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TMZ Finds the Line, Crosses It, Sh*ts On It

By Courtney Enlow | Posted Under Miscellaneous | Comments (61)

duggar1.jpg

TMZ has been treading the waters of “too far” as long as they’ve been in existence. One could argue they’ve gone too far on numerous occasions, and I would not argue. But, last night, they officially went beyond all the bounds of their so-called entertainment journalism into a whole new realm of fucked up and terrible.

Last night, they posted photos of Michelle Duggar’s miscarried baby.

I’m not linking to it.

Last week, the Duggar family lost their 20th baby into Michelle’s second trimester. We can judge the Duggars all we want for their at times reckless insistence upon giving birth to every sperm Jim Bob deposits, but a miscarriage or stillbirth is sad and tragic and private. That’s that.

Until TMZ gets ahold of photos from the family’s memorial service. Then all bets are off.

The family held a memorial service for their tiny lost one. At the service, cards were distributed showing the removed fetal body’s tiny feet and hands. A family member apparently posted these on Facebook and, voila, TMZ hits their post quota for the night.

I, in my present condition, am in no place to see photos of a dead baby, particularly a dead second semester fetus that probably looks a lot like my own.

But I shouldn’t have had to. I shouldn’t have been in a position to see any photos like that. Because I am not a Duggar friend or family member. I was just browsing an entertainment website looking for stupid celebrity news for today’s post. This was a tragedy for these people, a devastating loss, and now the internet gets to gawk at pictures of its tiny dead body.

This website, this entertainment website, posted private family photos of a fetal corpse, opening the family up to internet mockery and disdain about something that perhaps we would not do ourselves, something that might make us uncomfortable, but something we never should have had the opportunity to view. How fucking dare they.

Fuck you, TMZ, you evil collection of soulless fucks. Just fuck you so hard.









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Comments

Speak it.

Posted by: addicted at December 15, 2011 2:36 PM

I just came from TMZ and saw those photos. Why, oh why were they on there? How is that entertainment. I ran over to Pajiba to help erase the memory.

Posted by: Mellany at December 15, 2011 2:41 PM

Right now, I'm 13 weeks along with my second child. I, no shit, got teary at a flipping Folgers commercial earlier this week. So needless to say, I'm sensitive to everything, but especially stuff like this. Yes, fuck you TMZ, fuck you so hard in none of the fun ways, but I would never never EVER subject myself or my loved ones to a picture of my deceased child. Did they hand out pics of my grandma's corpse at her funrral? Nopes. Grieve in your own way, man, but that's messed up no matter how you slice it.

Posted by: Lucy at December 15, 2011 2:42 PM

I don't understand how that is legal.

Posted by: the other courtney at December 15, 2011 2:45 PM

I have a feeling the Duggar family invited TMZ and other media outlets to the funeral. They live off of the money their TV show brings in and make it their life's work to share their religious/homeschooling/political beliefs with the world through media attention for having so many children (for tremendous profit). The TV show gets them speaking gigs for parenting, their religious beliefs, homeschooling, and living the debt free lifestyle. Publishing the miscarriage photo is crossing the line, but TMZ isn't the only site running with the story because of its availability. The Duggars crave attention as much as the Kardashian family. They just substitute sleeping with celebrities for birthing babies.

Posted by: Robert at December 15, 2011 2:48 PM

disgusting

Posted by: Lucas at December 15, 2011 2:50 PM

I also saw the pictures, and while I thought they were beautifully done and very tasteful, they were certainly not something that should have been released to the public at large. Seriously.

I have a friend who used to be a photographer for the "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep" organization, which takes lovely pictures of stillborn babies or babies that have died soon after being born, and she had to quit because of how emotionally painful it was to her just as the photographer, not to even try and say how they affect the parents of said children, but to have those pictures made public is a dick move.

YOU HEAR ME?!!! A DICK MOVE, TMZ!!!!!! Will those assholes ever have any shame? The sad thing is, they'll have some kind of justification at the ready for anyone who wants to criticize and it makes me sick.

Posted by: ZombieNurse at December 15, 2011 2:52 PM

This is just unspeakable and insane. Now, personally, I think having those photos exist is weird, but everyone grieves in their own way. I think it's rude that the family member posted them to facebook, and I think it's unconscionable that TMZ made that "entertainment news". Let them mourn. You want to get all up in their shit when they make their next baby a matter of public opinion, fine, they open themselves up to that. But this is NOT entertainment fodder.

