There is an article in today's Washington Post about Jon & Kate plus 8 titled
"For This Brood, It's Chaos Times 8." It appears to be a fair article but is creating quite a stir with the people who frequent a well known blog. To read this article click http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/29/AR2008072901856.html?hpid=features1&hpv=national
This article was written by Sandra G. Boodman.
36 comments:
I'm sure the main reason it's causing a stir is that it's not a hatchet job meant to "expose" and "take down" the Gosselins. It's actually a straight forward article. It doesn't kiss ass, but it doesn't skewer them,either. I'm sure they're stepping up their efforts and bombarding the article's author with their comments and "facts." Either that, or increasing their contact with Paul Peterson, semi-famous child actor advocate (just saw him commenting on Britney Spears' childhood on VH-1) to get him to step in on the Gosselin kid's behalf. Boy, were they pissed when he told them that he's "monitored the situation" at Jon and Kate plus 8 and "hasn't seen anything worthy of action at this time."
Yes, there are quite a few comments already left for the author.
The funniest thing about GWoP is that they know all about the show the second it happens, which means they're WATCHING IT. They bitch, complain, whine and moan at how wrong it is and how they "so worried about the children," but they watch the show, which is all TLC wants. It's like Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh. Half of their listening audience HATES THEM, but they listen. They listen so that they can see what they say next and bitch about them. The sponsors know it, their radio network knows it, and they COUNT on that. It's all ratings, no matter if you love or hate them and ratings mean money. The fact that the complainers at GWoP and their "super seekret message board" watch faithfully and click on every newspaper article, has TLC and Figure 8 laughing all the way to the bank. Newspapers make money with every click. Every time they click on the Washington Post article, the Post benefits. Every time they write a sponsor and complain, that sponsor knows they watched the show. They also know that the "boycott lists" that GWoP posters have come up with out of protest, have no real consequence to them. There aren't enough people protesting to put a dent in sales.
The hypocrisy rests in that they're doing exactly the same thing as the people that LIKE the show. They're WATCHING, and in the end, that's all that matters to TLC.
You mean if I don't watch and don't read articles about them online, I am making a quiet statement without saying a word?
Cool.
People have left comments under various posts about the logic of the "haters" vs. that of the "sheeple" for awhile, and I have a different take on the differences. I think the bottom line is that for every well-reasoned comment from someone who doesn't like J&K+8, there is a post filled with vitriol. For every well-reasoned comment from someone who does like J&K+8, there is a post that "pleads 8". It's always easier to pick on the flaws of the opposing argument than to concede that it does have its good points. The recent controversy concerning Barack Obama and Ludacris is an example. Obviously, not all Barack Obama supporters think/make statements like Ludacris, but it's easiest for newsmedia and Obama's opponents to uphold that one opinion as the "general" opinion. I think one must accept that one "sheeple" does not speak for all "sheeple" and one "hater" does not speak for all "haters". I prefer to speak for myself.
It doesn't matter that the Washington Post printed a less than withering article on the Gosselins; no less than that towering paragon of the media, the National Enquirer, has already printed The Truth. As the GWoPpers (and everyone else) know, the Washington Post is no match for the National Enquirer when it comes to having a reputation for journalistic excellence.
Oh, wait.
I love the fact that a post was pulled over at the Post, questioning the herd mentality of the haters. It wouldn't have been pulled had someone not whined because there was nothing offensive about it. It just called out the tactics of the haters. I love it that they can dish it out, but can't take it when it's shoved right back at them.
Very very sad abou the Washington Post piece. I guess we should have known something was up when Woodward and Bernstein weren't assigned to write the article.
I for one will keep blogging 24/7 until the "truth" (as I and my fellow obsessed fanatics see it) is revealed. Right now, I am putting all my hopes in a possible expose by that hard-hitting journalist Mr. Larry King!!!
Signed,
Not a Kon Fan
I love all the outcry by the GWoP's about what a lazy journalist 'so and so' who wrote the article at the Post is and how it was really just ghost written by the Gosselin's PR firm.
Excuse me, didn't the National Enquirer read as if it was written by Aunt Jodi's sister and her "friends" at GWoP???
I guess lazy journalists come from all different kinds of publications. That said, to me the piece at the Post just seemed to be a 'light' TV page sort of feature. Every newspaper, even the New York Times, has these sort of articles.
These people just do not GET that their concerns about the Gosselins are not even a blip on the radar of 99.9999% of the American viewing public.
I don't think the article was positive, negative, entertaining or informative. I am pretty certain it was just an advertisement to watch the show.
GWOP has a super secret message board? How many cups of Ovaltine do I have to drink until I earn the secret decoder ring needed to get in?
This whole show is much ado about nothing. When the kids lose the cute factor, the J&K gravy train rolls to a stop. We'll see a true E! Hollywood story about them later.
If the show is "much ado about nothing", then what would cause E! to do a special on them?
I am not following.
All of you seem pretty obsessed with that other blog and what they say. Kind of strange.
