Trentonian columnist's toddlers are naked at the beach and ...

... Spring Lake officials go a little haywire and a media circus ensues.

Jeff wrote his column ... http://bit.ly/11DJQjV

... which picked up steam and led to his appearance on Fox and Friends (http://bit.ly/1dkxDAh) while AOL put together this story: http://aol.it/12new7l ...

Jeff also gave a radio interview: http://bit.ly/175dGMu

In a FB update yesterday he thinks it's idiotic that NJ.com didn't mention his job as Trentonian columnist (story: http://bit.ly/11DGSfc), which is natural because NJ.com is the parent company of the Trenton Times and so NJ.com will forever refuse to acknowledge the Trentonian's existence. (The Trentonian was born when Trenton Times employees quit in '47 and started their own paper down the street.)

Today, Spring Lake mayor calls Jeff to apologize: http://on.fb.me/10NIDUu

 

Ok, I've got to side a bit with the authorities. This guy wants to hose down his kids "sandy bottoms." But what did he do for his sandy bottom. His wife's?

And with the perverts seemingly under every rock, why would a parent want to expose a 2 and 4 year old in public?

This is the same mentality of the people who bring their kids in public places like stores and restaurants wearing only diapers.

Put a towel on the car seat or baby seat. Stick em in there. Then go home and wash them off.

 

So the writer's upset because he didn't like the law he, his children, whoever broke, or because he should simply be above the law? His kid was singing a happy tune as the law was being broken, so that makes it OK? We all know of plenty of laws that each of us consider to be stupid. I don't see how banging out 20 inches about a jurisdiction you don't circulate in is anything other than self-serving in this case.
More significantly, I was struck by the Nazi references from a man sporting a predominantly Jewish surname. Even if Edelstein isn't Jewish, hinting the treatment his family received for a few minutes in Spring Lake harkened back to 1940s Germany, where millions of Jews had been slaughtered, is disgusting. And I'd hope that, having time now to reflect on his word choice, Herr Edelstein would agree.

 

Now he's milking it. FB update today:

"Did I write a column for Friday's paper lambasting NJ.com for their unprofessional and unethical behavior? Yes. Yes I did."

 

And here's that column blasting NJ.com's ethics: http://www.trentonian.com/article/20130711/OPINION03/130719930/jeff-edelstein-nj-com-fails-journalism-ethics-test-when-it-comes-to-naked-toddlers

 

That falls under the category of naval-gazing awfulness. See Mike Lupica for more.

 

WFW.

How Bohemian. He lets his kids go naked in public.

 

I don't hold it against him for washing the kids off. Kids get sand in the shorts/bathing suits and it's going to be a miserable ride home for everyone, not to mention the rash the kids'll get.

It's not like he was parading them around. He was washing them off at the rinsing station.

 

I could be wrong, but I think the split in opinion on this would pretty closely resemble the split in opinion on public breastfeeding.

 

So the columnist got pissed because the Beach Commander (or whatever) called the police to enforce a law that was being broken, and even after the police officer comes and handles the situation rationally, the columnist is determined to make a much bigger deal out of it? Seems more than a little hypocritical.

Maybe I'm a prude, but I couldn't imagine getting my 4-year-old child naked in public like that, no matter how sandy their bottom may be. Maybe a 2-year-old, but I think even that would be pushing it.

 

I'm fine with public breastfeeding (and not just for the titties). A woman exposing herself is one thing. But there are so many fucked-up people out there. I would never allow my child to expose himself or herself in public like that.

 

Wow, I initially thought some of the comments here were sarcasm, but I guess not. These are 2 and 4 year olds. This is why people laugh at Americans.

As for the column, topics like this are the bread-and-butter of a columnist (of the non-sports, non-editorial variety). This will probably be the most-read thing he writes all year.

If I were an editor, and my columnist actually churned out something more interesting than slice-of-life crap, I'd have him write about it every day for a month.