Posted by: KatSings at December 15, 2011 2:52 PM

I hate to admit it, but I think Robert might be right. I don't hate it because I don't want Robert to be right, but because I don't want Robert to be right, you know? It's a horrible thing to suspect of people, but it's reality television and anything's believable at this point.

But even if that's true, or even if part of it's true, it's freaking inhuman and obscene and disturbing that TMZ would actually run the pictures.

TMZ are predatory vultures who feed off of suffering. They're the damn Westboro Baptist Church of the entertainment industry.

Posted by: Ghisent at December 15, 2011 2:54 PM

Um, maybe it is the Duggars who are the "evil collection of soulless fucks" for taking said photo and then posting it for all the world to see.

Posted by: akathealias at December 15, 2011 2:54 PM

"A family member apparently posted these on Facebook..."

I'm not on Facebook, so I ignore Facebook's repeated attempts to persuade us that their latest opt-out display setting changes aren't a privacy issue, that the user controls what is seen by whom and when - in the face of many, many, many revelations to the contrary. But. Listen. You're a member of a very public family that can field BOTH the home and away teams of a single tee-ball game, and you think using a networking website with a propensity for oopsies will *not* expose sensitive information, somehow someway sometime? You post ANYTHING on Facebook, you MUST understand that no matter what little boxes you ticked or unticked, it is *public*, it is findable, it will make it out there to your boss or your mom or your boyfriend or TMZ - and then the sharing decision isn't yours anymore, it's theirs. And assholes are assholes, and you cannot trust assholes, and it turns into this horror.

Posted by: Nora Rocket at December 15, 2011 3:01 PM

I do not in any way endorse what TMZ did, but the family themselves posted the pics on Twitter and Facebook. They weren't exactly keeping them private. Plus, the Duggars have a TV SHOW. They've signed away their privacy.

Posted by: Sarah at December 15, 2011 3:05 PM

Poor little baby...The Duggar family and TMZ are both asses in the extreme. Can nothing be left alone and private? Is it just a knee-jerk response to post any and all information without hesitation? Christ, people--decorum!

Posted by: Ducky at December 15, 2011 3:06 PM

gross

Posted by: gp at December 15, 2011 3:14 PM

TMZ isn't the only site posting these pics. I saw them over at Jezebel as well.

Posted by: luna80 at December 15, 2011 3:18 PM

From People.com The Duggars also contacted the nonprofit organization Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, which helps families deal with the miscarriage and loss of their babies, to take photos the family could keep and use at the memorial service. Some of those photos have been released without Jim Bob and Michelle's consent, according to a spokesperson for the family, and were intended for private use only.

Just because they have a reality show and chose to grieve by contacting this organization and having the photos taken does not mean that it is their fault that they have been posted on TMZ. Their being on a reality show doesn't make them any less human or entitled to privacy in some areas of their lives. People can argue all they want about their reality show making nothing off-limits, but it's just a poor excuse to treat them like less than a person. It's a poor excuse to refuse to give any sympathy or empathy to another human being.

Posted by: Pinky McLadybits at December 15, 2011 3:21 PM

Sad and disgusting. What is this world coming to, that this kind of thing is considered entertainment?

Posted by: miss kate at December 15, 2011 3:26 PM

akathealias,

Sadly, I wouldn't put it past them.

Posted by: Rum Cove at December 15, 2011 3:27 PM

All right let's put aside for one moment who's baby this was and let's just look at what it is TMZ is trying to pawn off; the image of someone's dead miscarried child. Regardless if this is the loss of a celebrity, famewhore, or just anonymous person down the street, this is a gross violation all the same. The fact that nobody with any authority put the brakes on this and said, "WHOA! WHAT IN THE BLUE FUCK ARE WE DOING?!?!" speaks volumes about their greed. If this were just someone acquiring the picture for their own ends, that person would instantly be qualified as a sick fuck and likely be justifiably persecuted. But that this organization has violated who knows how many laws to get their grubby mitts on this material for the express purpose of personal profit and trying to justify it as some form journalism isn't just sickening, unethical, or illegal- it's fucking evil.

