Joan Walsh: The Duggars Have A ‘Twisted Persecution Complex’

Liberal columnist Joan Walsh of Salon is not afraid to voice unpopular opinions, but with one of her latest columns on the embattled Duggar family, she may be shooting at fish in a barrel.

Following a Fox News interview Wednesday night that was not well-received, Walsh took aim at how most of the interview attempted to turn the tables on Josh Duggar molesting four of his sisters (and a babysitter) and put most of the real wrongdoing on the backs of media reporting on the incident.

“In the span of an hour Wednesday night, Fox News transformed the disturbing Duggar family into culture war martyrs, targets of the most vicious liberal attacks since the War on Christmas,” Walsh wrote.

She gave Jim Bob and Michelle some “credit,” offering that the mom and dad of 19 children “delivered a stunning display of deflection, the longest exercise in self-absolution since Gov. Chris Christie’s two-hour pity party when Bridgegate was revealed” and she believes the “Christian activists and LGBT antagonists found unbelievably creative ways to minimize what son Josh did when he molested four of his sisters, and a baby sitter, in seven separate incidents.”

Ultimately, the Duggars were given a chance to step out of the tough questioning and blame games that media outlets were playing with them since May 22 when the scandal initially broke. While Megyn Kelly asked the Duggars “some tough questions,” Joan Walsh admitted, she ultimately didn’t press them on certain issues.

Like where was counseling attained? What were the professional qualifications for “the help” that Josh received? What about the litany of contradictions in the police report that In Touch Weekly reported on a day after the interview?

One of the primary sticking points for critics like Joan Walsh is how the Duggars make it a point to actively campaign against the LGBT community and say some antagonistic things about the “harm” that this group causes while this very thing was going on under their own roof and, in part, enabled by them.

While you may agree with her assessment, Walsh is pretty infamous for saying some inflammatory things as well. Like, for instance, the mom who pulled her child out of a Baltimore riot was “no hero” because she “abused” the teen on live television.

Inquisitr readers really had an issue with that when we reported on it shortly after the Freddie Gray death. There likely won’t be as much this time around, but what say you? Is Joan Walsh correct in saying the Duggars have a “twisted persecution complex”? Sound off in the comments section.

[Image via Duggar Facebook Page]