Churchhoney

That's probably part of it. But I think that it's mainly because they really really really want their new show/gravy train. And they are really really mad that this event is threatening to keep them from what they thought just a month or so ago was a wonderful done deal. I can't say I blame them for feeling mad. I'm sure they're very disappointed and worried, too, wondering how they're going to pay the chain-restaurant-for-dinner-several-times-a-week bills if the spinoff is canceled. (I'd even argue that there's probably buried anger over this whole sad chain of events begun by Josh and their parents years ago that's fueling what I'm sure they see entirely as righteous anger over what the police and the media have done to them.) Nevertheless, I hope they eventually reflect on the fact that nobody is guaranteed reality-tv show cash. And, hopefully, someday even reflect on what i think is indisputable -- that being on reality tv is a way to mess up your life by forcing you to falsify and pretty it up and not, in the long run, any kind of a good thing. Long time if ever till they think that, though, I'm sure.

Well, you see that just shows how skeptics like us just don't get it. Getting treatment doesn't work. But getting no treatment that informed people would recognize as such, on the other hand, works perfectly.

Am I missing stuff or did JB and M not mention one single thing that they actually did wrong through this whole decade-plus-long episode? And if that's the case, I guess we know why the crisis-management guy would have walked. I must say that I'm not sure how well "crisis management" actually "works" -- as in, plenty of people who get criticized for eschewing it or making a hash of it (as JimBob appears to have done) seem to suffer very few consequences from that supposedly dangerous step. Will be interesting to see whether the Duggars also persist and succeed without following any of the standard crisis-management principles.

Well, not exactly. Because you can find Waldo.

ITA.

Key phrase for why it didn't happen in this case: "good parents."

Very interesting suggestion. I truly can't see why any network would want to look as if they were supporting all this. It's not as if JImBob and Michelle's delusional rantings had anything to do with taking conservative political positions -- even if you define "conservative" as loosely as it's often defined today -- seems to me. I agree that this is what they probably think they're crying about. But I would also say that, an awful lot of the time, most of us don't actually know what we're really crying about -- especially while the crying happens. And I am pretty sure that goes double for people who've been living in a brainwashing setting AND have spent the last decade further obfuscating the truths about their lives by having to shape what they say and do to create certain images on reality tv.

This. And fear your little brother playing hide and go seek .... I wonder what the hell they told the children about the reasoning behind this particular rule. Especially when they claim that at the time of the original incident the older girls (who ranged in age all the way up to 12 at the time, I think) didn't know what the "improper touches" were all about. (obvious bullshit, since in the police report it's clear that they did know, but anyway ... ) And what kind of message did it send to the other boys -- that they could not be alone with their sisters in any circumstance, even playing outdoors like a bunch of kids, because if they did they'd probably molest them? WTF? Just thinking about the messages, explicit and implicit, that they must have sent out to these kids is chilling .... It takes Gothard crap and actually ratchets it up a notch. And also kind of explains why they may have gotten more and more devoted to the crazy Gothard rules over time (although they should have gotten the message that those rules actually didn't work -- since they were pretty long-time devotees when their whole mess first happened.) When it comes to psychological warping of those children, we're only seeing the very tip of this awful iceberg, I have a feeling.

Doing it just shows their desperation and their arrogance. I'm sure JimBob truly thought that they could religion and virtue it all away and get the gravy train back on track. Certainly hope he failed. Very sorry that the girls are going to have to go through a second round of this, too, whatever the outcome.

Good grief, they even lost Ablow? That actually kind of gives me hope that their goose is well and truly cooked.

Also may explain why Huckabee's presidential chances are pretty much on a par with JimBob's. Naaa. 14/15 is the age of a "young boy." And, coincidentally, I think it's also the age when "courting" or "betrothal" or whatever becomes appropriate. Because isn't Josh rumored to have been involved in one -- or maybe even two? -- such relationships very shortly after all this? Little disjoint there, I'd say.

Also -- does any kid in that house (and the girls, especially) seem to have any real say in what they do or say about anything? The Duggar place is control-freak central. They even admit that it is. And the control clearly goes way beyond what they admit to. And in this case, doing that Friday interview or not doing it spells money to the family. And with 19 kids, no educations and the champagne tastes the whole gang has been developing for years now, money has got to be a powerful coercive force in the decision to do that interview, seems to me. When the outcome of your interview depends on your successfully redefining words like "is" or "sexual molestation," you're definitely in trouble out of the gate. Maybe there's something in the water in Arkansas.