I have no idea why an organization like this hasn't already been sued into oblivion for their tactics before, but I would just love to see how their defense lawyers try to wipe their asses on the Constitution in their attempt to pass this act off as protected by the freedom of the press. This is just the very latest sad bit of proof that much of modern journalism isn't about finding the truth and informing the public, it's about finding the next bit of over-sensationalized bullshit in order to get higher ratings and profits regardless of content. I'm not sure which makes me more sad; the fact that someone will undoubtedly go even farther the next time, or that there is a substantial audience out there with an insatiable appetite for this shit.

Posted by: bleujayone at December 15, 2011 3:30 PM

Putting aside the Facebook argument and the 'celebrity' of these people...

Who the hell over at TMZ thought that a picture of a miscarried foetus qualifies as ENTERTAINMENT?

Posted by: Aislinn at December 15, 2011 3:36 PM

I don't know. On one hand, it was a pretty shitty thing for TMZ to link. On the other, DON'T PUT THAT SHIT ON FACEBOOK.

And further, is this ceremony going to be on their TV show? Because once you've given birth on TV and opt to make every single one of your births a public issues...I have a hard time feeling sympathy for you when people don't pull back. I've always thought it was only a matter of time before something truly awful happened to this family and we now saw a premie almost die (caught on tape) and now they had to deal with this. And some of the fall out is going to be on tape. Maybe it is time to stop SHARING EVERYTHING WITH THE PUBLIC, Duggars.

Until that day, I have zero sympathy for them.

Posted by: A at December 15, 2011 3:44 PM

Holy shit, this is disgusting. And other sites are posting the photos? Jezebel?! FUCK THAT PLACE.

I feel so fucking dirty.

Posted by: figgy at December 15, 2011 3:46 PM

hey - stop giving TMZ business by clicking on the site in the first place. Ditto for PerezHilton and all that ilk...

if you go to a trashy news site, you can expect to see - in all its glory - trashy news.

Posted by: Sara Tonin at December 15, 2011 3:52 PM

The family were the one who tweet the picture and TMZ link the tweet on their site

Posted by: MadClawMannn at December 15, 2011 3:53 PM

I don't care if the Duggars went to TMZ's front door with the prints still wet from processing. The first, last and only reaction TMZ's management should have had for the prospect of showcasing this should have been a resounding, "Hell No!" A pox on anyone remotely connected to this disgusting exhibition.

If you can get tossed in the pokey for having images of naked living children, I'm pretty sure there ought to be a law against showing off pictures of the DEAD ones too in any capacity.

To borrow slightly from A Serbian Film...this is nothing but "Stillborn Porn" only this is far worse because unlike that disturbing movie, it's very real.

Posted by: bleujayone at December 15, 2011 4:13 PM

2nd trimester here too... big ultrasound today and this is the shit they're posting on the internet?
Agreed, fuck you TMZ.

Posted by: lilianna28 at December 15, 2011 4:19 PM

Ghisent, absolutely no offense taken. I get what you mean. I want to be wrong more than anything. I actually edited out a lot of "I hate to say this, but's" and the like from the comment. I'm not willing to just blame TMZ when the Duggars are the ones tweeting the picture and using it as a promo opportunity for their show/brand/pro-life organization.

Posted by: Robert at December 15, 2011 5:02 PM

Not to give the asswipes at "TMZ" any credit, but why the fuck would you

1. Make pictures of your mangled fetus
2. Pass them out at his/her funeral?

Also:
3. It's not a private family photo if it's on Facebook
4. You are entertainment fodder when you have a "reality" TV show about your family

Don't give me any blah blah about closure and people grieve differently and all that shit. My sister had a miscarriage, and she didn't take pictures and then distribute them to family members. Thankfully. She has some common sense.

Posted by: Slash at December 15, 2011 5:03 PM

Echoing luna80's comment: not to defend TMZ but I know at least Gawker and Jezebel have posted the photos (or at least teasers/links) as well, so you can direct your outrage at them too. If you want.

Posted by: CDell at December 15, 2011 5:04 PM

You take pictures of a child you lost for the same reasons you take pictures of your other children.

The Duggars' reasons were their own, as was the loss. The family frustrates me, but this story is saddening. And who among us doesn't have a clueless older relative who is on Facebook and just doesn't understand it at all? TMZ is slime; how those people can do what they do and still feel ok with themselves is beyond me.

