TLC Employee Arrested for Child Pornography

One of the fears of many who have watched the Gosselin saga over the years has come true: An employee of TLC has been arrested for the distribution of child pornography. William Johnson Blankinship has worked as on online editor for TLC on "Kate Plus Eight" as well as other shows involving children.

Kate tweeted she's never heard of him but that's not the point. The point is that private images of her eight children were accessible to him because there were no legal protections in place to prevent it from happening. We do know that Kate allowed images of her children being filmed and aired that she no doubt never would have allowed to be taken of herself: Images of them sitting on the potty, undressed, having their diapers changed, and vomiting for example. If that's what we saw being considered acceptable fare for airing, God only knows what the Blankenship collected from all the film they considered inappropriate for airing. If he is a pedophile who gets off on this material he would've had the pick of the litter with all those thousands of hours of film, and if he used child porn for financial gain he could've made a mint on selling rare film of famous children to other pedophiles.

I've blogged about the PA Dept of Labor & Industry's slacking off when it comes to requiring all adults who work with children in entertainment in PA undergoing mandatory criminal background checks and child abuse clearances. This lack of corporate responsibility is further discussed in my interview with Paul Petersen and others in my book on the effects of reality TV on the Gosselin family . No, these safety measures wouldn't spot pedophiles who haven't been busted in the past, but at least those with records could be rejected as employees. Without these background checks any old pedophile can work for television production companies and have access to hours of private film of young children, not to mention sometimes having access to the children themselves.

In Pennsylvania anyone whose work “normally and regularly” brings them into contact with minors must meet these simple legal requirements. The papers are cheap and easy to fill out and must be completed by all daycare workers, school employees, and anyone else working with kids here in PA. I've blogged before about the mystery of not only why TLC does not perform this simple, inexpensive safety check on all of their employees, but also why the PA Dept of L&I hasn't required them to. It's one of the several examples of how children in entertainment in this state have fallen through the cracks of a system that protects other children but not them. The cracks have only widened and deepened since Jon & Kate Plus Eight began filming here and reality TV production came to PA.

Source: http://technorati.com