'Jon & Kate' obsession is totally out of control

It's kind of funny the way so many people seem so obsessed with Jon and Kate Gosselin.

And by "kind of funny," I mean kind of sad.

More than 10 million people tuned in last week to "Jon & Kate Plus 8" (10 p.m., TLC) to see the couple announce that their marriage is ending. Countless millions more have been reading about the Gosselins in magazines and online.

And a lot of them have been expressing their views about the real-life soap opera. Choosing up sides in the upcoming divorce. Offering all sorts of judgments about Jon and Kate as parents and as human beings.

Even I've done it. Last week, I wrote, "Long before it became clear that there were problems in the Gosselin marriage, you had to wonder how Jon could put up with the constant condescension and all the belittling."

Which I shouldn't have written because I don't know what's going on inside that marriage. Like everyone else, I think I know because I've watched a lot of "Jon & Kate Plus 8," but we're only seeing what's edited into the episodes.

Now there's some question about whether anything we've seen, at least over the past couple of years, has been genuine. Or whether it's all been an act for the cameras.

Guess what, folks. Reality television isn't real. Never has been, never will be.

The mere presence of cameras changes reality. It changes the way people act. And, again, we're only seeing what the producers choose to show us.

Yes, Jon and Kate both say their primary focus is what's good for the children. And, yes, anybody who cares has an opinion about that statement.

A lot of people expressing the harshest opinions also claim that the welfare of the children is their primary focus.

That's baloney. If you really cared about the "Plus 8," you wouldn't be tearing down one or the other of their parents — or both.

You wouldn't be buying magazines or supporting Web sites filled with gossip and innuendo, and filled with pictures of those kids taken by the paparazzi, which has been stalking the family.

Stalking 5- and 8-year-olds.

In a way, it's hard to understand why the Gosselins have taken so much flak for their parenting. Whatever has happened between them, the kids seem healthy, happy and well-adjusted.

Again, at least from what we've seen.

Whereas there are other reality shows that ought to be eliciting huge outcries. Just last week, Bravo premiered "NYC Prep," about rich, spoiled 16- to 18-year-olds. We've already seen underage drinking; we've been told about these kids' drug use and sexual exploits.

But my favorite part (and by "favorite" I mean most appalling) is the parents who live in the Hamptons, leaving their 16-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son in a Manhattan apartment to do whatever they want.

Shouldn't somebody call child protective services?