Posted by: Anon at December 15, 2011 6:47 PM

I will not look at the photos, not because I am squeamish I just refuse to give the sites my traffic for being stupid. However here are a few observations.

1. Why take the pictures?
2. Why give them out?
3. Why would someone give them to TMZ?
4. Why the fuck would you post them?
5. Does any body in this fucked up "celebrity" obsessed culture have any fucking sense?

Posted by: clancys_daddy at December 15, 2011 6:53 PM

Makes me glad I don't ever go on TMZ and hardly ever on Gawker or Jezebel. Thanks Pajiba for having a little common decency.

Posted by: ang at December 15, 2011 7:20 PM

If this is possible, considering the subject, the picture I saw was really tasteful (tiny feet held in enormous fingers) and included text along the lines of "every foot leaves an impression on the world" and it looked like a memorial card handed out at the ceremony. I suspect that the Duggars don't view this death as something that needs to be kept secret. In a way this is healthy and in line with their beliefs, every life is sacred, but the fact that it's on an international stage makes it unsettling. Especially since miscarraige and still-birth are such taboo subjects.

Posted by: king at December 15, 2011 8:15 PM

RE clancys_daddy:

I'll answer your questions...

1. Because you're fucked up. If someone's 6 year-old kid got hit by a truck and died, and that person went to the morgue and took pictures of the kid's mutilated body and then printed up a batch of them and handed them out, we wouldn't be saying, "Oh, well, that's just the grieving process," we'd say, "That's fucked up." Somebody in the family should have talked the Duggars out of that decision. Because it makes them seem way creepier and fetus-obsessed than I ever thought them before (to the extent I gave them any thought at all).
2. Because you're an attention whore.
3. Because that person is an asshole.
4. Because those people are assholes.
5. Apparently not.

But the Duggars and the people who produce their show got what they wanted out of all this: we're all talking about them, so I guess that's the silver lining there. I mean, why wouldn't you make a public spectacle of a miscarriage, if it'll get you massive sympathy from gullible strangers and an uptick in viewership of your reality show?

I bet that repellent Kardashian mom is so envious of the Duggars right now. "Goddam it, the least that asshole could have done is put a baby up in there before he left so Kim could pretend to be devastated when she 'miscarried.' That kind of shit is gold!"

Posted by: Slash at December 15, 2011 8:26 PM

OK, so ...

A family of discretion-free reality show fame-whores(*) will do absolutely anything in public.

TMZ will do absolutely anything for clicks, and only regrets that publicizing executions for fun and profit is frowned upon lately (but they have plans).

And Zuckerberg-man-tron-3000 is a soulless Cyberman from the future, come here to suck the last quivering shards of our souls, decorum and discretion into e-world with his big machine of things you can never un-see.

It must be Tuesday. (BTW, for those who don't know, The Murdertank is for stuff like this.)


* Fame whores? Fame-whores? Famewhores?

Posted by: BierceAmbrose at December 15, 2011 9:09 PM

Them taking a photo of their daughter doesn't make them fucked up. They took photos of her hands and the bottom of her feet. That hardly equates to taking pictures of a someone elses child who died in a car accident. It's not uncommon for parents with still born babies to take pictures. That's their daughter, and if they want a picture of her, it's not wrong, sick or twisted. Nor is is sick to put a picture of her feet on her memorial card. It wasn't macabre or grotesque, and who is anyone to tell them how to grieve the loss of a child.
That being said, TMZ can suck a dick. The Duggar's may put themselves out there for public consumption, but no way are they nearly as bad as the Kardashians or some of the others, and they seem to actually give a shit about their kids, unlike Kate Gosselin. I guess what I'm trying to say is, all the people involved at TMZ, go fuck yourselves with a rusty spike.

Posted by: Kelly at December 15, 2011 9:18 PM

Blaming TMZ for crossing some sort of line is fucking retarded. TMZ exists as long as there is an audience for it.

Also, who in their right fucking mind posts something like that on Facebook? People can't complain about privacy issues when they do stupid shit like that. I've never been to TMZ but I guess that is because I am not a fucking idiot.

And in the grand scheme of things, who gives a shit about one fucking kid dying? I swear white folk problems are hilarious...

Posted by: Diablo at December 15, 2011 9:36 PM

TMZ have now officially joined the list of sites I will never click on.

