The Fox News interview with Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar is troubling on so many levels.

The above clip is quite difficult to watch mostly because it demonstrates just how badly the Duggars failed their daughters and their son, Josh.

The first thing I noticed is that Michelle cannot seem to get an answer out without looking at her husband's face to see if he approves of it. When he doesn't he simply interrupts her and takes over.

During this first interview we learn for the first time that not all of the touching happened over the clothes as previously reported, nor happened when all of the victims were asleep as was the initial story. (All told the victims included four daughters and a baby sitter, some of them wide awake while being molested.)

So now we have a predator who is becoming increasingly bold in his molestation attempts and is undoubtedly engaging in grooming behaviors that his parents are too undereducated to notice. And keep in mind that the parents are ONLY aware of the incidents that Josh confesses to, and have no real idea if that is the extent of the abuse.

At one point Megyn Kelly alludes to the fact that the "final" victim was a child that was very young, a single digit age, and that it was only then that the parents had Josh removed from the home. Which is, in my opinion, inexcusable.

In this second portion of the interview, the Duggars claimed that they got professional counseling not just for Josh but for his victims as well, and alerted the authorities well after the fact.

The interview goes on to discuss the decision to participate in the reality show, and Jim Bob seemed to feel that they were protected by a sealed juvenile record which would keep the incident from sabotaging their new career path. The revelation about that juvenile record seems to be one the thing that Jim Bob finds to be the most unforgivable.

At one point Michelle Duggar says that her daughters "have been victimized more by what has happened in the last couple of weeks than they were 12 years ago because, honestly, they didn't even understand and know that anything had happened until after the fact when they were told about it."

That statement reveals just how ignorant these people are concerning the long term effects of sexual abuse.

There is a lot to talk about concerning this interview.

First I would like to say that Megyn Kelly did a better job than I thought she would, and that her approach got the Duggars to say very incriminating things which might not have cropped up during a more aggressive interview.

Second I have little confidence that the Duggars actually got their children the counseling that they needed. If they received any counseling at all it was undoubtedly Christian counseling which is often unlicensed and focused mostly on spiritual reparation, more than psychological problems.

Thirdly the Duggars kept trying to minimize Josh's actions as being "curious about girls." But in fact he was a sexual predator who molested his sisters multiple times, including one that was younger than ten years old.

And lastly it is beyond clear to me that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar failed to protect their daughters from a sexual predator, and to protect their son from his own impulses.

There is a reason that child protective services exist, and it is to step in and handle things with which parents are ill equipped to deal.

Ultimately the Duggars seemed more concerned with protecting their reputation (Don't forget that Jim Bob was either holding or actively seeking political office around this time period.) than they were protecting and caring for their family.

Here is more from Salon on this interview.