The news media bombarded Americans this past weekend with coverage of the so-called ‘Balloon Boy,’ six-year-old Colorado resident Falcon Heene who was said to have lifted off in his father’s helium balloon Thursday. After Heene was found safe and sound and very strangely in a box in the attic of his family home, further reporting revealed the entire incident to have been a hoax concocted by his former-reality star parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene. Now, the Heene parents face charges and are expected to turn themselves in to police in the near future.
While the behavior of the Heene parents and their willingness to exploit their own child for the sake of media fame is reprehensible, equally contentious is the public’s willingness to exacerbate the success of the story’s viral transmission. It was linked on Facebook, streamed on Internet video, ran as headline news on 24-hour news networks and at press time it remains a trending topic on Twitter. The term ‘balloon boy’ became a nationwide sensation in less time than it takes to copy and paste, and Americans proved they were perfectly capable of mustering esteem for news after all. Unfortunately, it took a fake story, improperly researched and quite sensationalized by some of the most trusted news outlets, to arouse this kind of response from a country of usually-blas’eacute; citizens who for months have been bellowing about their lack of credibility in the media.
Look at the ‘balloon boy’ sensation as a symbol of what is ailing the news industry in the greater scheme. Stories about Falcon Heene’s alleged flight flooded newspapers, websites, blogs and television news networks, only for the whole thing to become proven to be nothing more than a hoax. The Heene family faces serious legal charges, and onlookers have turned the family and the news media that exalted the hoax into a running joke. This problem is doubly discouraging because it proves that American news consumers have incredible viral communication skills but haven’t yet utilized them to spread the word about real news, and it proves that the news media would rather do sub-par reporting on a story that is more entertainment than news, just so it can garner popularity with the masses. In the end, both parties end up looking foolish ‘- perhaps just as foolish as Mr. and Mrs. Heene, because all have performed some sort of exploitation. Whether it be the Heenes taking advantage of their son, or the media taking advantage of their audience’s obsession with the sensational or the public’s lack of priority for what’s and isn’t news, it all comes out making the media seem like just a lot of hot air.
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