Fox News Ignores Growing Duggar Scandal

Proving yet again that Fox News is little more than a right wing propaganda machine, the "news" channel is ignoring the Duggar scandal which seems to be getting worse by the hour as more individual challenge the storyline put out by the freak show family and more questions arise about the investigation of Josh Duggars admitted five episodes of molesting under aged girls, some of whom were his sisters.  Media Matters looks at Fox News' apparent effort to keep its brainwashed viewers from the facts about this less than normal or decent family.  Here are highlights:

Fox News largely ignored the controversy surrounding Josh Duggar following his recent admission that, as a teenager, he molested young girls, including several of his sisters. The revelations are particularly stunning given that, under the guise of protecting children, the Duggar family has played an active role in the fight against LGBT equality.

On May 21, In Touch magazine revealed that in 2006, Jim Bob Duggar - patriarch of TLC's hit show 19 Kids and Counting - had waited more than a year before telling police that his son, Josh, had confessed to molesting several female minors, including his sisters, when he was a teenager. TLC has since pulled episodes of 19 Kids from its schedule.

The revelations drew widespread criticism in the media, with many outlets pointing out the Duggar family's reputation as a torch-bearer for conservative values and strong involvement in Republican politics and anti-LGBT activism. The revelations look to many like hypocrisy from a family that's become a political powerhouse in socially conservative circles in recent years by wielding its reality show influence to stump for "family values," Republican politicians, and the repeal of legal protections for LGBT people.

But while MSNBC and CNN have reported heavily on the Duggar scandal, Fox News has largely ignored the story. According to a Media Matters analysis, Fox News spent less than two minutes covering the story between May 21 and May 25, compared to almost an hour of coverage from the other cable news networks.

The Duggar controversy has put Fox News in an awkward position. Before he resigned the day In Touch's story broke, Josh Duggar was the head of the Family Research Council's (FRC) political wing. Representatives of FRC, an anti-gay hate group that routinely links homosexuality to pedophilia and describes LGBT people as a threat to children, are a regular fixture on Fox News.

Former Fox News employee Mike Huckabee, who is running for president in 2016, has come under fire for defending the Duggar family in the wake of the controversy.

The right wing's "family values" stink to high Heaven.  And if you want to remain uninformed, then Fox News should be your news network of choice.

TLC Show Lies and Promotes Discredited "Ex-Gay" Therapy

Thankfully, the blow back against TLC's propaganda like show "My Husband’s Not Gay," is getting media coverage.  Sadly, most media coverage leaves out one crucial element: the men featured as well as at least one of the wives, are "ex-gays" for pay and work for "ministries" that promote the medical/mental health falsehood that gays can "change."  In short, these individuals are little better than sleazy prostitutes who peddle a lie to make a buck.  Thus, TLC hasn't just happened upon some men who are honestly conflicted because of the religious brainwashing with which they were raised. It's akin to depicting  the Kouachi brothers who launched mayhem in Paris this past week as typical French Muslims.  The Salt Lake Tribune has coverage on the true nature of these dishonest individuals for whom TLC has provided a platform to disseminate false propaganda.  Here are excerpts:

It turns out that TLC has been downright dishonest about "My Husband’s Not Gay," the special that airs Sunday at 11 p.m. And it turns out that at least three of the Mormons on the show are not what they portray themselves to be.

"My Husband’s Not Gay" follows three Salt Lake-area, male-female married couples and one single man, and all the men say they have "same-sex attraction." At the same time, however, they claim they’re not gay.

Organizations like GLAAD have assailed the show, claiming that it promotes the discredited practice of conversion therapy – attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation, often through coercive methods. And TLC has rejected that criticism.

[T]he network said in a statement. "The individuals featured in this one-hour special reveal the decisions they have made, and speak only for themselves."  But that’s not true. As reported by mediamatters.org, three of the Utahns profiled on the show are closely tied to those discredited therapies.