Obsession is in the eye of the beholder. We don't spend countless hours online investigating their backgrounds, digging up dirt on them or driving to their homes and taking pictures of signs on their lawns. We don't call the institutions where they went to school, checking the validity of their degrees. We don't call the National Enquirer and tell them to investigate the psych of the average Internet troll/stalker.
So, if we're obsessed, what does that make the minions at GWoP? Psychotic, or just lonely and unfulfilled?
To: Jessietycg:
The secret message board I believe is one in which the posters make fun of the physical appearance of one of the girl tups. There isn't enough money in the world to make me look at something you like that and from your posts I don't think it would your cup of tea either.
Eh, I'm not so obsessed that I try and get personal info on any of the people over there, drive by their houses, track their movements online, try to get them in trouble with state agencies, or read their posts over and over and try to twist their words around. I don't feel the need to contact the ombudsman at the Washington Post to let him know that all of those people who are contacting him about the Gosselin article are crazy (I figure he'll be able to glean that himself). So by the standards of "that other blog", I wouldn't say I'm obsessed at all.
"Anonymous said...
All of you seem pretty obsessed with that other blog and what they say. Kind of strange."
What can I say...you people are FASCINATING.
It's kind of a "trainwreck" over there (a phrase I am sure you are familiar with). Hard to turn away.
Google "the other blog". You will find other sites less kind in their perspective. They flat out call the people who post there crazy.
I dont know about anyone else, but when I think about obsession, I think about the person on GWOP who calls Kates parents by name and then mentions that Kates mothers pic/contact info have been removed from her employers website. HELLO! Why on earth did she have the need to stalk kates mother anyway? Its not normal to even know where kate gosselins mother works. I find it freaky that someone else calls Kate - Katie & middle name. Oh and multiple people need to constantly put the name of the town the Gosselins live in out there. It is beyond creepy how obsessed GWOPers are. When I read the post that asked whats next, bodyguards? I could only think I SURE HOPE SO!
The Princess board makes me cry with laughter.
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Google "the other blog". You will find other sites less kind in their perspective. They flat out call the people who post there crazy.
You may not think you are obsessed but many of you talk about that other place a lot, I just think it is kind of boring to keep reading comments about the other blog. Oh well, I'm done reading these silly boring blogs about this boring family anyway.
No Ovaltine required to be invited to that viper's nest, jessietycg. Just a heaping helping of jealousy topped off with obsessive bitterness. Don't worry, you're not missing anything. That's why I got out of dodge. Snark is one thing, cyberstalking is another.
Just the fact that someone is checking the website of Kate's mother's employer is all I need to confirm my original opinion of the posters at GWoP. SO wrong and intrusive, and they can't even see it! And they call US obsessive? WTF? Are they purposely being obtuse or are they just that freaking dumb?
Kate's parents are NOT part of the show. Neither is Jon's mom. That is their decision and the reasons are really none of our business, yet those people over there can't understand that. They keep sticking their noses in the business of people who are NOT on the show and act like it's okay. It's STALKING. These people didn't ask for this. They aren't Jon and Kate, who signed on for the notoriety. Jon and Kate have been purposely vague about the relationship between the grandparents and them. There is obviously bad blood there. You should have seen the whining from Aunt Jodi's sister about the flashback show. The fact that they blurred out Kate's father's face as he walked her down the aisle and how "heartbroken" her father was about it, and then turns around in the same breath and says that he was horrible to his kids, how NONE of them, except for the youngest daughter, has a relationship with him because he was such a controlling tyrant). If anything, the tactic of the cyberstalkers teaches us that he should be THANKFUL for having his face blurred. At least by doing that, some of his privacy could have been protected (until the investigative geniuses at GWoP began outing him and his wife without their consent).
The hypocrisy is mind boggling.
I must agree with the anonymous poster who commented on how "strange" it is that so many posts on this blog have something to say about GWoP, especially to the point where some of the posts seem to be entirely about GWoP, not about J&K+8. I guess if I found someone's opinion to be that idiotic (the majority of those posts seem to be pointing in that direction), I wouldn't consider it to be worth my time. Just my opinion, of course.
I'm kidding about the "decoder ring" and kind of bummed that nobody picked up on my "Christmas Story" reference :(
Best Christmas movie EVER! I triple-dog-dare-you to watch it without cracking a smile. Just be careful not to shoot your eye out. LOL!
To: JessieTYCG:
Oh, of course, "Christmas Story". It's one of my favorites too.
How about casting little Aaden in a few years in a remake?...Just kidding, that's one movie they shouldn't remake. I just liked the image of Aaden as Ralphie!
I must agree with the anonymous poster who commented on how "strange" it is that so many posts on this blog have something to say about GWoP, especially to the point where some of the posts seem to be entirely about GWoP, not about J&K+8. I guess if I found someone's opinion to be that idiotic (the majority of those posts seem to be pointing in that direction), I wouldn't consider it to be worth my time. Just my opinion, of course.
Well, I'm not the blog owner, but my understanding is that the mission of this blog is to bring some balance to discussions of J&K+8. So, it's not just talking about the show, but talking about other peoples' opinions about the show. This isn't TWoP where you can't comment on another person's opinion without getting in trouble for "boards on boards".
