I never thought I’d see the day I’d be into cooking shows. But when I began dating my now-wife in late 2019, I learned she is a huge Food Network fan. Lately, shows like Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Guy’s Grocery Games, and Kids Baking Championship have become part of our diet.
So you’d think that when Food Network parent Discovery Inc. rolled out its new streaming service, Discovery+, we’d be jumping at it. But there’s one big problem. Discovery bears a large measure of responsibility for America’s most infamous babymakers, the Duggar family, perpetrating a massive swindle on this country for almost two decades. And even though Josh’s arrest on child porn charges should have ended any defensible reason to continue dealing with the Duggars, it doesn’t look like Discovery is cutting ties with them any time soon.
Showbiz Cheat Sheet took note of the wording of TLC’s statement about Josh’s arrest, in which it stressed that Josh hasn’t appeared on-air since 19 Kids and Counting was canceled in 2015 after news broke about Josh molesting five girls—including four of his own sisters—as a teenager. Indeed, Josh was banned from the Duggars’ current show, Counting On, in the wake of the scandal.
But if TLC and Discovery had even an iota of decency, they would realize that dealing with the Duggars in the first place was a colossal mistake. Back in 2015, Inquisitr revealed that when Discovery first introduced the nation to the Duggars in 2003, it did so despite evidence that should have indicated it shouldn’t be filming a show about them, but calling child protective services.
At the time, the Duggars weren’t living in their now-infamous mansion in Tontitown, Arkansas. They were living in a much smaller house in nearby Springdale, with three bedrooms and two baths. When Discovery Health began filming specials about the Duggars in 2003, there were 16 people crammed into a house designed for only six people at most. Michelle had given birth to nine kids in the decade since the Duggars moved into that house.
The kids had to take showers in shifts, and the water heater was nowhere near enough to handle the dishwashing, laundry, and diaper changing. But most serious of all, boys and girls had to sleep in the same room—and even share beds!
Not only was this outrageously unsafe and unsanitary, but it was also outrageously illegal. Jim Bob and Michelle were knowingly flouting the safe occupancy limits that are written into every residential building permit. I say “knowingly” because as licensed real estate agents, they were required to know this information. Granted, by then the Duggars were already planning for their mansion in Tontitown. But they didn’t move there until 2006. What parent with any kind of love for their kids would tolerate this as even a temporary solution? Additionally, the Duggars’ real estate investments gave them the means to provide a bigger house—and their failure to do so met the legal definition of child neglect. Indeed, Jim Bob plunked down $250,000 of his own money to run for Senate in 2002—money that any halfway decent father would have spent on a bigger house.
You would have thought that somebody at Discovery would have realized this was a bad idea. After all, it shouldn’t have taken a legal review to know that this was something that should NOT have been promoted. Somebody at Discovery should have called Washington County child protective services. But Discovery not only continued working with the Duggars, but filmed specials during which Michelle gave birth to two more kids.
It simply boggles the mind that Discovery continued working with the Duggars after Josh’s molestation came to light. Surely someone at that company would have realized that it had been an accomplice to what can only be described as an attempt by manifestly unfit parents to pull the wool over America’s eyes. But they didn’t. Instead, they got another show, Counting On.
Now that it’s apparent that Discovery may have inadvertently helped cover up an outrageous case of child neglect and child abuse, there is only one way that it can even begin to make this right. That is, cancel Counting On, tear up its contract with the Duggars, and nuke every Duggar-related episode from its archives. For good measure, it ought to donate an amount equivalent to the money it paid the Duggars to a child abuse charity.