Homeschoolers Anonymous is assembling the Wisdom Booklets online. Just in case anyone feels in need of some, you know, wisdom. https://homeschoolersanonymous.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/wisdom-booklet-archive-index/

Yes, that was what upset them. So, having learned that they might be failures as parents, they did the logical thing: pumped out five (plus Jubilee) more children. Because if you feel you've failed the first 14 -- Maybe by not having paid adequate attention to some of them? -- the really smart and godly thing to do is to have five more to ignore while you're busy planning reality tv 'storylines" and making political pronouncements. Right.

So I assume that a lot of the stuff that we've heard about recently involving Jes and Jil is part of the impending "story lines" they've been working on for their damnable spin-off? Like the otherwise very hard to explain higher-education-loathing Duggar clan's en masse attendance to applaud Ben's graduation ceremony and the Dillard decision to go to Nepal? I think the thing that bothers me most about this is that these two soon-to-be-outed-forgivers-of-Josh have been living in a completely false world for the past nine years or so and that I believe has to have warped their concepts of everything. It's difficult enough to think straight and feel honestly when you're in a situation in which you've been brainwashed. And it has to be 10 times worse when the brainwashing is compounded by the demand to constantly shape your life and your "countenance" to create "good tv" and uphold your tv image. Raises a lot of questions for me about this new tv project. Like -- Do Jill and Derick have real intentions to serve in Nepal, or is it mostly a plan they came up with to go their with the tv crew as a way to make their show less than excruciatingly boring? And now both girls are going to say that they've gotten over the abuse incident and that it's firmly in the past for them. But in their situation there's no way in the world that they could know that -- Given the lives they've led, I would bet my house that they haven't the slightest clue about who they actually are or how they truly feel about anything. Especially something as huge as having been molested in childhood by a brother. As far as I know, most people don't even begin to feel and process traumatic situations until they've left environments like the one these two are utterly enmeshed in. But now they're going to say they're past it and launch a cute Brady-Brides tv show that'll subliminally send other abused people the very bad message that they too should just get over it, like Jessa and Jill. And what happens when Jinger comes to visit? I guess they'll tell her not to cry about bad things in her life the way she did at Jessa's wedding, since that would get in the way of the image they'll be portraying in the new show. Once again, "reality" tv will force them to live their real lives falsely. And having run from 19 Kids & Self-righteously Pontificating, how many advertisers are going to feel comfortable supporting this charade?

Kinda makes it clear how the Duggars learned be such liars, manipulators, users, self-excusers and all-around sleazes, does it not?

They'll interview Josh after they figure out a way to get him a spinoff, too.

I certainly hope you don't have to come to this conclusion. It's astounding to me that the Duggars themselves don't see what extremely bad pr they have produced and continue to produce for their faith through this horrible saga. And if other people don't see it, then I am really really baffled.

I assume this will be called the Dillard-Seewald show. Since I still don't see who's going to advertise on any show that's attached to the name "Duggar." And can TLC seriously imagine that there won't be a massive massive effort to scare off the advertisers after Jill and Jessa are paraded on television for what is clearly no purpose except to shill for more (shhh! Duggar) bucks?

I'm sure it was the parents' decision. But I do wonder whether the girls' desire to get their own show as a spinoff didn't play a role in encouraging them to do it. They aren't the buy-used-save-the-difference Duggars any more, but the young women who got fancy honeymoon trips and eat out all the time and are still convicted to purpose to have 42 children, even though three out of four of the members of these two young couples are essentially unemployed. The screaming brakes of the gravy train have to be ringing pretty hard in their ears. So much for being particularly concerned about what the evil police chief and mean media did to the girls by parading their identities in public. Kind of proves that it was never the victims' identities they were in the least concerned about. Their concern is that Josh and, especially, JimBob and Michelle were outed as not being who they claimed to be on television.

So after Jessa has gone on tv on Friday to explain that it was all no big deal and she and God have totes forgiven her brother, how long will it be before the news reports mention the many people she's condemned to hell on instagram over the past year?

"We sought out God as never before." And God said, 'Go on reality television where ye shall be an example to all people." I'm sure they thought that God meant that they'd be a good example. But apparently he had something else in mind.

I guess that's how he got to be one of the martyrs.

Huzzah for Jill and Derick. FIrst for thinking of doing this. And then for making JimBob go "sheet white."

I beg to differ. "First person" obviously always means JImBob.