Posted by: Shane at December 15, 2011 9:42 PM

OK, this is kind of sick and twisted but with 19 kids, do you ever wonder if they can hear Joe Bob and Peggy Sue while they're going at it making tax exemption #20.

Posted by: kirbyjay at December 15, 2011 10:19 PM

And in the grand scheme of things, who gives a shit about one fucking kid dying? I swear white folk problems are hilarious...

Posted by: Diablo at December 15, 2011 9:36 PM
==========
Apparently crossing the line into complete asshole territory is not just for shitty "entertainment" websites anymore. Maybe you should apply for a job.

Posted by: Kelly at December 15, 2011 10:26 PM

TMZ did a gross thing. But for the love of God why would a family member post that on Facebook? Everyone is at fault.

Posted by: Nat at December 15, 2011 10:28 PM

I can completely understand why a family would want photos of their baby that has passed away or was stillborn. Someone mentioned that we'd think it was fucked up if they took photos of a 6 year old after a car accident, but the thing is that the only other photos of this baby would be ultrasound images. The decision of how to handle this situation or to think about these kinds of things is something I hope I never have to make.

As for TMZ - who clicks post on that and goes home to hang out with friends and eat dinner? WHO? What person talked to their colleague or fellow writer or however it works there, and found another person who said "yes, let's post this one." And Jezebel? I trusted you assholes - fuck you.

I'm probably going to avoid the internet for the next week now. Thanks for posting this - getting the warning gave me some space to avoid the internet tonight.

Posted by: Tits McGee at December 15, 2011 11:51 PM

And in the grand scheme of things, who gives a shit about one fucking kid dying? I swear white folk problems are hilarious...

Posted by: Diablo at December 15, 2011 9:36 PM
================================================

Well, I care about one kid dying. I cared about my kid that was stillborn. I care that you obviously don't give a shit that a child died.
My ex husband took photos of our little boy. All these years later I can't look at them, and don't want to look at them. But it was important to him, and that was enough for me.
Maybe i should contact TMZ and tell them them I have photos of a dead baby. But then again, I am not famous.
Oh, and Diablo....fuck you.

Posted by: hippyherb at December 16, 2011 12:32 AM

This isn't the first time that people have posted inappropriate things on Facebook like this. I really don't think it's anything even remotely near a positive part of the healing process needed to get over a miscarriage, but honestly, in the world of social media, people's stupidity and lack of decision-making skills are exacerbated 100%. I also don't understand how this qualifies as entertainment, other than the fact that it was something that happened to a reality show family. I know that this line of work is tacky, but in the words of Posh Spice, "This. Is. Tacky."

Posted by: duckandcover at December 16, 2011 5:15 AM

I'll (not proudly, but admittedly) raise my hand and admit I went to TMZ to see the photos. And not because I was thinking "dead baby, fuck yeah!" but as someone who is hardcore into free speech I wanted to see what was getting people's hackles up, and also since I work at a hospital, the idea of blood/death/guts/bodies doesn't affect me the way it does some people (I'm not immune to grief, I just know when you're around it more often it's different.)

For anyone who was curious, there are a few photos from the funeral itself, with the Duggars and their football-team size family all dressed in black and posing for photos. Was interesting to see they were all beaming at the camera. This wasn't a post-funeral mournful looking photo. I felt it looked very posed and they were smiling in the way they would be if they were being interviewed. The two photos that were "graphic" were blurred--you had to click on them to view the content. I clicked on them. They are black and white copies of the funeral program, and one photo is of a large hand touching a tiny hand, and the other is a large hand touching a tiny foot. That is all. No facial photos, no full body photos, no blood/guys/post mortem photos.

TMZ is a paparazzi run website, so I'm not really surprised by this. Paparazzi have run photos of a dead Princess Di, planes and cars that have killed celebrities, and constant topless photos of people at the beach. I am personally not offended because it's free speech. I don't have to like it, but they're not lying about what they're selling. The Duggar photos didn't bother me because my mother is a hospice nurse and I have seen dead/dying people up close, and if someone wants to put a photo of their child's feet on a funeral program then that's they're right.

