Just a Minute!

Jon & Kate minus good sense (5/29/09)

     I’ve never seen an episode of “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” which makes me eminently qualified to decide impartially who the bigger morons are in this passion play: the celebrity parents or the celebrity media covering them.

     In a mild upset, it’s not the media horde treating Jon and Kate Gosselin’s unraveling marriage as real news. It’s the irresponsible parents.

     The real news is that a seemingly rational couple decided they would use their eight children as meal tickets, aided and abetted by a loutish organization that used to call itself The Learning Channel but now prefers the obfuscatory TLC.

     Granted, everyone loves to watch a train wreck, with the possible exception of the people on the train. Thus, the fifth-season premiere of “Jon & Kate” this week attracted nearly 10 million viewers hoping to see the Gosselins’ marriage implode.

     But what about the kids? In a Facebook world that treats privacy as something to be invaded regularly, “Jon & Kate Plus 8” is a veritable D-Day of vulgar, voyeuristic insensitivity toward eight kids who had no say in the matter.

     The Gosselins faced financial hardship after fertility treatments grew their family exponentially, so they made a crass choice that made them famous and well off. What they didn’t realize is that fame and fortune don’t guarantee a big, happy family.

JUST A MINUTE! is a weekly essay intended to be read in about 60 seconds. Find more online at seattlepostglobe.org.