For those of us in the Gosselin blogging world the E! True Story made absolutely no difference on how we view Kate Gosselin. Fans, non fans, and everyone in between who participates in reading and commenting on the blogs have heard not only the rumors, innuendos and misinformation that was presented on this show, but much more. Some of us can even tell you the source (blog or tabloid) who started some of these rumors right down to the month and year it was initiated.
I am wondering, though, how it impacted the general public who knew enough about Kate Gosselin to want to watch the show but had never ventured on the internet to really google and try to research information they had seen in the tabloids. I subscribe to both Jon and Kate Gosselin’s names in Google Alerts and although I don’t usually read everything that comes through, I happened to read one that caught my attention.
This Google Alert appears to be a discussion board on a “moms” website and one of the subscribers is posting her thoughts on the E! True Story on Kate and asking what others thought. Here is what the person posting the topic stated:
Today I had the E channel on and saw the Kate Gosselin true hollywood story. Fist off I didn’t realize that she was a big enough celebrity to have a true hollywodd story. Secondly, WOW is all I have to say about her. I didn’t really care much for her to begin with but after watching that she was been a witch for most of her life. According to this she would only accept certain kinds of donations, and a locla grocery store gave her a parking spot for when she went grocery shopping. If she went to the store and someone was in her spot she would go into the store, and demand that shopper move their car! Seriously! I knew she was controlling but honeslty! I feel so sorry for those kids; it is sad what she is putting them through because she craves fame.
Although most of the non fan sites felt that E! True Story was a fluff piece and did not bring “Katie Irene” to her knees, I tend to disagree. Although I don’t think there is anything so damaging in this television piece that would bring Kate to her knees, I think there is plenty of other misinformation in it that could give people a reason to turn the channel when she is co-hosting “The View” or working the red carpet at “The Emmy Awards.” In essence, hurting her career or her potential for a career in the entertainment field. A career that would enable her to financially support her family and possibly end the filming of her children.
Forget that E! True Story had the wrong pictures of Kate’s parents or that they stated she grew up in a trailer park, which she did not. I think the hearsay that was spread by Polly Kahl and quoted by the women above regarding the parking spot was far more damaging. This is rumor and gossip (if it is true, why didn’t E! THS go directly to the grocery store and get a statement?) and it resulted in the women that posted on the above quoted website calling Kate a “witch.” I wonder how many other discussions are going on between people that viewed this show regarding other rumors that were reported by Polly Kahl and Al Walentis?
In the end, I guess Kate is a pretty strong woman and will probably continue to do just fine in her life in spite of Polly Kahl and Al Walentis reporting and spreading gossip and rumors. What do you think? Will this E! True Story, that will continue to be repeated for months and possibly years down the road, impact Kate Gosselin’s image and in turn her career? If so, will it be impacted in a negative or positive way?
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47 Responses to How Did the E! True Story Impact Kate Gosselin’s Image?
I didn’t watch the E! story but from what I’ve read it was very one sided with no one who really knew Kate giving an interview. Anyone with half a brain would realize that it was not a true representation of Kate’s life.
Polly was someone who teetered on the edge of being respected, for a while.
She has done Kate a true favor by writing that book and showing herself as the deranged woman she truly is.
Pam, nope to having an impact on Kate…perhaps on E!
The “moms” quote is resoundingly familiar. I’ll just say her reaction was canned, & the expiration date was ’09! Nothing like those who ‘don’t care for Kate much’ & due to E! now thinks she is a self-serving ‘witch’. (Is she one of Polly’s 61 FB friends?)
Cyn, I have to tell you that I am a little surprised at the non fan’s reaction to WG’s part on the show and book. I guess the supporters and non supporters have found some common ground with all of that.
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HB, No, that site is not a Gosselin site. Just a Mom’s website with a discussion board option.
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Stxmom, When I watched the show I thought that it was just the same old stuff rehashed and no real big deal but I was watching it through the eyes of someone who has been around the Gosselin blogging world for awhile. I am just wondering about those who have not.
I am not sure how this THS will affect Kate’s reputation.
