The outcry against this latest outlandish incident has been universal from the press and from the public at large, other than one group: "child experts":

''Michael Jackson obviously made a colossal error in judgment,'' said Sally Lee, editor of Parents magazine. She said no parent is perfect, ''but celebrities' mistakes are captured on film, (and) that sets them up to be a pariah.''

Jackson apologized late Tuesday. ''I offer no excuses for what happened,'' he said in a statement. ''I made a terrible mistake. I got caught up in the excitement of the moment. I would never intentionally endanger the lives of my kids.''

....A. Sidney Johnson, head of Prevent Child Abuse America, said the incident illustrates ''how all of us, regardless of income, can unintentionally place children in harm's way.'' [USA Today]

"All of us"?? I don't recall dangling any of my children over a balcony, don't recall making any out of court settlements for molestation. Is anything out of bounds for these "child experts," these unmitigated relativists? May he eat the children?

Child abuse investigators in New York and Santa Barbara, Calif. — where Jackson has homes — said the incident could have prompted child endangerment charges had it occurred in their jurisdictions. A spokesman for the German Embassy in Washington said he knew of no impending investigation.

However, those "experts": most of them can't help but equivocate.

''Is he a fit parent? There's a lot of reasons to question that based on his history, but we can't jump to conclusions without knowing the facts,'' said child psychologist Sam Goldstein, author of Raising Resilient Children. He said many children of celebrities turn out fine, but they need a healthy home life and daily contact with a parent, not just nannies. The fact that Jackson takes his children with him on tour is a good sign, he says.

''I'm not saying Michael Jackson is parent of the year,'' Parents editor Lee said. ''But it's dangerous to say the children are bound to be strange or weird because they were raised by Michael Jackson.''

On Wednesday, Jackson took his children to the Berlin zoo. The kids' faces were covered in burgundy veils.

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UPDATE
The German authorities, shamed by their inaction in the face of worldwide outrage over the incident, have issued another statement:

A spokeswoman for the Berlin PD says Jacko's off-the-wall (and over-the-balcony) display of his infant son on Tuesday might demonstrate a criminal act of "neglect of duty in respect of care and supervision."

"We are examining if there is cause to open an investigation into whether a crime was committed," police spokeswoman Christine Rother tells Reuters.

If Berlin's finest determine there was neglect involved when Jackson briefly held Prince Michael II over the railing of a fourth-floor hotel balcony to show off the tyke to a throng of fans encamped below, then a formal investigation would begin and charges possibly filed.

German police initially stated they weren't legally able to begin looking into the incident without someone filing a formal complaint, but they decided to launch the inquiry on their own--even though they admittedly have received numerous calls expressing outrage at the baby-dangling. [E! online]

This would appear to be an ass-covering statement from the Berlin police, but at least it's something.