Josh Duggar, one of the stars of TLC’s ’19 Kids and Counting’, became public enemy number one last week after admitting that he molested five children when he was a teenager. The scandal brought the entertainment world to a standstill. Armchair critics and keyboard warriors voiced their opinions in one of the biggest flame wars the Internet had ever seen: Reality television was once again labelled as an “exploitative social experiment”; TLC received unparalleled criticism from anyone with an Internet connection and a keyboard; June Shannon – Here Comes Honey Boo Boo’s embattled matriarch – threatened to sue the network for $1 million; and the Duggar family had to endure an anarchical mob mentality with a dash of schadenfreude thrown in for good measure.
There is always some form of collateral damage with a scandal of this magnitude. Michelle Duggar (Josh’s mother) is being called a hypocrite for speaking out against an ordinance in 2012. The Fayetteville City Council proposed an ordinance which would have allowed transgender persons to use a restroom of their (new) respective gender. A certain someone – hint: Michelle Duggar – opposed the ordinance.
“I don’t believe the citizens of Fayetteville would want males with past child predator convictions that claim they are female to have a legal right to enter private areas that are reserved for women and girls. I doubt that Fayetteville parents would stand for a law that would endanger their daughters or allow them to be traumatized by a man joining them in their private space,” reads the transcript of Michelle’s telephonic correspondence.
Note: Michelle knew about Josh Duggar’s criminal molestations of children at the time.
Josh’s actions caused irreparable damage to everyone involved, including his family, TLC and the entire reality television genre. A similar scandal involving June Shannon (Here Comes Honey Boo Boo) turned TLC into an abhorrent wannabe reality television network. One would think that a network of TLC’s calibre has enough clout and resources to pre-screen all potential cast members?
Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me. Burn me thrice, no more TLC. Is Michelle a hypocrite? Should she be held accountable for covering up her son’s actions and to what degree? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Share your opinion with us in the comments below.
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar: FameFlynet