receive counseling. Their religion, blames the victim.
boatboy_srq
@jon: Histry and Larnin’ both depend heavily on their backers (i.e. funding); if your backing is a (comparatively) narrow group of business interests, your material will be tailored to those interests at the expense of objectivity. Your point is interesting: is DCI in the business of producing edutainment, or merely promoting Redneckery? And if the latter, how does that square with the primary sponsorship of the programming? (Serious questions, not snark). A cursory look at Advance Publications, their primary stakeholder, shows some center-to-center-right tendencies but nothing especially egregious.
Chris
@boatboy_srq:
What’s the history channel’s business backers’ interest in promoting alien and yeti conspiracy theories?
Karen in GA
Doesn’t the mother use blanket training on them as babies? Put them on a blanket, then smack them if they try to crawl off — it teaches them to sit still for as long as the parent wants them to, out of fear they’ll be hurt if they try to explore. I remember reading in a few places, long before the molestation was revealed, that she does that, but can’t find confirmation.
PurpleGirl
I like to watch shows about the Freemasons. I find them to be quite funny.
In the 1980s and early 1990s I worked with a friend who was a Freemason. Doug wanted to be an actor and producer. He worked as a bike messenger during the day and did theatre stuff at night. For a few years he produced abridged ‘scenes from’ plays for Masonic lodges as fund raisers. I helped him in different capacities. We used different lodge rooms in the headquarters on 23rd St. For example, we did Scenes from 1776 in the Colonial Room, which as its names implies is decorated as a meeting room would have been in the Colonial period. He also catered cocktail hours for a couple of lodges with their offices at 23rd St. One of these was the (spacing name) lodge which was the lodge George Washington and a bunch of Founders belonged to, in addition to their home lodges.
Pee Cee
@NonyNony:
That’s basically why our family dropped basic cable and kept the internet. Saved $80 a month – even including the Netflix subscription which gets us most of the good stuff. What I wonder is why people keep paying for the trash…
Betty Cracker
@FlipYrWhig: I miss “What Not to Wear” also. My daughter and I used to watch it together, and she was always threatening to turn me in for a makeover ambush. Lord knows Stacy and Clinton would have gleefully consigned my Bauhaus t-shirt to the barrel!
Kathleen
@JPL: And isn’t it interesting how the MSM seems to be ignoring how and why their “religious beliefs” lead to downplaying the affect on the victims and focusing on the didn’t Josh Suffer Enough Syndrome.
boatboy_srq
@Chris: Advance Publications has a history of monopolistic activity in journalism in the pursuit of advertising profits. I didn’t see any particularly evil rags in their publications lists (Conde Nast is a holding, as are the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Portland Oregonian, Newark Star-Ledger and a number of other local/regional dailies; and it’s not clear whether the Charter deal to purchase BrightHouse affected Advance’s stake), but their properties do depend heavily on advertising revenue. It may be less that there’s an interest in crazy material and more a case that trash sells commercials.
Betty Cracker
@Pee Cee: I think live sports are keeping crappy cable packages afloat. We’d ditch ours if we weren’t addicted to watching sports. We stream almost all our other content. Unfortunately, sports will likely keep cable packages afloat for the foreseeable future. Some of the leagues have made forays into direct subscription models, but they have massive, long-term contracts with broadcast channels.
Botsplainer
@Chris:
When History shows Ax Men or Ice Road Truckers, they’re not showing documentaries on wars, the cooperative efforts required for great projects or objective truths regarding grand historical failures.
NonyNony
@boatboy_srq:
Neither – they’re in the business of convincing cable television operators to hand over money in exchange for access to their selection of channels.
There’s nothing more nefarious there than the “lowest common denominator” of entertainment. Discovery Communications has dumbed down all of their networks because it brings in ratings. People watch this drivel – more importantly, people who buy basic cable watch this drivel. That’s the bulk of their concern here – the extra money they make off of advertising and whatnot comes only AFTER they convince the cable operators to buy their packages. The garbage that Discovery puts out on TLC and their other channels is popular enough to convince cable operators to shell out money for them.
Botsplainer
@Betty Cracker:
I’d have to buy basic cable for sports, FX, AMC and USA (love those Modern Family marathons) if nothing else.
Elizabelle
The Duggars are another facet of extreme conservatism, this one with a Christianist tinge: We can do what we want, and you cannot stop us.
Although who wants to grow up 16th in a family whose parents are still trying to pop out another eight or nine kids before Mom’s ovaries give up?
TLC. The Labor Channel.
Betty Cracker
@Botsplainer: Yeah, but you could access all that content except sports from streaming channels.
