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.
June 7, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Absolutely correct.
I feel bad for the family and especially the children. If they really break up over this stuff…everybody suffers. Sadly, many in the "media" seem to think that would be great!…especially for thier magazine/tabloid sales.
June 7, 2009 at 5:01 pm
They could, at this point, choose to just pull the plug on the show. It will eventually go away. The whole thing has made me stop watching.
June 7, 2009 at 11:26 pm
While negative news and gossip swirls around the web about Jon & Kate Gosselin and their family, a new blog is joining the ranks of those praying for this couple and their family – JonandKatePrayers.com. The purpose of this blog is to refocus attention on praying for this couple, their marriage, and their family's healing.
Featured also are many resources and tools to help strengthen your marriage.
JonandKatePrayers.com
June 8, 2009 at 12:41 am
I quit watching, even the random times I caught the show. If their ratings go down far enough, the show will get cancelled and they'll be able to try to return to being normal people.
Hopefully, they'll have invested the money they've made wisely to diminish one issue.
June 8, 2009 at 3:54 pm
All it takes for that couple to survive is for them to grow up, act like adults and stop the show for the sake of their family. If that was a true priority for them, they'd stop the show. I have stopped watching them because of all the negativity (was never a big fan anyway) and I just can't watch a family be destroyed. It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion. I do pray they stay together.
June 8, 2009 at 4:36 pm
If the Gosselins (and the Learning Channel, for that matter) truly cared about the welfare of those children they would pull the plug on the show. Immediately.
What apparently started as a way to provide income to support eight kids has passed that point and completely fallen apart. Surely with more than 100 episodes completed, not to mention the fees from books and personal appearances, plus the house and free clothing etc., this couple can't plausibly say that it's all about the income and college expenses anymore.
There's something completely unreal about a family that appears, at this point, to be spending the bulk of its time taking separate comp vacations and visiting the spa. Enough already. Soon we're going to be watching Jon and Kate Plus Eight visit HBO's In Therapy.
I agree it has deteriorated into a cultural feeding frenzy. I predict that audiences will steadily drop off as people tune in to see absolutely nothing except Kate taking each daughter individually on a spa visit to cope with the pressure of life amidst the paparazzi. Viewers may be voyeuristic, but they're not stupid.