TLC and its parent, Discovery Communications, have been deservedly reamed for dragging its feet in yanking “19 Kids & Counting” off the air in the wake of Josh Duggar admitting that he’d fondled several girls in 2002 and 2003. The cable network giant has also come under well-deserved fire for its cursory vetting of America’s most famous babymakers. Well, the Inquisitr recently discovered something that may make those hackles even louder. It seems Discovery reasonably should have known the Duggars’ living arrangements were problematic when it first began dealing with them in 2003-04–and yet, did absolutely nothing.
When cable first discovered the Duggars, they were living in a 2,400 square foot house on Johnson Street in Springdale, Arkansas. It had three bedrooms and two baths. The Duggars had moved there in 1993, when their clan consisted of Jim Bob, Michelle, five-year-old Josh, three-year-old twins Jana and John-David, two-year-old Jill, and one-year-old Jessa.
By the time cable first discovered them in 2004, nine more kids had been born. In the time that Discovery Health filmed three cable specials about the family, Michelle gave birth to two more. That means 18 people were crammed into a house that was designed for a family of four to six people.
Needless to say, this resulted in a smorgasbord of logistical problems. In one show, Josh mentioned that “there wasn’t even room to fit enough beds” and “not enough space for all of us to have our own beds.” As a result, boys and girls slept in the same room, and even shared beds. There wasn’t nearly enough time for everyone to get showers. Even without that to consider, the house’s small water heater wasn’t nearly enough to handle 18 people. Jim Bob and Michelle had to write out a shower schedule; some of the kids washed on Monday, the rest on Tuesday. In a colossal understatement, one narrator said that “this was not a house for 18 people.”
This situation was not only unsafe and unsanitary, but also unlawful. Springdale, like most cities, has safe occupancy limits written into all residential building permits. They outline the maximum number of people allowed to live in a house, as well as the minimum square footage for a bedroom. It goes without saying that the Duggars exceeded the limits for that house several times over. As real estate agents, Jim Bob and Michelle couldn’t plead ignorance. All real estate agents in Arkansas are required to know about safe occupancy laws and ordinances.
What makes this even more outrageous is that Jim Bob and Michelle had the means to provide a safer environment. But it turns out that in 2002, Jim Bob, then a one-term state representative, plunked down $250,000–all cash–to challenge Tim Hutchinson in the 2002 Republican U. S. Senate primary. This only proves that as much as Josh has been demonized in this saga, he isn’t the real villain. After all, we already knew Jim Bob and Michelle failed him by dragging their feet in reporting his actions. Now it turns out they failed him–and his siblings–long before then. You mean to tell me that Jim Bob and Michelle weren’t at least thinking about getting a bigger house around the time Michelle conceived Joseph or Josiah, if not sooner?
Jim Bob says he waited to report Josh’s actions because he didn’t trust government programs to help him. Well, if this is any indication, it may have been a lot simpler than that. Can you imagine what would have happened if a social worker had walked in on this situation? I was actually alerted to this by a friend who is a retired social worker, and she said that any social worker who saw this would have been compelled to take action.
When I first saw this, my first thought was, “Boy, Discovery must have some REALLY bad lawyers.” But the more I think about it, it shouldn’t have taken a legal review for TLC and/or Discovery to see that something was rotten about the Duggars’ living conditions. Any responsible cable network producer or executive should have known this was a problematic situation. But this cable network giant not only gave succor to it, but built the Duggars a new house in nearby Tonitown.
No cable network should have to be told that it shouldn’t be promoting an 18-member family crammed into a house designed for only a third that many–especially when the parents have the means to provide a more adequate house. If no one at Discovery or TLC could figure that out, then it may be time for a root-and-branch housecleaning at Discovery.