Pee Cee
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah, although around here to get most of the sports (everything aside from ESPN/ESPN2) you have to pay extra.
NonyNony
@Betty Cracker:
Yes – it’s pretty much an open secret at this point that the only thing that keeps the cable television side of the cable business afloat is the live sports coverage and access to premium channels like HBO (though HBO just started a streaming only option, so they’re losing that now). The sports channel providers know it too and have been ramping up the costs (we just got hit with a “sports channel fee” from our cable company to defray the costs of sports channels – it’s like they’re actively trying to get us to drop the cable TV side of things).
If we could get MLB games streamed I could convince my wife to drop cable TV altogether – between Netflix and Amazon we’re pretty much covered (I we could add Hulu for a fraction of the cost of the basic cable package we’ve got). Unfortunately her sticking point is the loss of baseball games – the MLB blacks out the local teams on their streaming service and of course those are the games she wants to watch.
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: I loved that show. It was much more fun in its earlier years, when they also used to do make-overs for men.
In the last years of the show, the make-overs had become too formulaic and a bit stodgy. I loved Stacy style, she and Clinton had good on screen chemistry. The hair dressers both Nick and Ted were both a bit hit and miss. I actually use some of Carmindy’s make-up tips on a daily basis.
schrodinger's cat
BTW how are these Quiverfull folks any different than Taliban? Even their taste in women’s fashion is remarkably alike.
JPL
@Kathleen: Here’s the article Today should have talked about.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2015/05/22/the-duggars-dangerous-cult-of-purity/
Chris
@schrodinger’s cat:
False equivalence!
Political correctness!
Cultural relativism!
It’s okay when we do it, damn it! Why can’t you people understand that!
Fred
When it comes to the S-E-X the Conservatives seem to be a bunch of bent. Now that I think about it on most important moral issues they seem to lean towards bent. But boy they can rave about morality fer sure.
boatboy_srq
@Fred: One wonders whether the Conservatists are prudes, or just convinced that the Great unWashed Masses are merely worse than they are.
mai naem mobile
I’m wondering if the Huckster is defending Duggar because he himself might bear some respnsibility because he was governor during the molestation fiasco. I know it’s a local matter but Arkansas comes across as one of those good ole boy states where who you know would really matter. Also, wasn’t the Huckster involved in another child molestation situation years ago where he pardoned some extended family member.
PurpleGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: From what I’ve read about the Quiverfull movement and at one anti-Quiverfull blog, I’d say they aren’t very different at all. Even the god they worship is interchangeable between religions.
Kathleen
@JPL: Thank you. I’m shocked that anyone in the MSM would touch those topics, especially so eloquently. I stand corrected – some in the MSM are providing some context.
Germy Shoemangler
@dubo:
Well that’s it in a nutshell.
It’s a thought experiment I always indulge in. “What if”
What if one of Obama’s daughter’s stuck her tongue out at a photographer? (like the Bu$h daughter)
What if a popular LBGT entertainer was caught molesting children, and was defended by Hillary and Sanders, and there were photos of the entertainer smiling with every major democrat (Warren, Kerry, Clinton, Sanders, Obama)
What if Hillary’s daughter had been kicked out of the girl scouts for killing a stray dog?
What if Michelle Obama had committed vehicular homicide?
What if the Obama’s and their daughters were involved in a fist fight at a party?
Wouldn’t it be the lead story on every major news outlet everywhere in the country? Wouldn’t it be common knowledge, rather than weird trivia shared on progressive blogs?
SatanicPanic
Hey, looks like there’s already a replacement for the Duggars in the wings:
The Bates Family Is Cable TV’s New Duggars and They’re Just as Toxic
They’re on UpTV, whatever that is.
japa21
@JPL: That was an excellent article. Unfortunately, those that probably need to read it the most will never see or chose to read it if they do see it.
SatanicPanic
@JPL: Oh shit, did you see who wrote that? DougJ’s post-punk David Broder girlfriend. Nice work Alexandra Petri!
schrodinger's cat
@SatanicPanic: Do they also run a motel?
Germy Shoemangler
A few days ago Honey Boo Boo and her mom were on The Doctors, the ABC broadcast morning show where a team of physicians give some good advice (eat healthy food, exercise) mixed in with the usual woo and some discredited therapies.
Honey Boo Boo was on to fix her weight problem. They hooked her up with a diet plan. Healthy snacks instead of the deep-fried crap her mother gives her. A mild exercise program. They showed her riding her bike on training wheels. She looked like she’d never ridden a bike before.
