ESPN personality Tony Kornheiser defended admitted child molester Josh Duggar on his radio show, questioning whether the reality star and former executive director of the powerful Family Research Council should be “driven from his job” for sexually abusing at least five children while he was a teenager.
The full segment from Friday’s show can be heard at bottom.
TLC immediately canceled airings of 19 Kids And Counting citing widespread sponsor pullouts. So Kornheiser’s defense of Duggar puts him in rare company: alleged presidential candidate Mike Huckabee appears to be the only other notable figure who has publicly stood up for Duggar. Stranger still, perhaps, is how the other people on air with Kornheiser side with him in dismissing Duggar’s criminal acts as youthful mistakes. Is there really anyone who believes a 15-year-old doesn’t know that molesting children is wrong?
Kornheiser:
“Wasn’t it addressed awhile back? And the only reason he’s quitting his job now is because it became public. [...] You have the right to address it privately. [...] He was a kid!”
Kornheiser insists that since Duggar went to “counseling” and was “just a kid” that the issue should be settled. (Duggar did not, in fact, go to any counseling.) This mostly appears to be a case of Tony Kornheiser talking about a serious and prominent issue without being properly informed. So, not that much different from one of his regular shows.
[ESPN 980]
h/t to Pete
To contact the author of this post, write to tim@deadspin.com (PGP key) or find him on Twitter @bubbaprog.