I saw it through different eyes as someone not knowing anything about her or the Gosselin drama.
This person who called her a witch over a parking space said she didn’t care for her to begin with, so IMO her opinion or view was set before she watched it.
Also that whole parking spot story is ridiculous ~If it was true I feel like so what.
The store offered her a spot,they have spots for employee’s of the month at many stores also.
When Polly told the parking spot story she came off as a jealous nosy bitty and that is NOT JMO.
Polly took it upon herself to expose herself in Kates life. As far as hurting Kate, having a NN following you and your family around says way more about Polly than Kate. I saw it posted somewhere that Polly was tying to buy fame for herself, not a fortune.
If you look at what Polly has done in her counseling, there was nothing ever listed being a child advocate until she saw a gravy train for herself. Her background is interesting if I may say so.
I think it impacted Werny Girl’s reputation among some of the Khaters, though she took grief for stalking the family at the corn maze before. This just sealed the deal for some. Personally, I was amazed she would go on camera and repeat stories she picked up from blogs and bloggers as if she “researched” them. IMO, you could tell her anything negative about Kate and she’ll repeat it as if it is common knowledge across the state. I wonder if she’s heard the “yoghurt” story yet?
I thought the E! story was sympathetic to Kate. The interview segments with the E! employee put a lot of the criticism against Kate in a fair light.
I agree Ann, the only impact I see is a negative one on Pollys reputation. Her 15 are up !
I think someone should post this link http://smalltowngosselins.blogspot.com/2009/08/stalking-jon-kate-gosselin-small-town.html at the Mom blog that you referred to . The reaction that came after readers got a better look at E’s contributor could be completely different!
It will impact the viewers that didn’t know much about Kate before, THS definitely created an image in ones mind about what Kate was/is like. But a lot of people don’t care enough to look into it more, to find out the facts. It’s kind of like Charlie Sheen & all the hoopla around him- his show is top rated, will it change once he’s out of rehab?- time will tell. However, I don’t think that THS will turn Kate Gosselin into the “Lyndsay Lohan” of Hollywood.
I feel sorry for Kate though, she must feel like she’s re-living junior high & dealing w/a big bully everyday w/the untruths that float around.
I firmly believe that negative tabloid covers & story’s of Diva behaviour as told by WG & Al on E …have an impact on how the general public (non-Gosselin bloggers) perceive Kate. I know even though I don’t buy tabloids, I do notice them at the check out lines. Many people who never even watched the show, form opinions based on these kinds of stories.
I’m guilty of it myself, I’ve never watched Jesse James t.v. show..but based on what I’ve seen, read & heard on entertainment shows I’ve formed an opinion & I’m not likely to watch anything with him in it.
I doubt that anyone that doesn’t know Kate Gosselin even bothered to watch it. Most people don’t watch those shows unless they are a fan or unfan. IMO I doubt the show had any effect on Kate at all excpet that some of the gossip that has been thrown around was proven to be false. Example? That Kate was ungrateful for the things given to her. The other gossip was Kate insisted on having matching things given to her when that also was false.
The only effect from the show would be from the unfans and hopefully some of the unfans thinking that certain things were true from the gossip blogs found out it was just gossip and will rethink their opinions.
I also think that even though WG rushed to write a book hoping that her appearance on “E” would help her book sales but it appears it had the opposite effect. Those watching would IMO see a woman who is obviously a gossiper more than a “temporary licensed counselor”. Between the snarky gossip and her even more snarky expressions IMO she would turn off anyone interested in her book. Also since several of her “facts” were proven to be false that would also turn off any prospective buyers of her book. Who wants to read a book when the author can’t get some simple facts straight? That makes a smart intelligent person question everything else she might say in her book.
Selling ten copies since it was released is not exactly setting the literary world on fire. It looks like all the short time and effort that WG took in rushing to write her book failed miserably.
I agree Joy, before the show I thought it might help Polly’s book sells but after watching her on the E show I’m not surprised her book is not selling.
Joy – Your posts were right on the money!