But it turned into a confrontation! Honey’s mom never bothered following the diet! She was just there for the money. The pre-packaged healthy food was found unused. They confronted her, and it turned into an argument on The Doctors!
When the hell is there ever an argument on The Doctors? Usually people are grateful for the guidance, for the diet packages. Mama June scammed them.
Althea
Speaking of “puppy stranglers“
sparrow
@Karen in GA: Jesus Christ, that sounds horrible. I would never do that to my child.
Althea
@Germy Shoemangler: Fox News, nuff said
SatanicPanic
@schrodinger’s cat: I know, the name seems like a warning that something creepy is going on
Germy Shoemangler
I don’t have cable tv. The little tv I watch is PBS and some network shows. I’m not boasting, I’m just on a tight budget. If I could afford it, I’d probably have every cable channel, if only to hate watch.
But watching broadcast tv, I see that corporate decision makers have decided we don’t need to see certain people:
Pete Seeger (when he was living)
The Smothers Brothers
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Willie Nelson
Arlo Guthrie
And many more. They just don’t exist in the minds of corporate media. Is it because they’re “Too Old?” I don’t think so. When I was watching tv in the ’60s and ’70s, the variety shows were full of old entertainers like Bob Hope and Jack Benny and Milton Berle.
We’re allowed to see older entertainers if they don’t say things that embarrass corporate media. The ones who stray from the script have been scrubbed from the line up.
I’ll get off my soap box now.
JPL
@SatanicPanic: ick… David Broder…
J R in WV
@Fred: The reason they rave about morality is they know they have none, and they assume no one else does either!
It’s so easy to know that every one else is just like you are. When you have no morals or ethics other than doing what the instruction book tells you to lest you burn in hell, then you know that people who don’t believe in hell have no morals or ethics whatsoever.
So everyone who doesn’t believe in hell for those who break the Lard’s commandments should be burned at the stake immediately, before they commit sacrilege out of their ignorance, and the Lard strikes everyone down for the sins of that guy who should be burned at the stake.
And that makes better sense than the things the Duggars believe, by far. The whole cult is based upon sexual slavery and perversion, and the old white men who lead the cult should be in prison or a mental institution.
Look at Papa Duggar, who took his son for counseling to a state trooper who collected child porn! These people are immersed in perversion, it’s their whole life style, keeping their women pregnant for their entire reproductive lives! If that isn’t sexual slavery I don’t know what is.
All perversion, all the time, that’s their biblical way!
Amir Khalid
@SatanicPanic:
The link is bad, alas. This Bates family, do they happen to own an out-of-the-way motel?
SatanicPanic
@Amir Khalid: oh man, here, I’ll try again
CONGRATULATIONS!
You think they didn’t know? Fucking ludicrous. Of course they knew.
TLC seems to have become a haven for the conservative/TeaTard entertainment shows, perhaps you have noticed? Time to stop watching, time to stop giving them your money.
Germy Shoemangler
Here is a link to a tea party lady who blogs. If you look at her picture, you can see her mouth is “smiling” but her eyes are not. It’s a fake smile.
Her complaints?
How about the escalating race issues being fueled by those that want to divide our country and cause it to spiral into lawlessness and ultimately a Socialist nation…?
How about those that want to take offense at anything related to “God” and seek to wipe out small Christian businesses and trash hard earned livelihoods…?
How about an Anti-American administration sitting in the White House that wants to make a Nuclear Deal with Iran, who is also actively holding American hostages and refusing to let them go…?
Feel free, Balloon-Juicers, to comment over there. But don’t expect an intelligent response.
sharl
@mai naem mobile:
As is often said of families (correctly, IMO), even the best aren’t perfect, and each is flawed in its own unique way.
I think that’s true of every state and local jurisdiction as well, but I wondered a few days ago whether Arkansas is particularly messed up. This is where the rape of a “rehomed” adopted child was facilitated by Justin Harris, state senator and all-around horrible human being. And hell, the AR attorney general was defending that creep for awhile, I think up to the point where even he realized how indefensible Harris’ actions were.
There are awful things happening everywhere, but the fact that so many people in AR government seem to have facilitated the behavior and subsequent cover-ups of the Duggars and Justin Harris makes me wonder if Arkansas has a much bigger problem in the area of family abuse that goes far beyond these specific incidents.
Southern Beale
I had the same thought as you, but it’s not TLC but the parent company, Discovery Communications, who need a thorough FCC investigation. Check out the timeline. The Duggars were doing specials on Discovery Health long before they had their own reality show on sister network TLC. And in 2006 Oprah fucking Winfrey is the one who callled the authorities in Arkansas after her production company received a tip, right before the Duggars were slated to appear on her show. She canceled the taping immediately and ever since then, there have been rumors and allegations on the internet about Josh being a pedophile. It is absolutely impossible that Discovery Communications didn’t know about these allegations. Yet years later they STILL gave this creepy homeschooling pedophilia cult their own reality show, promoted them as some kind of wholesome Christian family, lied to their advertisers and lied to the public.
