Rachel Campos-Duffy is a regular sofa-sitter on Fox News’ IQ-killing morning show “Fox & Friends.” She is notable for one of the worst voices possessed by any talking head on TV, which is saying something: why someone at Fox hasn’t sent her to a vocal coach is a mystery, and the producers’ failure to make this happen is, I believe, irresponsible and incompetent. But I digress…
As noted in the previous post, October is National Down Syndrome Awareness Month. Campos-Duffy has a daughter, age six, with Down syndrome. She is her 9th child with former Congressman Sean Duffy, now Trump’s Transportation Secretary,who resigned from Congress in September 2019 after Valentina Stella Maris Duffy was born. (I wonder who takes care of all those kids, in a two career family?)
This morning Campos-Duffy brought her daughter onto the show as she spoke about Down Syndrome, its various ranges (Valentina is a high-functioning sufferer), and the challenges of raising these children. Her daughter was dressed up elaborately as “a flamingo dancer,” as the astute Fox hostess put it, and squirmed distractedly on the sofa next to her mother while paying no attention to her surroundings or what her mother was saying.
Campos-Duffy spoke about her child in such remote terms that I wasn’t sure that the little girl was her child. I half expected Valentina to blurt out, “I’m right here!” The spectacle reminded me of Jim Fowler’s visits to the Johnny Carson “Tonight Show,” when he would talk about a boa constrictor, stork or a pangolin while Johnny mugged and it crawled all over him.
At one point Valentina wondered away, off camera, while her mother was taking about her, and Rachel laughed uproariously. “See? She’s toilet trained!” Campos-Duffy said mysteriously as her two male colleagues also yucked it up at whatever the little girl was doing.
At one point, Mom asked Valentina a couple of questions, which the girl answered “yes” and “no.” Wow, she does tricks!
The daughter did not (and could not) meaningfully consent to being used for Show and Tell on “Fox and Friends,” and, in my estimation, was exploited by her mother in a demeaning fashion. Campos-Duffy could have told the audience about her family’s experience raising a Down Syndrome child and used photos (judiciously) to supplement the segment. She did not need to employ her oblivious daughter as a visual aid.
As I have written before on Ethics Alarms, I am a near absolutist regarding using human beings who are too young to understand that they are being made into human billboards, props or objects of entertainment. That issue always comes up at Halloween, as I see mothers carrying infants dressed as bananas or bunny rabbits, as Mom takes selfies. The “Fox & Friends” spectacle today was, of course, far worse from my perspective.
Your Ethics Alarms Hybrid Day Second Ethics Quiz is..
Am I being unfair to Campos-Duffy and Fox & Friends?
Ethics Alarms 
I have a hard time telling anyone of the hardships I endure. To me it seems like a engaging in a self pity party.
If she brought her daughter on the program to showcase her daughter’s high functioning capabilities I might say it would help educate people that Down’s syndrome persons can take a legitimate role in society and contribute. Conversely, if the goal was to say “see what a great mom I am, I have a special needs child. Then I would deem it unethical.
my initial reaction is “not unfair.”
What complicates the issue is that there were lots of kids on the show today (I saw all of about 3 minutes of the show). It was a Halloween show. They all had costumes on and they were given candy. I presume they were children of people working the show, but they might have been children of audience members for all I know.
Are all of these children props?
Or, is this a permissible “use” of children?
If so, the analysis gets more complicated because the girl’s condition would almost certainly come up. I imagine she had the typical look of someone with Down Syndrome. And, if she acted different from the other kids, it might be better to simply acknowledge and address her condition directly, instead of ignoring it.
Also, because it is something that is central to her personality, it may just be something Rachel regularly discusses when talking about her kid. That makes her sound less like a prop; it is just Rachel talking about her daughter.
(Keep in mind: I did not see much of this and the only child I remember was wearing an inflatable Minion costume. So, much of my analysis is based upon speculation.)
-Jut
That issue always comes up at Halloween, as I see mothers carrying infants dressed as bananas or bunny rabbits, as Mom takes selfies.
what is your point here?
Sealioning.
The point was made clearly and articulately. The children are being used as props, to make funny photos, to have people laugh at them in images that will be on the web forever, all for their parents benefit with no thought of the children’s welfare. The children involved did not consent to their exploitation and were powerless to prevent it..
Try to keep up.
I didn’t see this, but the way you describe it, it seemed that the child was clueless about where she was and what she was suppose to do. It seems that there was an extra burden on the child to behave with out understanding why. This would have been true even if the child didn’t have Down’s syndrome.