Do I talk about the GWoPpers more than the Gosselins? Maybe. One reason is, as stated above by another poster, they are fascinating in a trainwreck kind of way. The obsessiveness of their hatred and the lack of self-awareness are kind of mind-boggling (the poster who mentioned Kate's mother's picture being removed from her company's website - she really doesn't get how weird it comes off that she's tracked down where Kate's mother works?). As has also been mentioned, this is hardly the only site where the GWoPpers' shenanigans are dissected.
The other thing is that the show only airs once a week, whereas the GWoPpers post every day, so there's just more to talk about there.
As for "worth my time" - eh, it's not like I'm sitting here reading Plato while feeding starving orphans, no. But despite the frequency of my posts, speaking only for myself, I might spend 15 minutes or so here a day. It's entertaining, and I feel a tiny bit like I'm "fighting the good fight" - only because the GWoPpers seem so sure that everyone agrees with them and that theirs is the only valid opinion. As I said before, when I start trying to cyberstalk the GWoPpers and drop their parents' first names in posts like I know them personally, then I'll know it's time to back off.
Guinevere, I understand your point, but I guess what I meant is that if I thought someone's opinion was so obviously wrong, my best defense would be providing pieces of information that proved him/her false. I guess that some people's posts (not necessarily yours) confuse me; I'm not sure whether they believe everything on GWoP is incorrect information, or if they just don't like some people's wording. If the point is to disprove the "lies" people tell (I use quotes because I don't know what's true and what's not), then I expect to read evidence. If the point is something like, "I don't believe J&K are horrible parents (like so-and-so said) because they have a personal chef" (note: I just made up that example off the top of my head), rejecting the wording doesn't give one good reason to reject the meaning of the statement. I think I may just be misunderstanding the point of the blog.
bigsis, I think the point of the blog is as stated at the top of the page: THE INTENTION OF THIS BLOG IS TO BRING SOME BALANCE TO THE DISCUSSION OF THE SHOW "JON AND KATE PLUS EIGHT".
(Sorry, I copied and pasted - I'm not trying to shout at you!)
So, I don't think anyone's intention here is to disprove the "facts" that the GWoPpers think they know. My only issue with their "facts" is that something gets posted, and then repeated, and then, boom, it's a fact. I don't know that ANY of the stuff they take as being gospel is true. I don't believe it just because someone on an internet message board says it. But I'm also not invested enough to track down people in real life and harrass them in order to find out "the truth" about such matters as the state of Kate's relationship with Beth or what the damn sign on the lawn said.
where I live, J&K plus 8 is on a couple of times a day, everyday plus the marathon on Wednesday night. That is probably part of the problem, it is just on too much. And not all people who post on the GWOP are stalkers, haters, etc. I have read worse on the internet.
Guinevere- sorry, I wasn't very clear. I understand the stated point of the blog at the top of the page, but the majority of the discussion seems to be what other people are saying about J&K+8, not J&K themselves, the show, etc. I know the blog owners can't control post content, but so many posts seem to have nothing to do with the topic of the blog, i.e., "THE SHOW "JON AND KATE PLUS EIGHT". (I'm not shouting either; I copied and pasted too.) :-)
MrsRef brought up a good point. Not all people who post on the GWoP blog are "crazy", are they? I know I have posted there a few times, but not all of my posts were accepted.
It is just the mods there who y'all dislike, or do the mods here hate anyone who posts there?
I'm not a mod here, but I am a (verging on too) frequent poster. I think I may be the one that started calling them "haters", too, which seems to have offended some people.
I have problems with the mods at GWoP, because their entire "mission" as well as their methods, strikes me as inappropriate and kind of malevolent. I have problems with posters there who follow the mods' lead in cyberstalking, and to a lesser degree with those who post way over the top accusations about J&K and ugly comments about the children. I think anyone who watches the show with the sole purpose of criticizing it is kind of pathetic. I think many of these people (not all) are behaving in a crazy way (in my extremely non-professional opinion) by spewing so much hatred at a freaking television show. I think a select few (again, imen-po) are genuinely mentally ill.
I don't "hate" anyone just for posting there. I wonder about someone who hangs out there a lot, because it's such an ugly atmosphere, IMO. But, it's your life; who am I to tell you how to get your kicks?
So, to summarize: I think the entire idea behind GWoP is crazy and kind of evil, and some of the people there are, too. But not all of them, of course not. There are degrees to everything, you know?
If you are asking me, I don't have enough passion for this subject that would cause me to hate the moderators or the people that post there. They have done an outstanding job with their blog. There are times I can agree with things that are said on GWoP. I can not and do not want to compete with them.I just wanted to have a place where we all could come and express our thoughts and opinions.
Too bad you had some people try to take over your blog for their own purposes. Are we going to have a post to discuss the new episode on Monday, please?
Betty,
Yes we will. It will be in the same line as the last two Mondays where the synopsis of the upcoming show is given. If you have some good ideas on how to do it or want to write something please e-mail it to me. Also please feel free to e-mail in something you would like posted if you want something discussed. It can just be a few sentences. Thanks
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