Mostly I'm just irritated that we keep talking about this family. They're famous for two reasons: they have had a large number of children naturally without IVF, and they are white conservative Christians. If it was a black or Hispanic couple people would have been sending them death threats and Fox would be having debates on forced sterilization. I've seen their TLC specials and flipped through their books and a lot of what they say is crap. They live cheaply because they live in an already poor state down South. They live debt free because they registered their home as a chapel (they have home worship), people give them free clothing, and TLC built their house and pays them to be on TV. I find it arrogant that if they want a large family they don't adopt or foster children, and being part of the Quiverfull movement, I'm sad most of their daughters will never be anything but baby machines and never go to college. I don't think television should be supporting this family. Least of all for patting them on the head for churning out more children. The world is overpopulated enough. And even though they were personally affected enough over a miscarriage to have a funeral, why invite public photographers? Why the hell be photographed en masse at all?

Posted by: scorzi at December 16, 2011 9:51 AM

scorzi,

I would venture a guess that as conservative Christians, the Duggars firmly believe a) life begins at conception and b) every life, no matter how brief or tiny, should be cherished and commemorated. My SiL miscarried a daughter, like, 25 years ago, and IIRC back then people were barely encouraged even to give the baby a name before it was buried/incinerated. Now, I think, we know a little more about what needs to be done for the healing process to work.

The Duggars really hearken back to an earlier time in human history, when families had scads of children (the more to work the farm or the mine or the factory) and lots of them died, without a lot of fanfare, it's just the way things were and people got on with it. So expecting frowny faces in the family photo maybe doesn't quite jibe. They likely believe the baby is in a heaven, and there's not that much to be sad about.

I'm doing a lot of supposing there, but I think it fits the facts.

Also, your thoughtful comments offer an island of sanity in a sea of invective.

Posted by: , at December 16, 2011 10:38 AM

Is it possible that there is another motive here that I think has not been mentioned. Perhaps this is an attempt by the Duggars to have people see that "the fetus is a human being" and that abortion is murder.

Not sure if that's the motive or not but considering the anti-abortion signs you see with pictures of aborted fetuses.

TMZ was wrong of course but we do have the first amendment so who should be the arbiter of what can be put on the interwebs?

Posted by: Rum Cove at December 16, 2011 11:23 AM

Every 30 seconds, a child dies of Malaria. For just five dollars a net, this mortality rate can be slashed in half. Yet the WHO is constantly struggling for funding in malaria prevention.

I am willing to bet that more money is getting generated by this whole stupid fake controversy than what the WHO will raised in the same amount of time for these simple tools to stop totally preventable deaths. So yeah, people acting like this is some kind of tragedy because one white baby was born stillborn is hilarious to me.

3.575 million people die each year due to contaminated water. The only reason for this is because of a lack of funding and political willingness of the first world countries to assist 3rd world countries.

As a person that has stood in a field with the sounds of thousands dying around me, seen the effects of abject poverty firsthand, people trying to make this sound like TMZ is a bunch of monsters is a damn joke to me. Look in the fucking mirror people and think about how much blood it takes for you to live your life of comfort.

Posted by: Diablo at December 16, 2011 11:37 AM

Clearly TMZ has every right to publish anything they want. it's not a question of weather or not it is legal for them to print the photos. It's just a question of having a little fucking decency. This isn't some dumb starlet "accidentally" flashing her cooter to whatever camera happens to be around, it's someone's child who has died. Something painful and personal to this family, whether or not they are on TV. Believe it or not, even reality TV people deserve a tiny bit of privacy now and again.

Who knows, maybe the Duggar family doesn't mind having the pictures online. After all, as a lot of people mentioned above, it's about healing and maybe showing others that a miscarriage or the death of a child doesn't have to be a soul destroying event, that maybe their faith (whether or not you happen to agree with it) gives them enough comfort that they can memorialize their obviously wanted and loved child with smiles on their faces and maybe show other people going through the same issues that it can eventually be OK. Who knows? Everyone grieves differently.

The issue shouldn't be about how this family decided to celebrate their daughter and sister...however they decided to do that is their business. The issue should clearly be that the press, whether or not they are backed by the constitution and free speech laws, needs to show a little human compassion and maybe a little class now and again. This kind of thing isn't in the public's best interest to know. Someone said above that even if the Duggars went to TMZ themselves and handed over the pictures, maybe they should have said no. Hell, I'll even say that if the family did go to them, then I wouldn't feel as squicked out by this whole situation as I do. However, until I find out that the family passed on the images and TMZ didn't just scoop them off of the internet, I'm coing to continue to be disgusted by this particular act of intrusion.