But yes, Janet Jackson’s nipple took down the American family. Seriously? This network should be sanctioned for fraud.
boatboy_srq
@Germy Shoemangler:
Unless they’re crazed wingnuts, and then it’s all the MDs’ fault for not making all the toxic cr#p somehow good for little Honey so she won’t grow up obese and diabetic (instead of the parents’ fault for feeding Honey all the toxic cr#p to begin with). Gratitude requires recognition that other people know more about a given thing than you do – which in turn requires awareness that you’re not a unique special snowflake.
bemused
Do JimBob & Michele allow their kids to watch tv? I’m assuming they believe tv to be a bad influence. There can’t be any TLC shows they would consider suitable for their kids to watch other than their own show. Did JimBob & Michele ever agonize about whether doing the show would be God’s blessing or Satan’s evil machinations?
Germy Shoemangler
Holy shit.
Amy Schumer is a lawyer defending Bill Cosby in The Trial Of Bill Cosby.
She mops up the objections of the prosecuting attorney’s “facts”
Barney
@Karen in GA: Wow, that sounds just like Brave New World’s method for teaching Deltas to hate books and flowers: http://www.huxley.net/bnw/two.html
Once more, we find people reading dystopian novels as ‘how to’ manuals.
Ruviana
One of the best places to follow this is at Libby Anne’s blog. She was raised in a huge homeschooling family but college completely changed her (it’s rare for such kids, especially girls, to go to college–in part this is why). She knows the ins an outs of the culture and has contributed a lot of interesting observations on the whole mess. And yes, @Karen in GA, the Duggers are followers of the Pearls.
Southern Beale
@Kathleen:
Thanks for the link, just read the while thread. So yeah, they had to know. At the very LEAST they knew there were rumors that could damage “the brand” and they put their advertisers at risk.
But really I’m just pissed off that they’re promoting this creepy cult (and the Bates family and every other one of these “let’s outbreed the Mooooslims” cultists) when they fucking KNOW these people are loony tunes.
apocalipstick
@Betty Cracker: I think for most of the streaming channels (FXNow, for example) you have to provide a link to a TV provider to access the stream. There’s also Turner Classic Movies, which makes my monthly bill acceptable all by its lonesome.
Spider
@Karen In GA: http://www.duggarfamilyblog.com/p/faqs.html
Yes, they use the ‘blanket training’ from that hideous pile of filth ‘To Train Up A Child.’ D:
Kathleen
@Southern Beale: And again, the MSM feeds it by having them on their programs. Today Show is a big offender (Ann Coulter has been a guest, for example).
jonas
That would be his own son.
schrodinger's cat
Does TLC still have those Wedding Dress shows?
Paul in KY
All they can get, Mistermix. All they can get.
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: Shows how much they think racist, repub-voting, hick America likes these weirdos.
Paul in KY
@Barney: Holy shit!! One of their kids is called ‘Jinger’! They weren’t even trying to think up a good name by then.
piratedan
well TLC is simply one of many arms of the octopus and perhaps thinking that there could be some corporate oversight issues at play here….
Amongst the parent company’s holdings
Animal Planet, Velocity Channel, OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network), American Heroes Network, Eurosport, Discovery Kids, etc so it’s not just TLC… considering that there are so many arms at play here, I have no idea on what their oversight is nor how much latitude is given to the front line producers.
Since this is a popular show, the network is simply doing what a network does… seeing if it’s salvageable or not, after all, we’ve seen this same string play out with Charlie Sheen and Paula Deen. While I would be just as happy to see these hypocritical asshats off the air, I don’t expect it to happen until the targeted focus groups give them the red card.
Will I be selling my DISCK stock, most likely…..
Paul in KY
@Germy Shoemangler: Sounds like Mama June was afraid that a non-messed up version of Honey BooBoo might get that show not renewed.
delk
The story just does not stop:
http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/duggar-molestation-case-another-bombshell-revealed-josh-sued-the-arkansas-department-of-human-services-59201
NonyNony
@piratedan:
You should have sold it when this happened:
That’s the sign of a chief executive that is out of control and is going to bleed as much money out of the company as he can and leave it as a dessicated husk by the side of the road when he leaves. When you could get Les freaking Moonves for a quarter of the cost you know your CEO is not worth it.
fuckwit
Dolla make ’em wanna holla!! Really, it’s all about the money-grubbing.
