Update: TLC has pulled the series “19 Kids and Counting.”
Some people (read: Mike Huckabee, 2016 candidate for U. S. president, God help us all) seem to think that considering the victims means the story should have been buried and handled much as Mr. Duggar handled it. I vehemently disagree with that. Josh Duggar should have been charged, arraigned, tried and prosecuted.
And serious measures should have been taken to protect his victims’ privacy.
Original post:
It infuriates me that our TMZ/In Touch Weekly/People Magazine society sees dollar signs and Google analytics and ratings in the Duggar story, but not the fact that by splashing the police report all over the interwebs (no, I am not linking to it; I refuse to directly contribute one more click-through to that awful story), they have victimized five innocent children again. Publicly and repeatedly. The lives of some of these victims is difficult enough being born into a fishbowl over which they have no control. How thoughtless to add such insult to their injuries. There’s no fixing this for them, there’s just dealing with it.
I wish the media would consider the victims before running with scissors stories like this where the identities of minor victims of abuse simply cannot be protected. It is unspeakably cruel to me to so publicly reopen the wounds of these innocent people. The actions of Josh Duggar are absolutely disgusting and should have been handled in a way that protected others from him, but they weren’t. The consequences he will bear now could likely ruin him, but because of the media’s handling of this story, his victims will likely be punished as well because no serious steps were taken to ensure their identities were protected.
To anyone who is or has been the victim of sexual abuse:
What happened to you is not your fault. There is help:
RAINN 800-656-HOPE
National Child Sexual Abuse Helpline 1-866-FORLIGHT
White Roses: innocence and silence.