Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar will break their silence with Fox News Megyn Kelly "
next week."
Looks like America's best Christians, the beleaguered Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar will come out of hiding to finally speak to press on … wait for it …
Fox News! (Today their family blog vaguely
announces an upcoming appearance on Megyn Kelly's
The Kelly Files as "next week.")
Now, Fox "News" is a hopeless case as far as real journalism goes, as we all know. Ms. Kelly will probably have to bring Fox News viewers up to speed on what this story is about, since last week they devoted a scant one minute and twenty seconds to the story. (If you don't know, dear reader, the bullet is this: The devout evangelical Christian family of conservative political activists was revealed to have been hiding a very ugly family secret. Their eldest son, Josh, sexually abused five young girls as a teenager, apparently four of them were his sisters.)
Head below for more on this scandal and so much more.
Time cable news spent on the Josh Duggar child molestation story last week.
Fox's apathy surely has nothing to do with the fact that virtually every GOP presidential candidate was
photographed "palling around" with the admitted child molester and family values activist. Also unrelated is the fact this is a huge embarrassment to Fox's good friend, Family Research Council's Tony Perkins, who was both Josh Duggar's
boss and is still a constant presence on Fox News as the titular spokesman for Christian America.
But the Duggars are speaking to Megyn Kelly. While not without her disappointing moments, Ms. Kelly has also at times shown the gumption to challenge conservative propaganda, and at other moments shown true sympathy to LGBT people and is vocal supporter of marriage equality, a key point of disagreement with the Duggar family.
So, the optimist in me likes to think there's a little glimmer of hope the "interview" will not be a puff piece/white-washing/PR spin/image rehab/love fest, but contain some actual news and ask the family patriarch and matriarch some of the many tough and still unanswered questions.
Now, I'm not a real journalist but do I play one in my Superman pajamas as I down my lunch of Jalapeños Cheetos. Here are the top burning questions I'd like to see Megyn Kelly ask Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar:
- After you learned of the abuse, did your daughters receive care from a licensed medical or psychological professional? If not, did they receive any care, can you describe who and what?
- As followers of principles developed by Bill Gothard, did you at any time refer to his homeschooling curriculum guide to sexual abuse to counsel your daughters?
- Why did you wait a year after the disclosure to seek outside help?
- What was the environment like for your daughters living with Josh during that time?
- What steps did you take during that time to ensure that Josh was not a continued danger to any of your children or others' children?
- Do you now entrust Josh to care unsupervised for your younger kids? Is he trusted alone with his nieces and nephews?
- The Arkansas state trooper who you asked to counsel Josh now says Jim Bob misled him about the extent of the abuse, claiming it only involved one girl, when in fact at least five were involved. Do you care to respond?
- How could Jim Bob possibly campaign for a Senate seat in 2002 on the platform that rape and incest should be punishable by death—positions he took after the family became aware of Josh's behavior?
- Josh filed a lawsuit in 2007 to shut down an Arkansas Department of Human Services investigation into this matter. Did your family at any time consider just cooperating with the authorities on this matter and putting it to rest?
- Do you regret being such outspoken political activists?
- Do you specifically regret comparing transgender people to child molesters last year?
- Do you still believe that LGBT people are a threat to children?
- The Ms. Foundation sees this story as a call to arms to discuss ways to prevent the prevalent problem of sexual abuse of girls and women. As outspoken political activists, do you now feel called to embrace this cause as your own?
- Will the Duggar family's political activism continue?
- Do you have plans to campaign for any political candidates? If so, who?
Jim Duggar campaigns for Rick Santorum for president in 2012 (
YouTube).
- In the past Rick Santorum has been described as a friend of the family, as well as a candidate your family campaigned for in 2012 presidential cycle. He has made some strong public statements to the press, Do you have a reaction? Have you spoken to Rick Santorum privately?
- In retrospect, do you think it was a wise decision to pursue the national television spotlight in 2006, given what your family had been through so recently?
- Did you disclose this history to TLC network before signing on to do a reality TV show?
- When did the TLC network learn of this story?
- Do you have any reaction to reports former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert sexually abused one or more students in his care?
If you, dear readers, have your own burning questions you'd like the Duggars to answer, please be sure to share them with Megyn Kelly on her
Facebook page, or on her Twitter account
@megynkelly try to include the hashtag
#KellyFile. As the lucky journalist who has the "get" of the season—the Duggar family's first public comments—I'm sure she'll appreciate your help researching this story.
And by all means, leave your burning questions in the comments thread, we'll pass them on to Megyn Kelly.