A Funny Thing Happened on My Way to Talk About Afghanistan

I was asked to do the Ed Show tonight to discuss my post about Joe Biden and Afghanistan. When I arrived, Andy Stern, the president of the SEIU, was coming out of the remote studio. "I was pre-empted," he said with a laugh. "Balloon Boy! They are going to devote the whole show to it."

Okay, I said, in that case, let's sit and talk about what's happening in Washington.

Just then, a producer rushed over to let me know they wanted me to get miked up and ready for air.

I took my seat in the studio. Through my earpiece, I listened as Ed interviewed an "expert" on the story: the woman who had been paired with the missing boy's parents on the reality show Wife Swap.

The woman told Ed that she initially thought the whole episode might have been a media ploy to get attention, "but then I thought 'No, that can't be, [the boy's dad] wouldn't do that!'"

Obviously missing the nuances of live TV, she added: "Please don't say that."

And that was about as insightful as the interview got.

After a commercial break, Ed asked me about the story. I told him that, for me, once the boy had been found, there was no story -- just tele-voyeurism. Why continue the wall-to-wall coverage of a story that had turned into a non-story -- on a political show -- during a week when health care, financial reform, and Afghanistan are all at the tipping point?

I love Ed. That's why the focus on Balloon Boy felt so out of character.

I've written a lot about the media's inability to break its addiction to these kinds of non-stories -- be they shark attacks, missing blondes, or celebrity trials.

Here is the exchange:

 

 

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Comments

[sohail00000]

Ariana, I am so very proud of you, you speak the truth, and you have guts. You are honest and say it like it is, I love it!

I have been following you on Huffpost and the TV media from the beginning, and I thank you for your candid reporting.

I saw you take on Ed on the Ed Show on MSNBC, you were right on, and I wish you would have given him some more. You were absolutely right, this is ridiculous that they would spend so much valuable time on the Balloon Boy story. As far as I am concerned this is not worthy of even being on the news, period!

Only in America do we have the worst news coverage on most of our TV channels. Fox is a complete joke, unfair and unbalanced, not to mention their lies and complete disregard for the truth. CNN and some others aren't too far behind either.

I get most of my news from BBC, Al Jazeera, CBC, a few other world networks and our own Link TV.

Again thank you Ariana for doing such a good job in bringing us The Huffington Post, and the truth.

[grni78]

The bottom line for all of this is simple. There is no reason that a story such as this one should trump an important discussion involving tens of thousands of our brave servicemembers. Regardless of what you believe regarding troop levels in Afghanistan, the truth is that the Boy in a Balloon story was pumped for it's ratings value. The profit-driven media juggernaut framed it as such. I'm sure that their advertisers appreciated the coverage, but I was more than a little annoyed at the misdirection, and I still am.

[CommunistUtopia]

I cannot stand watching most of the media anymore. I have turned over to Fox News. It's becoming obvious to me that these Democrat policies are not working. I have gone from a Communist, to a Blue Dog Democrat, to a Republican, and now, I think I might be a Conservative. All of this in a very short span of time. Thanks for opening my eyes Democrat Party.

[Hontas Farmer]

Praise be to ALLAH! Someone said what most of us who have lives really are thinking. This is not a story worth the time.

At most these people will be convicted of is misdemeanors and end up fined, on probation, or picking up garbage by the road.

I like how their lawyer put it on fox and friends today. "I'm on a federal death penalty case, that's serious..... The possible charges (misdemeanors and low level felonies) are minor in the universe of criminal charges."

That said I would like to see an apology IF it turns out that there is nothing to a criminal case and a hoax cannot be proven. I mean a real 15 minute mea Culpa from the various media personalities who dumped on them. Remember Richard Jewel?

[Catita]

Arianna is the best. I cannot believe MSNBC and Ed tried to justified this story as news that the american people are interested. Based on the media's analysis, it seems that the american people are interested to see that a boy "who is trapped in a ballon" does NOT fall and die. Therefore the news media must stream live video of the ballon so that we DO NOT watch an innocent child die. Where is the logic?! Its also very insulting.

Lets face it, today's news media is more concerned on sensational "journalism", childish and irrational sound bytes from either the far left or right. Enough is enough, focus on the ISSUES and POLICY regardless of parties and hold the POLITICIANS accountable!!!

