The Heene family takes the high road, pleading guilty to false reporting, to the surprise I’m sure of the poor-parazzi planting their tent stakes for a courtroom circus feeding frenzy. For his parents stepping up to tell the truth, Balloon Boy is going to emerge a hero, even at school. Who can fault the Heenes for taking the predatory media for a ride? They entertained, they became the butt of jokes, but they harmed no one and exposed the television media’s thinning credibility. The media is showing its vindictiveness, by explaining that the guilty plea was made to avoid Mrs. Heene’s deportation, but parents know this decision was about the kids, and I predict the Heene family’s star will rise. The media may never forgive them, but it’s too competitive to pass on this enterprising bunch.
How culpable was the media? There was not a single possibility that a child was being carried aloft by that mylar balloon. The media willfully played along and knew the story’s unraveling would make for even better ratings.
The prevailing opinion has it that the Heene parents committed an obvious error in judgment to plan this fraud and make the children their accomplices. I’d even agree. But in today’s scheme of things, isn’t seeking fortune and fame a matter of calculating what you have to compromise? It’s too early for mere television viewers to know if the Heenes actually miscalculated. Lots of ordinary people have launched themselves into the celebrity firmament on gambits which would embarrass the rest of us.
Was the Heene gambit much worse than taking your family to sail around the world, or any other foolhardy adventure? They sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind. In this godless age, that is no longer a warning. It’s become an adage to define the fast track for social climbers.
We can second guess to what risks parents should or shouldn’t expose their children, but I don’t know who can say that a grab at the brass ring is ultimately out of bounds.
The fraudulent child-abducted-by-balloon story could almost pass for tongue-in-cheek, really. Just how stupid are the reporters and law enforcement? If you called them to complain of an elephant stuck in your toilet, and they came, my first thought is not going to be to accuse you of fraud.
I don’t care how many search and rescue emergency vehicles were expended on the balloon chase. They’re salaried, and the fuel and equipment hours can be expensed as training exercise. Giving chase is what those personnel are for.
I’m much more concerned about the media teams, fully prepared to build media events from fabricated premises. But it’s what they do with the big stories, like war, and politics. Balloon Boy exposed it.
How on earth do you know that they were actually guilty, Eric? It is like you have never heard of forced plea bargains before? The wife was in danger of being deported or worse, even up to losing her kids.
And just if they were guilty of deliberately doing a media hoax as the police would like us to believe? …then this following commentary by you is utterly false…
‘They entertained, they became the butt of jokes, but they harmed no one and exposed the television media’s thinning credibility.’
Actually, sending emergency vehicles and police on imaginary chases is harmful to the public taxpayers that have to pay these bills. In this case, it might have cost several hundred thousands of dollars due to the bad judgement of the police perhaps, as well as that due to these parents, if in fact they were guilty as charged? But we simply don’t know if that is true, since they had their plea bargain forced into, and there will never be a real trial.
Forced plea bargains are a total blight on the US Justice System as they are in many other countries. In fact, they are a form of torture, many times of totally innocent people. The extreme use of them in our country simply tells the world that in the US, you are considered guilty as long as the police think that you are. That’s quite a little bit different than being presumed innocent unless proven guilty by a jury of one’s peers.
And you yourself, Eric, here presumed the couple guilty based on the ‘predatory media’ and and an even more predatory group of cops. Meanwhile, just a couple of days ago you were positing an incredible version of events in Texas of a man being framed up? How weird!
Eric,
Perhaps I am mistaken to infer that you are condoning their actions. Am I?
“They harmed no one.”
Really?
The children are unscathed by it all?
“Predatory media.”
Really?
Even though all wheels were set in motion on the presumption of truth that a child was in harms way, which futher diminishes the validity of your perspective that the media was acting as “predatory”.
I would wonder just what your professional journalistic standards of “newsworthy” are. Are timeliness and proximity no longer acceptable?
As much as I try, I can’t imagine that your intention for this article was anything other than publication in the Onion. Really Eric, it laughable.
The broadcasters did what they could with it. They milked the cow until it ran dry. Why not a similar amount of publicity on premeditated murder-for-politics (which is called “terrorism” when practiced by groups not openly allied with one of the majoR (ahem) parties in America. Like the murder of Bill Sparkman at the hands of extremists wired up to a fever-pitch of fear and rage by the Tea Party propagandists. Or Raul and Briseña Flores (Briseña the spanish AMERICAN CHILD) murdered in cold blood by the Minutemen.
Guess they don’t sell as many commercials on that as they do by digging into the background and family history of Balloon Boy.
Picture:
If DumFox Noose Nutwerks uses that they owe me BIG.
Real quote from a book written in 1923 and printed in 1925
Sensationalism is nothing new. Reminding the perpetrators of it is nothing new. People reminding the people who remind the perpetrators that it’s “bad journalism” to criticize is nothing new either.
In a Surprise Development, the “wealthy socialites” who gate-crashed a White House banquet (giving all the Tea Party and other WingNuts wet dreams by showing them how easy it was to circumvent security… I bet they’re cleaning their pistolas in anticipation of the next “Opportunity”…) are auctioning their Exciting Story to the Mealy Mouthed Corporate Media types.
Hell, maybe I should commit some heinous or merely infamous act and cash in on the ol’ 15 Minutes. They’re talking, already, 6 digits… and not just 100K but multiples thereof.