As someone who has been around since the beginning, who is a reational non-fan who doesn’t care about Kate’s toe or teeth or boobs, I thought the E story was neutral for the most part. I don’t think it helped or hurt Kate. It DID however show us exactly what kind of person Polly is. This story has brought out the worst in some posters, on both sides.
People see what they expect to see on a show like E THS. While the post quoted was not a Gosselin blog, the poster stated that she already did not like Kate. She was predisposed to focus on the things in show that painted Kate in a negative light. An individual unfamiliar with the Gosselin blogging world who was pre-disposed to like Kate might focus on other aspects of the show that refuted many of the rumors.
So the real questions to me are:
1) What would a person totally indifferent to Kate make of her if they saw the show?
2) Given all the tabloid exposure, how easy is it to find a person totally unaware and/or indifferent to Kate Gosselin?
3) How does a negative image impact the career of someone like Kate? Is she helped by name recognition regardless of perception (e.g. Paris Hilton)or hurt by negative perceptions (e.g Mel Gibson)?
Polly is insignificant to anyone outside the Gosselin blogging (other than her family, of course). She will be remembered as the neighbor dishy dirt on Kate.
Since most of the characters bashing Kate seemed a tad “questionable”, and Kate seemed sincere and more credible when speaking, I really doubt there will be much negative impact on her at all.
My husband asked me why Ms Kahl was wearing a disguise.
“2) Given all the tabloid exposure, how easy is it to find a person totally unaware and/or indifferent to Kate Gosselin?”
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I think they are out there. Last year out of 10 people that worked in my office…7 did not know anything about her or really who she even was.
I can’t help but wonder if it does hurt her image to those to don’t follow the Gosselins and can’t separate fact from fiction.
I wanna know where that parking space story started? It certainly has been around for a long time. I am thinking “a source”..>LOL
When all else fails….look to GWoP for those rumors that go way back.
This portion of a comment was taken in from WG’s site. Yes I read there. I freely admit it and obviously Lori who left the comment reads here at IW.
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Lori stated:
I do want to say this, there is one site who is talking about posters IP’s and “outing” who they are, and where they are from. IF a person or persons run a blog, at least have the PHUCKING INTEGRITY to protect your bloggers. How dare you use this info to “out” someone. IF they do it to ONE, they WILL DO IT TO YOU. The discussions are on the blog, free for anyone to see them. It is a shame, that simply because you voice a different OPINION from them they feel the need to “hunt” someone down and expose PERSONAL info about that person. Just be careful which sites you do post on, please! How dare these people call someone else a HATER. How dare they.
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I might have outed Pete Jr. but I did not use his IP address to do so if you would have read my comment correctly. We determined who Pete Jr. was by previous things he had posted and the accusations and tone in which he was posting with. He posted on our site with the screen name of NC Resident which also meant North Carolina resident and he freely talked about being from North Carolina when he posted at GDNNOP.
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I only mentioned his IP address from several years ago when he was posting at a blog created by a GWoP mod who left her site meter open for anyone to see all IP addresses of people that were posting there.
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No one hunted anyone down. No one exposed any personal information about this person. No one gave up his IP address. Pete Jr is freely posting around and he went on a public radio station and it is easy to tell who he is by what he says. It hasn’t changed it over two years.
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Do I have an obligation to not reveal that I know who Pete Jr is? I don’t believe so. Again, nothing personal was revealed about Pete Jr.. You are being very dramatic.
I would think that if Kate/her “people” thought that the show would be detrimental to her, they would have either made her available to be interviewed, or friends/relatives, someone from TLC. They probably figured most people wouldn’t take Polly and Al, and the other random people, too seriously. I think if any of the stuff they said sent somebody over the edge,they were probably inclined to dislike her in the first place.
“Do I have an obligation to not reveal that I know who Pete Jr is?”
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By this I mean as far as previous screen names used. I do not see anything wrong with mentioning I recognize someone from where they use to post and what screen names they have used. I do have Pete Jr’s personal information and have had it for over two years. He gave it to me. I have never revealed it to anyone nor would I. And I am not sure if Pete Jr. would have done the same for me.
