OPINION:
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
The double standard in the media — especially when Hollywood and the glitterati are concerned — is really quite remarkable.
Case in point: The Duggar family. The family, parents Jim and Michelle, have 19 children and are featured on a television show that airs on TLC. They’re unabashedly Christian, home school their children, limit TV time for the youngsters, require them to do chores, and pretty much run the basic American family.
TLC suspended the show after someone released police records that said the oldest son, Josh, had molested some of his sisters when he was 14. The acts are, of course, reprehensible. No one can deny that. But it is worth remembering that Josh was a young boy when they occurred, and he has apologized for “acting inexcusably.”
What makes the story so interesting is that another TV star had done much the same thing — with impunity. Very little was written about the acts she committed, and her show on HBO was not suspended. In fact, the matter came and went in no time, with barely a blip in the mainstream media.
We’re talking about Lena Dunham, star of “Girls.”
Wikipedia describes her actions this way, citing her book “Not That Kind of Girl”: “Passages recounting interactions, starting when she was seven years old, of a sexual nature with her then one-year-old sister Grace.” There’s only one more sentence on the issue: “Experts described these passages as either too ambiguous to judge, or as describing behavior consistent with normal childhood development.”
So, for Ms. Dunham, it was simply “behavior consistent with normal childhood development.” For Josh Duggar, it’s pedophilia or rape.
Ms. Dunham, who was 7 years old at the time, describes looking inside her sister’s vagina, and another time when she gave her “Three pieces of candy if I could kiss her on the lips for five seconds. Whatever she wanted to watch on TV if she would just ’relax on me.’ Basically, anything a sexual predator might do to woo a small suburban girl, I was trying.”
She also recounted how she masturbated while in bed next to her younger sister.
The Washington Post wrote one story on the matter, headlined “Lena Dunham responds to sites accusing her of sexually abusing her sister.” The piece is mostly dismissive, and at the end cites the American Academy of Pediatrics to describe “common behaviors for school-aged children.”
And here’s something you don’t hear often these days: Sarah Palin is right. The former governor of Alaska and one-time Republican vice presidential nominee took to Facebook last week to detail the MSM’s double standard.
“The intolerant left’s destructive personal intrusions and narrow-mindedness applied to their chosen targets are bad enough, but their double standards are beyond the pale.
“I’m not defending the Duggar boy’s obvious wrongdoing over a decade ago. The main victim in any story like this isn’t the perpetrator, it’s the innocent ones so harmfully affected. I’m not an apologist for any sexual predator, but I’m sickened that the media gives their chosen ones a pass for any behavior as long as they share their left wing politics.”
The revelations, dealt with by parents and authorities (who decided not to pursue charges), have now destroyed the lives of Josh Duggar, and even his sisters, who now must live with the looks and whispers from strangers. The story was leaked by someone who hoped to do just that: Knock down the Duggars.
The MSM media all but dismissed the Bill Clinton saga, when he had sex with a White House intern his daughter’s age. Oh, it’s just sex, they said. And, says Mrs. Palin, “Remember reports of the pedophile billionaire our former Democrat president has been friends with and hung out with on the pedophile’s ’orgy island’ full of underage girls?”
The Duggars aren’t the only Christians targeted. Phil Robertson, the patriarch on “Duck Dynasty,” was suspended from the A&E show after he voiced his views that homosexuality is contrary to biblical principles. But the family rallied around him and viewers made their feeling known, so the show stayed on the air.
The fate of the Duggars’ show, “19 and Counting,” is unknown. But liberals are intent on knocking it off the air. And to do so, they’ve ruined the lives of one man who did something despicable as a young teen — and the girls he victimized.
Still, for liberals, the ends always justify the means. And the media, with its clear liberal bias, always follow along for the ride.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
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