If I ever find out who this Wiki person is, there is going to be hell to pay!

The recent addition of quite a few controversial facts to the Gosselin Wikipedia entry have Jon and Kate (or their minions) in a tizzy. They have been going nuts trying to get the more damning ones removed, only to see them re-instated when proof is provided to the Wiki powers that be.

One reader of this blog speculates on the scene with Jon hunched over his computer-in-the-closet, feverishly challenging what he knows is true:

Jon: ...I am trying to get the whole thing deleted. Now get out of my closet. Your wild arm gestures are moving the hangers around and the clothes swishing around my head disrupts my mad IT skillz.
Kate: Oh you better get the whole thing deleted. I am NOT going back to nursing and you are NOT ever leaving this house ever again, leaving me with those little monsters, so you better keep the dollars rolling in.
Jon: Why don't you go print up some more bible quotes on index cards and post them all over the house?
Kate: If I ever find out who this Wiki person is, there is going to be hell to pay. I am Kate Gosselin! My sheeple are legion! They will go out in a great wave and cover the earth and spread my word and give me money...
Jon: Sigh. Go away. I have to challenge some more facts and need to think. Your hair is giving me a headache.
Kate: Oh yeah? Well your hair is giving me a headache. You're SO ungrateful, Jon.

Reprinted with permission from Kablooey.

"You're not in a character. You ARE a character."

Aside from the deception and outright lying that Jon and Kate Gosselin indulge in, the thing that disturbs me more is the potential damage to their children. Child exploitation is not something to be taken lightly -- hence the enactment of various child labor laws to protect minors who cannot advocate for their own interests. Laws that the Gosselin children and others like them are not currently protected by.

A piece recently published by ABC News pinpoints several of the concerns I have -- some highlights:

Those kids are not necessarily playing themselves, being seen in their daily lives and habitat," [television writer Kimberly Speight] Nordyke said. "There is a difference, because children in reality shows are letting cameras into their private world. That is definitely more revealing than having a child play a character in a sitcom.

Potentially, it's worse for them to be on a reality show," said [clinical psychologist and Emory University professor Nadine] Kaslow. "You don't get as much distance from it. You're not in a character. You are a character.

Parents need to stop and say, 'is this really in my child's best interest?'" Kaslow said. I think most people will say no, but not everybody.

Having a sense of the sacred is having a sense of the private," [Rabbi Sherre] Hirsch said. "When you put children on a reality show, you're possibly risking everything that is sacred to them.

Request for New Forum

I don't really have anything to contribute. I was just wondering if you guys could make a forum that we could all sign up for.

Posted with permission/by request of Mary Berry.

Zondervan Publishing Has No Scruples

Zondervan Publishing has no scruples, and this poster gets it. So does this one.

Jon and Kate's new book (co-authored with Beth Carson, erstwhile friend) is being published by Zondervan Publishing. Zondervan pegs itself as "a world leader in Christian communications".

Really, Z? There is no good defense of this decision. Either they didn't adequately research the Gosselins and therefore are doing this in ignorance, or they know about the lies and other decidedly un-Christian actions of the Gosselins and are proceeding anyway for the sake of profit. Hmm, sounds like the Gosselins themselves -- are they just birds of the same feather?