Guilty: Former Jon and Kate Plus 8 editor registers as sex offender and will serve four years probation

Bill Blankinship, who worked on the production side of Jon and Kate Plus 8 for at least 23 episodes, now shows up on North Carolina's sex offender registry, which shows he was convicted and registered last April, and will serve 48 months of probation. He was convicted of sexual exploitation of a minor in the second degree.

Now that a reality t.v. crew member is a registered sex offender, will this finally wake parents and viewers up to the dangers of turning your child over for public consumption in the name of the almighty dollar?

A large bust in North Carolina last October included the arrest of William Johnson Blankinship, credited by TLC as Bill Blankinship, who is listed as a writer, editor and on-line editor for Jon and Kate Plus 8 from 2007-2009 and an on-line editor for Kate Plus 8 from 2010-2011. Blankinship also worked on 19 Kids and Counting, Sister Wives and Table for 12, three other TLC shows about children.

According to authorities, "Operation Spyglass" resulted in the arrest of 24 men over five months on felony charges ranging from the possession and distribution of child pornography to indecent liberties with a minor. Several of the men will be charged with felonies and could face prison time.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/10/28/1600197/child-porn-effort-snares-25.html

Last year, Jon confirmed he met Blankinship several times during filming of the show. He said he was "freaked out" to learn of the arrest.

Jon endorses Rabbi Shmuley for Congress

Jon's long-time friend is running for Congress in New Jersey. Jon will join him for a press conference Wednesday to discuss "his life, the disintegration of his marriage on national television and how tax deductible marriage counseling could have saved it, and the help he has received from Rabbi Shmuley."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/click/2012/06/jon-gosselin-backs-rabbi-shmuley-boteach-127361.html

Jon in People

Jon gave an interview in People in which he talked about Kate, his kids, and his new job. In newsstands this week.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20605781,00.html

In other reality t.v. news, the latest reality show to exploit young children, Lifetime's Bristol Palin: Life's a Tripp, which features Bristol's three-year-old son predominantly, was a ratings flop. It barely broke 720,000 for the night. Bristol had no trouble helping the ratings when she was on Dancing With the Stars without her kid. Were there other factors involved, or are viewers finally sick of watching fame-whore mommies exploit their kids?

Why does no one want to watch Mommy exploit me?

The gardening thread

By popular demand and because it's more interesting than Kate, I'm opening a gardening thread. Share tips, tricks, stories, whatever you want. Feel free to discuss anything else you want, it's not limited to gardening.

And for those who don't garden, you're wrong. You have a garden....in your mind. Check out this awesome viral video.

Kate runs 7.1 mile race in Connecticut in 1:08:48

Kate was spotted with Rod Dixon running in Sunday's race, which included the famous Gallow's Hill. 

Kate tweeted: Btw,my unofficial X 4 10K=1:08:48..a bit slow but am still recovering from 1/2 marathon last wk..would've run slower but Rod encour me thru! 

Twitter.com

What flavor is that lip gloss, Steve, bubble-gum-wish-on-a-star-drops?

Twitter.com

Meanwhile, the acclaimed local newspaper The Reading Eagle, which has been on to the Gosselin scam for years, has a fantastic article about the increasingly accepted notion we have often discussed here, parental alienation. Here is an excerpt:

Dawn Palange is a partner with Palange & Endres P.C. and chairwoman of the Family Law Section of the Berks County Bar Association. During 23 years of practicing law Palange said she has seen many cases of parental alienation, sometimes called parental alienation syndrome, and she believes it is becoming increasingly common.   

"For some reason there seems to be more animosity between divorcing couples than there used to be," Palange said. 

Parental alienation, which Palange described as "a parent acting in a way that's intended to turn a child away from the other parent," is a situation that hurts everyone involved. Once instituted, she said, it can cause lifelong emotional scarring.  

"I know young people in their late 20s who are victims of parental alienation, and I've seen some of the baggage they're carrying because of it," Palange said. "It's not a good situation at all." 

That baggage, experts say, can include damaged self-esteem, depression, an inability to achieve healthy relationships, a lack of trust, substance abuse problems, increased divorce rates and an inability to develop good relationships with their own children. 

Dr. Larry Rotenberg, a Reading Hospital forensic psychiatrist, said that a parent who engages in parental alienation to the point that it destroys his or her own child's relationship with the other parent has lost sight of the damage his or her actions are causing. 

"The eagerness to combat the other parent exceeds all other motivation and blinds them to seeing the harm they're causing to their child," Rotenberg said. 

Frank put it another way when talking about his ex-wife. "She hates me more than she loves her children," he said.  

Robert M. Gordon, an Allentown psychoanalyst and forensic psychologist who has conducted extensive research on parental alienation, said that people who practice parental alienation suffer from borderline personality disorder (BPD), a serious mental disorder.

Kate and kids run in Rod Dixon's Kid's Marathon in Connecticut

Some fans posted photos of their encounters with Kate at the race today.

Instagram

Twitter

Meanwhile, savvy readers here have found Kate's tweet from a few months back in which she claims she can't tweet about events in advance for her "safety." Except this time, when the marathon involved the kids, she tweeted about the event in advance. What about their safety?

@xxxxxx@Kateplusmy8 Was ample media on the opening. People have learned 2 help Kate stay under radar until she gets where's she's going.
Kate Gosselin ‏ @Kateplusmy8 
@XXX yep. You're correct. Important for my safety. :) 

Kate and kids to run in Rod Dixon's Kid's Marathon in Connecticut

We made some race day t-shirts for the kids:

According to the web site, kids throughout Connecticut will finish the final mile of a marathon on Saturday. Apparently Kate and her kids will join in at the main event in Litchfield.

"Throughout the course of the program, participating students have engaged in weekly fitness training while accumulating a personal distance of 25 miles. Students follow a KiDSMARATHON training guide containing nutritional information, warm up exercises, drills, games, cool-down activities and much more." 

In other narcissism news, Kate actually thinks she's worthy to be in the same room as Michelle Obama. What say you to that Madam First Lady? 

CouponCabin invites fans to run Chicago Rock 'n' Roll mini marathon with Kate

From CouponCabin:

Have you always wanted to run a race with one of your favorite reality stars? [Admin: Let me think....no, actually.]

Thanks to CouponCabin.com, your dream can come true! Sign up to run the Rock n Roll Chicago mini-marathon with CouponCabin blogger and reality star Kate Gosselin.

The race takes place on Sunday, July 22 at 6:30am in Grant Park in Chicago. Sign up using the link below. The entry fee is $45 when you sign up before 7/15/12, but of of course, we’ve got a coupon code for you! Use code COUPONCABINK8 to save $5 on your entry fee. You’ll also get a CouponCabin running t-shirt to wear during the race!

We’ll be in touch after you sign up with race logistics but if you have any questions, please email runwithkate@couponcabin.com.

Register here for the Chicago Mini-Marathon with CouponCabin & Kate!

$5 off CODE: COUPONCABINK8

Kate runs in San Diego Marathon

Well the half anyway. Discuss here.  She finished with her personal best time of 1:56:40.