Public relations expert Howard Bragman warned over the weekend that the careers of reality TV family the Duggars were on "life support" and that "the plug is going to be pulled" soon.
According to Bragman, the Duggar family had been smart to choose Fox News as the first media outlet they spoke to after it was revealed that son, Josh Duggar, had repeatedly molested young girls when he was a teen.
"I think people who went in wanting to like the Duggars probably left liking the Duggars, and believing them and believing in the concept of forgiveness," Bragman explained to CNN's Brian Stelter on Sunday.
Stelter noted that Fox News host Megyn Kelley had phrased many of her questions to the Duggars in a way that painted them as the victims of an unfair media attack.
"Absolutely," Hollywood Life Editor-in-Chief Bonnie Fuller agreed. "The Duggars kept criticizing the tabloids, and saying that all the tabloids had jumped on this story and were attacking them. When in fact, she is really calling The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, every media outlet tabloids."
Regardless of the Fox News interview, Bragman predicted that the Duggars' careers in the entertainment industry could soon be coming to an end.
"This family is on life support and I'm afraid the plug is going to be pulled for them," Bragman observed, adding that he was "not really afraid."
"I'm actually kind of comforted by the fact that I think the plug is going to pulled," he said. "Hulu pulled them, TLC has put them on hiatus, advertisers were running for the hills. It's hard to see a scenario where they come back."
"Is it the fault of the media?" Stelter wondered.
"No!" Bragman exclaimed. "It's the fault of the fact that the family was stupid enough to go on a reality show when they had these skeletons in their closet. And you just don't do that."
"The second part is the hypocrisy of this family, who is judging everyone else's life. And I think there's a biblical verse about that... they clearly got what they got because of the position they put themselves in."