Preston "Pret" Dahlgren is the former chairman of Evergreen International, a Mormon-linked organization that promoted so-called "reparative therapy." After Evergreen shut down last year, Dahlgren joined North Star International – yet another such group – as a board member.

His wife, Megan, has worked with three "reparative therapy" groups — Evergreen, North Star, and People Can Change.

And Jeff Bennion, another of men profiled in "Not Gay," is a spokesman for North Star.

None of this is mentioned even in passing in the special. Which is a clear attempt to deceive the viewers.

Another column in the Salt Lake Tribune is equally brutal on both TLC and the frauds featured in the show.  Here are some highlights:

"My Husband’s Not Gay" just might be the least believable reality show in the history of television. It’s also sad, because if the participants are lying, they’re lying mostly to themselves.

The premise of the show, which airs Sunday at 11 p.m. on TLC, is that you can pray the gay away. It’s about a group of Utah Mormons who have "same-sex attraction" but have, nonetheless, married women.

Gay is not a lifestyle, it’s a life. And encouraging gay men to marry women and have families has led to a lot of heartache. On that level, "Not Gay" is dangerous and destructive.

As a TV show, "Not Gay" is contrived and unbelievable. What are supposed to be spontaneous moments are clearly set-ups.

And the message the show sends is not the one participants intended. It’s clear that Tom turned his same-sex attraction into homophobia, unable to see past stereotypes he perpetuates.

"I don’t feel like I fit the mold of guys that are attracted to other men," Tom says. "Other than my deep and abiding love for Broadway showtunes and the attraction to males."

Yeah, being attracted to males means you’re gay.

And while Tanya insists repeatedly that she trusts Jeff, her actions indicated otherwise. 

The participants are clearly unaware of this, but "My Husband’s Not Gay" puts them on display as if they’re in a carnival side show. They come across as an oddity.

If these couples are genuinely happy, good for them. But it would be interesting if TLC checks back in with them in a few years.  Not that we need any more of these people on TV. Ever.

Ouch!!  One would think these women are nuts marrying gays until one remembers that it's how their families make their living.  Like their husbands, they are little better than tawdry whores.  The last writer is correct and one has to wonder if these women will be singing a different tune in a few years when their husbands, like so many "ex-gays for pay," finally admit that it's all a lie.  Meanwhile, how many other women will fall for this crap and enter into marriages that are less than what they deserve.

TLC Facing Backlash Over " My Husband’s Not Gay"

Despite all of the medical and mental health association findings that efforts to suppress or change sexual orientation through "ex-gay" therapy - usually offered through witch doctor like "ministries" or unethical therapists - TLC has launched a new reality special My Husband’s Not Gay, which showcases Mormon men who are open about their attraction to men even as they date and sometimes marry women.  Apparently, TLC cares nothing about the harm being done to these men or their families in instances where they marry.   I was in the closet for 37 years, tried desperately to "pray away the gay" and finally could do it no longer and had two suicide attempts along the way (thus, I know of what I speak).   A piece in Psychiatric Times quantifies the increased suicide risk to LGBT individuals which is exacerbated by efforts to "be straight":

There is strong evidence of elevated rates of suicide attempts in sexual minorities. Lifetime suicide attempts, on average, are 4-fold higher in gay and bisexual men, and twice as high in lesbian and bisexual women, compared with heterosexuals. Among adolescents, those who are LGB report making a lifetime suicide attempt at 3 times the rate of heterosexual youths. Moreover, LGB youths report 4 times as many medically serious attempts. Recent research suggests adolescent suicide risk is more strongly associated with LGB identity than with same-sex sexual behavior and is higher in behaviorally bisexual youths than in those with exclusively same-sex sexual behavior. 

Meyer’s minority stress model attributes elevated rates of mental disorders and suicidal behavior in sexual minorities to greater exposure to prejudice, discrimination, and victimization as well as to internalization of negative social views. Hatzenbuehler and colleagues found that discriminatory laws and policies increase the prevalence of mental disorders in LGB adults. Hatzenbuehler also observed increased suicide attempts in LGB youths who lack supportive social environments, including protection against bullying and discrimination. Family rejection is also strongly related to depression and suicide attempts in LGB youths.