Pam, When I read that I thought about Sunfire. I never saw anyone’s IP addy published here. Doesn’t matter, Sunfire came here as a troll and acted like one.
Well there was no personal information revealed about her either. There are many people that work for the State of PA out there and I wonder how many of them are named Sunfire?
Also, I think I mentioned this before but we never used an IP address to figure out anything about Sunfire. This person is talking about an IP address. Regardless, no personal information was revealed about anyone.
Pam I do not think you did anything wrong. In fact, CON was rude to me so it was interesting hearing his history. That said, I still do not know who he is. Lori seems to have taken up WG’s ways of spinning the truth.
Lori sounds like a PHOTTY MOUTH & a Drama Queen to me.
“Hunt someone down.” Is she serious? What a drama queen. Gee Whiz is correct. This is just a disingenuous attempt to smear a blog Lori happens to disagree with. She is transparent and lame. In short, she fits right in over at Werny Girl’s.
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I think some haters have had a problem with GDNNOP and IW for a long time. I take it as a compliment. We have been around for quite a while and we are smart and pay attention. That said, I have never been involved in a discussion with Pam or any of the mods where we did not check our assumptions and question (if you only knew!) our own motives. We HAVE held back from sharing information with readers on many occasions and will continue to do so if we have any doubt that we are doing the right thing.
Anya, Those are the very reasons why I respect you ladies so much. Yes, you girls have exposed those who needed to be exposed, nothing more, nothing less.
After the dust has settled for a few days since the E show was on, Kate, Jon and TLC knew it was going to be made up lies and from people who didn’t know them, so no need to defend anything. Polly sure wanted Kate to notice her and even had told it on her blog that Beth was interviewed.
As for Lori, I think she knows who has outed people and it has never been done here.
My goodness, I really wonder about the mental acuity of some of these women. Pam’s perfectly clear and reasonable explanation of how she recognized Pete Jr. is translated in this moron’s mind as “outing” someone and posting personal information? Is she for real? Aiyee, what a dim bulb.
Gee Whiz,
I remember Con at Sage’s. That must be why he changes his screen name so frequently. One can be nasty at one site and then go on a radio show and profess you are a child advocate and not worry about what you have said elsewhere.
Pam – That radio show is a joke. No true child advocate would attack a mother the way they do. The bloggers have repeated gossip and spewed hatred toward a woman they have never met. They are all a bunch of FAKE CHILD ADVOCATES.
One can be nasty at one site and then go on a radio show and profess you are a child advocate and not worry about what you have said elsewhere.
That’s my issue with frequent name changes too! If you say it own it..& if you’ve said something that you are too embarassed about to own with an screen name(not even your real name) on a blog…perhaps you should not have said it at all!!
Why do people think that they have anonymity on the internet? There are no laws that protect your identity. Facebook sold identities and no one arrested them. A woman in NY took a web provider to court to get an identity and the court upheld her request. RE: The web provider was not allowed NOT to disclose a name under subpoena. Really people are crazy. If you wouldn’t say these things to thousands of your closest friends then stay off the blogs.
I just love the outrage of deducing 3 fake identities as belonging to the same person as being outting. I think they are very afraid that someday someone will connect the insane ramblings to their real life.
What a let down it must have been to find out the great “Pete Jr.” is just good old “NC Resident.” No wonder she’s so angry. Oh well.
From Werny Girl, defending herself against stalking accusations: ” In actuality stalking is a very serious crime with serious consequences and laws. Behavior needs to meet specific criteria to meet the legal definition for stalking, and my behavior hasn’t begun to meet it.
You know what else is a serious crime requiring specific criteria to be met?
Spousal abuse. Child abuse. Child exploitation.
Just sayin’.
Dear Polly Kahl,
In the words of the Dali Lama, “In our daily life, tolerance and patience have great benefits: developing them will allow us to sustain and maintain our presence of mind.”