TMZ is a slimy, disgusting, underhanded, intrusive organization, and I've thought that for as long as they've existed...but damn, this is just a step farther than I thought even they would go.

Posted by: ZombieNurse at December 16, 2011 12:03 PM

I'm finding myself agreeing with Diablo here.

And taking pictures of your dead kid is fucked up. If it helps you "grieve" or whatever, fine for you, I suppose. But I reserve the right to think it's fucked up. If you want to name the kid, have a memorial service, whatever, I suppose that makes sense. But a picture (esp. one that you distribute publicly)? That shit is fucked up.

And the Duggars ARE famewhores. As bad, if not a little worse, than the Kardashians. That's a tough one to figure out there, which family is more repellent now. I'm going to try not to think of either one of them from now on.

Posted by: Slash at December 16, 2011 12:22 PM

Go fuck yourself, St. Diablo. I'm not sure how one makes the leap in logic that caring about a smaller tragedy equates not caring about a larger tragedy, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the straw man tactics of the pathologically self-righteous. Yay, you for washing leper feet with your tears, and that does make you a good person. It does not, however, make you a better person. If your primary motivation for helping the unfortunate is to come onto entertainment websites and crow about how horrible everyone else is compared to you, some in-depth self-examination is in order.

TL;DR version: your halo is in the mail, St. Diablo. Hold your breath until it gets there.

Posted by: Craig at December 16, 2011 12:28 PM

Thank you, Craig. You deserve an EE for that.

Diablo -- first world problems are still problems. And I'm pretty sure infant mortality doesn't even qualify as a first world problem. However, I suspect that there's no point in talking to you. You're on such a highhorse that you probably can't hear anything anyway.

And Slash? Why don't you google "Victorian death photos"? Taking pictures of the deceased has a history nearly as long as that of the camera. You wouldn't do it? Fine. But it's no more "fucked up" that leaving flowers at a grave, or wearing a late spouse's sweater because it smells like him or any of the myriad other things people do to honor and remember those that they've lost and to try to find a bit of comfort in a time of bitter loss. I don't wish profound grief on you; I wouldn't wish it on anyone. But it's statistically likely that you'll experience it. And I hope, at that point, that you don't encounter anyone who treats you as judgementally and callously as you're speaking about this family.

Posted by: SeaKat at December 16, 2011 1:50 PM

Yea it was a cousin that posted the photos and not the immediate Duggar family......http://celebs.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474980917997

Posted by: Natasha Puryear at December 16, 2011 2:01 PM

I'm late to the game, as per usual, but this thread just made me sad for so many reasons.

First, it is deeply appalling that this sort of thing was deemed acceptable to publish by the likes of Jezebel and TMZ. It'd be different, I suppose, if the Duggars did indeed contact different gossip/entertainment (I can't use the word "news" here) outlets to share the photos, but if that was the case, why weren't they released with a more sympathetic nature? Like, how hard would it have been to put a header that said something along the lines of, "Our sympathies for the Duggars," etc? If they felt that this incident absolutely HAD to be broadcast, why not opt for a little class?

Second, yes, Diablo, in the grand scheme of things one miscarriage does not seem nearly as tragic as the plight of millions of people around the world. I'm not being facetious, either, I agree with you, to a point. Many of us will never encounter the suffering of you have witnessed firsthand, and it is true that there is not nearly enough funding going towards humanitarian projects. And yes, the amount of money and attention going to famewhores is disgusting. However, it's extremely insulting to read comments like, "who gives a shit about one fucking kid dying? I swear white folk problems are hilarious...". Pain doesn't invalidate or negate other pain, and for many people, having a miscarriage is a difficult, sad, experience. We aren't lesser people for reacting with outrage or disgust at how the media is capitalizing on this event.

Third, poor Michelle Duggar. Seriously. Whether you loathe the Duggars or remain fairly ambivalent, miscarriage is physically and mentally draining, and giving the world access to the intimate details of your life probably just conflates the whole thing.

Posted by: nosio at December 16, 2011 2:36 PM

I'm no doctor, but I'm fairly certain white people aren't the only people who miscarry, BTW.