In short, religious traditions that pressure gays to "change" and TLC by not condemning  such programs add to the potential suicide rate of LGBT individuals.  A piece in The Daily Beast looks further at TLC's show an the Mormon Church which pressures gays to enter into doomed to fail heterosexual marriages.  Here are highlights:

The trailer for the special depicts clean-cut Mormon men ice-skating with their wives and girlfriends as their individual voiceovers slowly reveal a shared secret.  “I’m attracted to my wife for sure,” says one, “And I’m definitely attracted to men, too.” “I want to marry a woman but I don’t know how to work out these feelings,” adds another.

After the release of the trailer for the special last week, TLC received a requisite and perhaps well-deserved tongue-lashing. Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon labels the show a “crass stunt” on a “bottom-feeding vortex of sadness network.”

Across the board, My Husband’s Not Gay has been cited as a new low for both the network and the stubbornly homophobic Mormon religion.

Although the Mormon Church, as it is commonly known, has long opposed homosexuality—most notably playing an influential role in California’s since-overturned 2008 ban on same-sex marriage—its official stance toward its own gay members has softened over the years. But the plight of the men on My Husband’s Not Gay demonstrates that Mormonism is not changing quickly enough to prevent another generation of sham marriages.

Although homosexuality has technically been verboten since the start of the religion, Quinn presents evidence that it wasn’t until the McCarthy era that Mormon leaders began to crack down on homosexuality. Under the leadership of Spencer W. Kimball, then an apostle in the church’s ranks, Mormon officials began to treat “unrepentant” homosexuality as an excommunicable offense. It was also during Kimball’s tenure that researchers at the church-owned Brigham Young University (BYU) reportedly began conducting electroshock aversion therapy on gay male students. 

Church leaders were adamant that homosexuality was not inborn and that heterosexual marriage was its chief cure.

The men that TLC will showcase in January are caught in a religion that simultaneously tells them that God loves them despite their “challenge” while also refusing to shut the door completely on the tantalizing possibility of full cultural acceptance within the faith.

From the outside, then, we might shame the men of My Husband’s Not Gay for not accepting who they are but within the context of the Mormon faith, we can hardly expect them to. The American Psychological Association may have closed the book on conversion therapy in 2009 but many gay Mormons, led on by equivocating statements from leaders like Oaks, are still hoping that they can change and eventually marry. 

The women who date and marry gay Mormon men are likewise victims of a religion that tacitly encourages heterosexual marriage at almost any cost. If the women on My Husband’s Not Gay fare similarly to the previous generation of Mormon cross-orientation marriages studied by University of North Florida sociologist Richard Phillips, they are likely to feel “unattractive” as a result of their spouses’ disinterest. D. Michael Quinn adds that, in the past, Mormon women married to gay Mormon men experienced “a consistent pattern of despair and self-loathing at their inability to achieve reciprocal intimacy.” 

The Mormon Church may have traded electrodes for euphemism and excommunications for loving leaflets but in so doing, they have also created a culture in which members cannot even admit to themselves that they are who they are. My Husband’s Not Gay is not so much a straightforward indication that Mormonism is homophobic as it is a sign that Mormon homophobia has taken an even subtler and perhaps more pernicious turn.

Let's be clear on one thing - the Mormon Church isn't alone in continuing the lie that gays can change.  Fundamentalist and evangelical Christian denominations continue the lie as does the official line of the Vatican.  And as I have noted before, none of the "godly folk" give a damn about the straight spouses trapped in such marriages or the upheaval that may be experienced by the children of these "mixed marriages."  Rather, it all efforts are focused on avoiding the reality that the Bible is wrong about homosexuality, a reality that then causes the entire faith construct of these selfish, self-centered folks to begin to collapse.