By the way, I’ll also suggest a tasteless neologism: the term “Duggary” to mean child molestation, and “Duggarer” to refer to someone who is a child molester.
RaflW
@NonyNony:
I believe a la cart pricing is now known as the internet. If my condo building didn’t have cable as part of our monthly fees, I’d be back on an antenna just so I could watch PBS (and actually, lately I’ve been streaming them more than schedule-watching).
Alternatively, I would of course welcome a la cart cable. I can think of about 8 stations I’d request, maybe 10 tops.
RaflW
@delk: Jeez. There is no credible way TLC or at least the show’s direct producers knew nothing of all this. Not believable.
Rasputin's Evil Twin
TLC was once “The Learning Channel”, long before they devolved to “This Lousy Crap”, but those days are over.
EthylEster
@Rasputin’s Evil Twin:
I agree that those days are over but I dispute that it was EVER a place to learn (anything useful).
And MrMix, thanks for making me laugh out loud.
Brachiator
I can honestly say that I have never watched the Duggars and barely know anything about them. I can’t imagine anyone taking any “reality show” seriously, or even expecting entertainment industry dopes to be able to investigate any potential problems or issues. If someone needs to be punished or protected, I hope that happens. Otherwise, these people and what they believe or how they live is of no earthly significance.
Deye Mofo
Not to interrupt a good lynching, but I did find the following article a little more informative.
It’s fun to kick conservative Christians while they’re down after tripping over their own hubris and hypocrisy, to be sure. It’s just also worth noting that Josh was 14 and a victim of cultist mental abuse himself. I cannot imagine growing up trapped inside a cultist family compound during adolescence.
I hope all of you “liberals” hooting and hollering “pedophile” at this 14 year-old don’t make a peep when conservatives try children as adults for violent offences.
http://paper-bird.net/2015/05/23/the-duggars-sex-and-the-police/
betty ericson
@SuperHrefna:
I read this morning that TMC (The Molestation Channel) is going to get rid of Jim Bob and Michelle and spin off Jessa/Ben and Janna/Derrick and their rapidly increasing brood. I don’t think that’s a great idea.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Deye Mofo:
If a 14-year-old molests a family member, he needs to be taken to intensive therapy and not left alone with any vulnerable family member ever again.
By the way, this situation happened to me (I was the victim), my parents acted in the manner above (therapy and supervision of the offender) so young offenders can be helped well short of prison.
But I’m thinking more about the young victims in this situation who, unlike me, were blamed and shamed for their abuse and had to stand by and watch as their sisters were serially abused by their brother because their parents couldn’t fucking be bothered to do the right thing. And, yes, I am concerned about this now-grown man’s young daughter, because an untreated serial abuser WILL abuse again. And the cycle will continue uninterrupted because no one wanted to disturb the shiny surface of a deeply dysfunctional freak show.
catclub
@Pee Cee: 1. ESPN 2.Create TV 3. MHz Network.
catclub
@fuckwit: Buggery, Duggary, and the Lash.
EthylEster
This seems to yet another opportunity for many people to show their worst sides. God, this is getting old. I read most of Deye Mofo’s linked article (thanks!) but stopped when I saw someone quoted as saying that Josh Duggar should be sent to jail.
Also regarding “the molester-enablers at TLC”, um, no.
I don’t see how you can blame TLC.
This is mostly about the sex drive of adolescent males.
Sequestration just makes things worse.
Sorta like priest celibacy.
Deeming inappropriate male sexual behavior “wrong” is not going to stop it.
pseudonymous in nc
@sharl:
Well, when you have large enough families, you can marry off a child to every politically-powerful family in the state like it’s Europe in 1352.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@EthylEster:
You can blame TLC because they were informed that there was a problem as far back as 2007 and they still put the show on the air and promoted the hell out of it.
But, hey, thanks for dismissing sibling abuse as just one of those things that can’t be helped because boys will be boys.
Matt
@Deye Mofo:
Put the pearls away, clutching them like that in public is fucking undignified.
More importantly, the story here isn’t about the kid – it’s about the entire support network of ADULTS that should have reported (in some cases, were LEGALLY REQUIRED TO REPORT) and instead decided to cover it up. It’s about a homeschooling “curriculum” that goes out of its way to explicitly blame victims for their own molestation, written and advertised by a sexual predator disguised as a pastor.
You wanna be disgusted? Go look in the mirror and contemplate the fact that you’re providing rhetorical covering fire for pedos in the name of scoring Internetz points against “liberals”.