14 DAY TRIAL // The Josh Duggar molestation scandal, which eventually forced TLC to cancel the Duggars’ hit reality show, 19 Kids and Counting, also prompted Jill and Jessa Duggar, Josh’s sisters, to come forward and identify themselves as 2 of his victims. However, they only did it so they could defend him, as their interview with Fox News embedded below will confirm.
In their words, Josh was not a pedophile and he was not a child molester: he was just a teenager going through “stuff,” a misguided boy hitting puberty and making a “mistake.” At the time this happened, Josh was a teen and his victims (5 of them) were underage, with the youngest being only 5.
All this is relevant because the Duggar girls, Jill and Jessa, will be included next on a TLC documentary on child abuse. The network confirmed this a while back, having just announced the air date and more details on the project.
“Breaking the Silence” will be about educating audiences
The documentary will air on August 30 and will include the Duggar girls among other survivors of abuse. It is described by the network in a press release as “an effort to promote education, raise awareness, and advance the conversation on this important matter.”
To further highlight that this isn’t an effort to capitalize on the scandal that killed its most successful brand, TLC will run the documentary without commercials. It is also partnering with 2 major abuse prevention organizations, Darkness to Light and RAINN, to see what more can be done to help the cause.
“The one-hour documentary is built around the personal and emotional stories of brave survivors who have found the courage to come forward,” TLC continues in the same statement.
Jill and Jessa will be two of them.
Something doesn’t exactly click, does it?
And here’s where things get interesting: Jill and Jessa Duggar are now presented as “brave survivors” of abuse who have had the “courage to come forward.” These words aren’t said in direct reference to them, but since they will be on the show, they certainly apply.
A little over 2 months ago, the same Jill and Jessa appeared on Fox News, sitting across from Megyn Kelly and saying that they were not victims in the sense the media was saying they were: yes, their older brother Josh had touched them inappropriately, both when they were asleep and awake, both over clothes and on the skin, but there was no “molestation” happening.
If anything, they said, they had been more victimized by the media coverage of the police records exposing Josh’s deeds than they’d been by the deeds themselves.
Josh was not a child molester and he was not a pedophile, they said. He was a boy who “made a mistake” but they had solved it like a family. They were upset that the media was talking about it, not that it happened, they made sure to add.
So knowing this and knowing TLC’s stated goal for the new documentary, how exactly do Jill and Jessa fit in? Will they appear on the doc to continue defending Josh? Will their narrative change to suit this new project, because the family needs the money? Is TLC hoping audiences have already forgotten about the Fox News specials?
So many questions. We’ll get all the answers at the end of the month, hopefully.