I wish you would exercise and embrace the above and be more tolerant and patient with Kate Gosselin and set aside your need you have to try to hurt and destroy her. I find what you have done and continue to do to her, very sad. In trying to hurt Kate Gosselin and justifying it as child advocacy, you hurt the children who love their mother. Hurting their mother, hurts them. That is not child advocacy. Discussing snarky things like a parking space or her breasts, again, is not child advocacy. I think you want to humiliate Kate, but in your attempts to hurt her, you are humiliating yourself. As a therapist that you claim to be, I cannot understand any of your behavior with the book writing, the interview on E you gave or your blog to put down Kate.
I do hope you can embrace tolerance, indifference and find some compassion in your heart to be patient with your neighbor, instead of judging her and feeding the unnecessary hatred toward her.
You are jeopardizing your own soul.
You are to “LOVE your neighbor, as you love yourself.”
To those hating her to try to hurt her, what really is it that you are getting out of doing this, to be doing it, you have to be getting some sort of pay off.
Avia that was some beautiful and thoughtful advice for WG. It’s a shame she can’t take it into her heart and follow it. She would be a much happier person if she took your advice.
Thank you, Avia. I agree that it is beautifully said.
“I think you are trying to humiliate her.” That is not something I have read before, but I really think it fits. There is an irrational interest in Kate’s clothing and body that can’t be explained by “child advocacy.”
I read that Polly Kahl wanted to appear on E! because she wanted to draw attention to the harm it does to kids who participate in reality TV. Why would she discuss the parking space story, Kate’s breasts, or rumors of anyone’s infidelity then? Why? How can she justify that?
Avia, those are nice words.
I missed all the WG talk, but I read the first chapter. I can’t believe the blatant disregard for the truth. She has an interview w/P. Peterson that she did in 8/09. First she says he was successful in petitioning the court to appoint a financial guardian for Nadya Sulemen’s children. She doesn’t mention that it was overturned on appeal and the court blasted him.
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2010/01/court-rules-octo-mom-nadya-suleman-guardian-case
Then, they’re both saying there were cameras permanently installed in the home (bedrooms and bathrooms) that could be remotely activated. Unbelievable. Just make it up, write it down, and hope it sells.
I wasn’t very clear above. WG and PP were talking about the old G home where the lighting was installed when they say there are remote activated cameras everywhere.
I watched and was extremely underwhelmed……
Misinformation and old information. It makes me question the Hollywood stories I’ve seen before if anything else. And the “experts”…… what can I say?
I do not like to watchthe Duggars simply because it makes me so mad that those older girls are basically raisnig those kids. When I see Jim and Michelle walking down the street holding hands while the girls are packing babies and pushing strollers it doesn’t sit well with me. I also see them enjoying their dinner while the girls are struggling to eat and hold a baby on their lap. The Duggar children were also filmed throwing up on helicopter rides and other adventures but not a word was ever said about that.They have shown the funeral of the grandpa, the birth and near death of a premature baby and Jim Bob having what was close as it could ever get to a sex talk to Josh when he and Anna were getting married. I think Michelle is probably a lovely person but she is not someone that I agree with when it comes to raising a family, however I certainly would never spend large parts of my day tearing apart her every move. IMO people are outraged because despite everything Kate has been through she refuses to give up. She has been betrayed by the very people she loved and trusted the most and vilified by tabloids and wacked out blog owners and she keeps a smile on her face and forges on, and that seriously pisses those bullies off. Keep going Kate, you only have to answer to yoursels and your kids.
It would be interesting to see WG interviewed about the Dugger show. I think by her own looks there would be much more approval. While she is tooting her horn now about the kids (G’s) getting teased at school now and with great pleasure, that kids talk. Really, WG, how about as an adult maybe you should shut your mouth. I think the attention WG has brought to Reality TV will be very hard on any family now, including the good Christian Dugger family, the one show with a purpose. LOL
WG thinks the general public got the show (I don’t think the general public cares WG). I see a small minded NN who should be ashamed of herself. Real educated people don’t act like this, there’s a 2 bit professional on every corner if you look far enough. She disgusts me. IMO.