Posted by: Anna von Beav at December 16, 2011 2:41 PM

Playing devil's advocate here....

I work in a different field now but I have two journalism degrees and a teaching degree. As an undergrad you learn about print journalism and social media and television news and you debate on what's good and bad and right and wrong and it runs the gamut. Some people put their foot down and say "I will never write about such and such" or "Even if I work for so and so I'd NEVER photograph/interview/comment on such and such". But then it gets into an interesting philosophical discussion.

I kept reading in the comments that TMZ (which even if it's "yellow" journalism or just a rag, still falls under the category of journalism) should have decency or think about the family or some such. A writer or an editor can always choose to write/publish a piece or a comment or a clip or a photo, they just have to deal with the fallout. To me (and this is my own personal opinion), the more newspapers and the press put their personal opinions into their work (etc "I had a miscarriage so I won't talk about or write about or show a photo or piece about miscarriages") gets into a slippery slope of free speech and free press and nanny states. For any other Americans here, next time you travel to Europe, pick up a newspaper. You'll be surprised to see what they run about war or terrorism or sensationalized stories. They show everything and tell everything. Why? Because whether they personally approve of the story or photo, they have a very non-biased approach to their journalism. I still read four newspapers a day (both liberal and conservative), but the online ones I keep coming back to are on BBC.com because of how much more I actually learn. There's 100% transparency, which can be good OR bad depending on your views.

I'll leave you with this interesting debate topic that we used to discuss in journalism school. Set off tons of arguments.......

You're a reporter. You get called to a house on Christmas Eve to do a story on a child that has been killed. You find out the child had tragically choked to death on a Christmas tree ornament. After the tearful interview with the parents/relatives, getting a photo of the tree or the outside of the decorated house, getting quotes from police/EMT's, you go back to write up your story. You finish the story and your editor checks it out. He asks what type of ornament it was. You realize you never actually asked. He tells you he wants you to fact check the ornament before he runs the piece. So question: As a journalist, do you go back to the house and ask what type of ornament it was?

Posted by: scorzi at December 16, 2011 3:48 PM

scorzi

Am I allowed to respond that the story of a child choking on an ornament (on Christmas Eve no less) while tragic and heartbreaking is not, in fact, news and does not warrant coverage?

Posted by: Devil's Eminence Grise at December 16, 2011 4:15 PM

True. But that was just the scenario (I've heard it passed around, not sure where it came from). But on the evening news they have stuff like that all the time.

Posted by: scorzi at December 16, 2011 4:40 PM

I know I'm going to come off as one cold motherfucker here, but if all the people who died of famine and disease and war were saved and alive now, we'd have to find ways to give them food and jobs, and as we all know, there's already precious little of either to go around. If there were another billion or two people on earth because disease had been eradicated and World Peace had broken out, you know we'd be hearing about the population-explosion problem and the arable land problem and the water problem and the food problem.

Make up your fucking minds.

Posted by: , at December 17, 2011 3:35 AM

A vagina is not a clown car, Mrs. Duggar. It's impossible for me to care about your freakshow of a family even in those moments of human drama that normally would invoke sympathy. You've gotten so used to being invaded and exploited by cameras you can't tell when you should say NO to them anymore. But the lead villains in sick little grand guignol would be the cud-chewing glassy eyed morons who watched the show and made you this famous and inured to simple privacy and dignity.

Posted by: Mr. Stitch at December 17, 2011 10:06 PM

I'm still at a loss as to how this is something unexpected or horrifying that TMZ published the photos.

We see shots of Saddam swinging on a rope, Ghadaffi bloody and then dead, dogs and cats neglected and tortured, car accidents, plane crashes, ferry sinkings. Why is it suddenly so horrible that they RE-POSTED the photos that the fame-seeking family themselves made public?

Not sure how showing pics like that is so awful to begin with, especially considering death for the baby was all but assured when a 40 something year old woman tries to carry another baby to term in the battlefield trench that is now her uterus.

So let's see...
Reality show parents whose fame and future provide meals for them and their 19 food holes, so mom and dad attempt to push out another despite the dangers to both the mom and the child, and when baby finally does die, they take pictures of it and post it for their audience to see.

Yeah, TMZ is the one with the problem.

Posted by: Protoguy at December 19, 2011 12:51 AM