The Latest Honey Boo Boo Story Is Truly Disappointing

Full disclosure: I was never a fan of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo in the first place. Call me humorless, but watching a little girl say "a dollar makes me holler" always made me sick to me stomach. So when the show went off the air, I was not among the disappointed hordes. I was, however, right there with all the disgusted viewers who were appalled to find out that the family's matriarch, June "Mama June" Shannon, was allegedly dating a convicted child molester who also happened to be her former boyfriend. Mark Anthony McDaniel, Sr. spent a decade behind bars for the aggravated child molestation of an 8-year-old. What's more, that little girl was June Shannon's oldest daughter, Anna Cardwell (known as Chickadee on Honey Boo Boo). Though Shannon continued to deny that she was seeing McDaniel — despite mounting evidence — TLC pulled the show from production last October, reportedly scrapping six months of unaired episodes and putting the breaks on future affiliation between the family and the network. But according to a recent Facebook post on Honey Boo Boo's page, the family is returning to the small screen, this time on a different, yet-to-be-named network, in December 2015. The post doesn't share many details, though it does mention the revamped show will be "real" and "unscripted," because that's that's the only kind of television the family "believes in," and they "want you all to see the true side of all of us." We've already seen June Shannon's "true side," though. Not on the original run of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, but when she made it clear that her romantic desires were more important than the health, safety, and emotional well-being of her four daughters. Whatever network decided to pick up TLC's scraps and bring this family back is making a huge mistake. Not because people won't watch the show — the audience is likely still there, and maybe even willing to forget that June Shannon endangered her children by bringing McDaniel back into their lives — but because by shining the spotlight on this family once again, producers are complicit in sweeping very real childhood trauma under the rug. "Mama June" is the poorest example of how to help a child heal from sexual assault, beating out even Michelle Duggar. Putting Shannon back in the public eye minimizes what Anna Cardwell went through, and diminishes the experiences of countless other victims of molestation. TLC did the right thing when they pulled the show from the air. Offering a woman who is clearly endangering her kids a platform to reach America is clearly a mistake — which is why I just can't believe that a new network is going to give the family another go.