OK. Jon and Kate Gosselin, the reality couple with eight children, don’t seem like the ideal couple. But the cultural feeding frenzy they’ve inspired in our culture is a little ugly.
They’ve been dragged through the tabloids like Britney Spears for everything from Jon supposedly cheating on Kate, Kate cheating on Jon, her obsession with her looks, being a complete…well you know, and reports of violations of child labor laws. Now, I don’t know the truth of any of these allegations but now it’s gotten just a teensy bit absurd. The local Humane Society has investigated the Gosselin’s children for going Michael Vick on the family dogs:
The Humane Society of Berks County investigated a dozen complaints alleging the Gosselins’ German Shepherds, Nala and Shoka, were being abused.
The complaints came after Jon Gosselin, star of the Jon & Kate Plus Eight reality series, told People magazine “the kids beat them up, climb on them, pull their tails, bite at them, drag them around and everything you can imagine not to do to an animal, they’ve done.”
But the humane society Friday said it found “no reasonable basis for concern for the dogs,” just a poor choice of words by Jon Gosselin.
So, of course, the family had to release a clarification on their earlier statements to assure the country they love their dogs. This family has issued more “clarifications” than Joe Biden.
But my over-arching thought is that Man! When there’s blood in the water, everyone wants a bite, huh? I haven’t seen this kind of feeding frenzy since “Spring Break Shark Attack” wiped out half the cast and a few extras after the party boat tipped over.
I know that some think that the moment they allowed cameras into their family room, they invited this kind of thing. But in the end, I think these kind of transient social obsessions say more about us than they say about the focus of our withering and dehumanizing gaze.
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