If you listen closely, you can hear the voice of evil
On the surface, this cringe-inducing announcement just sounds like yet another example of the sort of marketing logic that underpins reality TV these days. Pop culture fused with news headlines:
The gossip apocalypse has arrived: Jon Gosselin and Nadya Suleman will be going on a date.
The “Jon & Kate Plus 8″ star has reportedly agreed to appear in a cheesy new reality show in which he’ll date Octomom Nadya Suleman, former “Cheaters” producer Bobby Goldstein told In Touch Weekly.
“I heard that Nadya has an insatiable desire to spend time with Jon and to put their families together,” Goldstein said. “And I had the idea that this could be a very entertaining fiasco.”
Pay not attention to the fact that at the center of just such a fiasco would be no less than sixteen young children whose lives would be screwed even by touching the event horizon of such a “gossip apocalypse.” To actually get caught up in it would destroy them, ruining their lives probably forever. One wouldn’t be surprised if some of said kids eventually ended up suicidal, for all the damage their irresponsible and feckless parents seem bent on visiting upon them.
Selfish, selfish, selfish…and the producers are no better.
But hey, whoever let mere children stand in the way of a tabloid writer’s dream and a license to print money, however ill-gotten it may be.
Update: The date was called off, apparently, after Jon took the advice of his “spiritual advisor.”
Well…whatever stops the date from going through, I guess.
I started blogging back in 2004 -- in May, if the Wayback Machine is to be believed. Not that I remember the exact day. To be honest, I didn't take it that seriously then; it was a fun distraction, but nothing more.
That all changed, I think, once the Danish cartoons were published, and the assault on the right to freedom of expression became very visible. With the recent issues in Canada concerning the "human rights" commissions, the gravity of the matter has only increased, and my interest in blogging has increased right along with it.
I used to blog at a domain called Time Immortal, but it seemed to be the right time for a change -- there's been a lot of that in my life of late. Hence this blog: a fresh start, and proof positive that I won't shut up even if I get shut down once in a while.
October 29th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
“the voice of evil”
“gossip apocalypse.”
“it would destroy them, ruining their lives probably forever.”
“One wouldn’t be surprised if some of said kids eventually ended up suicidal”
Are you exaggerating?
November 2nd, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Not particulary. A bit, maybe.
One could cite any number of studies correlating divorce and remarriage on the part of the parents with psychological issues on the part of children party thereto, and one could also cite any number of examples of the often detrimental effects the spotlight of fame has on young children later in life.
This sort of pop-culture, paparazzi-magnet collision of families can only have an ultimately ruinous effect on the sixteen-or-so children involved.
November 4th, 2009 at 6:34 am
Meh, Jon, Kate and Nadia should all be tied in burlap sacks and thrown off a bridge. At the very least someone should find the holes from whence they came and coax them back in. =P
November 4th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
I’m gonna plead the Sheavian line: “let their names be blotted out!” Obscurity unto their dying days is the best medicine for what ails these people.