Monday, August 10, 2009

Jon and Kate Plus 8 - Enough Already

Ok - just like the rest of America I too am sick of the never ending Jon and Kate Plus 8 saga but it doesn't seem like this news is ever going to die, is it so I'm why not put in my own two cents like everyone else?

For the record I'm "Team Kate" on this one. Yes, she has her faults (impatient, neurotic, anal, etc, etc, etc) but she loves her children and takes her job, which provides for her family, a family of 10 (er, 9 now?), seriously. That I do not fault her for. I applaud her. Yes she has an unconventional job and yes maybe she is stretching her 15 minutes of fame, but it is a job that allows her to provide for her family (imagine having to pay for 8 children to attend college, 5 weddings, etc). What's so wrong with that? Is it just that people are threatened by this Supermom breadwinner?

Anyway, I digress. Today, Kate appeared on the Today show to talk yet again about her divorce and soon-to-be-ex-husbands infidelity. We've heard it all before splashed across the pages of tabloids and magazines and what's starting to get me even more infuriated about the whole mess is the media's coverage of the story.

Take for example two stories that ran today about Kate's appearance on the Today Show.

The first from the Associated Press is titled, "Kate Gosselin still wears her wedding ring." Hmm. So the news worthy angle here is two paint Kate as the pathetic, lonely housewife who can't possibly bear to take her wedding band off, right? Wrong. In the interview she explains that she wears her wedding ring for the sake of her eight children - her eight children who naturally are devastated by their parent's separation. This is not a sign of a woman's desperate hope to work things out with the father of her children. No, as always, Kate is thinking of her children first.

The second story from today's news that nearly made my head blow off was from the title of a video on the Daily Beast where you can view a clip of Kate on the Today Show. Above the still image of Kate on TV is the title, "Kate: I Still Love Jon." What? That has got to be one of the most misleading headlines I have ever read. if you actually listen to the interview you will see that after Meredith asks, "Does any part of you still love him?" Kate responds, "When I think back to the Jon I knew yes, um, suffice is to say." That is not a declaration of love for her cheating, foolish husband as the title leads you to believe. Yes, she loved him, at a time - the time before Jon decided he wanted out of his marriage to go off gallivanting with young women in the Hamptons and NYC.


So, that's my two cents. Go "Team Kate" and media lay off the misleading coverage. I've had enough. Unfortunately, with a hit reality show on TV this news story is never likely to go away. At least not any time soon.

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