[cycle3man]

Hey Ed, your judgment about this story is OFF the mark.

Arianna really gets it and you should not have given her opinion short shrift!

I find her instincts and opinions right on the mark she is one very bright woman.

[Nihilistica]

i haven't seen or heard any mention of the boy fearing the wrath of his father so much he stayed in the attic all day? ... or is this simply more 'backstory'?

[cycle3man]

The back story the whole 'boy in the balloon thing was a publicity hoax.

[Jacktastic84]

The story wasn't even news before the missing boy was found. Why is a missing child national news? That should be state news at most and local news at least. I wish the news would stop catering to soap opera viewers.

[UKOH]

Arianna in tennis parlance that was 15 all. You had some good points to make but I have to defend Ed a little bit in that, 15 mins. after the boy was found, it was still a major news story worthy of comment.

Where I am 100% with you is when you call out the media's overblown reaction to "breaking news". Wall to wall coverage of something like the 9/11 attacks are completely understandable. I watched the MSNBC rerun recently and it was just as chilling even now. However, when we get wall to wall coverage of a single news item for days on end with nothing else covered at all that is a disservice, even when the news item is major (and some of them are not). Examples:

* Ted Kennedy's death: 3 days non stop coverage
* The Mumbai terrorist attack: 3 days non stop coverage
* The "Miracle on the Hudson": 3 days non stop coverage
* Michael Jackson's death: 2 weeks non stop coverage

A good example is the plane landing on the Hudson. Look that was a good, even feel good, story. However after two hours all possible angles were covered. The rest was "tele voujerism" as you say.

As for the Michael Jackson death. Look I like his music but the overblown reaction. Please give us a break! This was not a major news story but a personal tragedy.

[msgirlintn]

I watched the entire show, and Arianna was exactly right. I have no clue why Ed was trying to do news. He doesn't even do politcs well. I was very proud of Arianna when she stood up to him. Then he had the gall to throw a snide remark about the whole deal on Friday night's show.

Ed really thinks he is the greatest thing since sliced bread. He seems to have toned it down a little, but is still annoying.

[MicheleCA]

AH this should make you feel better!

"Huff Post eclipses Washington Post"

Posted by Roy Greenslade Friday 16 October 2009 10.18 BST guardian.co.uk

How about this - the Huffington Post overtook the Washington Post website in terms of unique users during the month of September.

New data from Nielsen Online reveals that the Huff Post was up 26% year-on-year to 9.4m uniques while Washingtonpost.com dropped almost 30% to 9.2m.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2009/oct/16/huffington-post-washington-post

[UKOH]

It's interesting that you turn to the Guardian,the UK Liberal Newspaper I read online daily, to get this news.

It has been my experience that the Guardian carries a lot of stories about the USA that just don't appear in the traditional USA media. These are stories that are usually extremely damaging to the administration. These have dropped since Obama took over but they are still there.

My favorite, which never hit the USA mainstream ever, was about a female freelance reporter from the UK, who, during the Bush administration, tried to enter the USA to cover some innocuous story about USA cullinary habits. She tried to enter using the I-94W visa waiver process that all British on tourist or short business trips use to enter the USA. She failed to notice fine print saying the form is not valid "for reporting to non USA press" of some such language. Having used this form on countless occassions I must admit I missed it to, so burried was it. She was treated like a hardened criminal on suspicion of attempting illegal immigration.

[MicheleCA]

It just occurred to me that if I wanted journalism I might need to reach beyond our Corpora tic shores. I doesn't take a rocket scientist to evaluate our news. And I read English! I'm grateful for your Guardian.

[Mark Reilly]

Well, I just gained 5 marks of respect for Arianna for her voicing this on national television. And I just lost 10 marks of respect for MSNBC (putting it almost as far into negative territory as Fox). Sidelining meaningful discussion for this drivel is a sad display of the state of America.

My favorite quote is, "Noone wants to see a six year-old boy fall from 8500 feet."

My question to this is, then:

THEN WHY WERE YOU AIRING IT ON NATIONAL TELEVISION?

But then, to answer that, you would have to address the dark side of the American media...

[niws]

The fact that he followed this story made me wonder if it was really his show or if he was just another shrill following what ever the rest are talking about on that day.

Serious stories deserve attention and discussion, but this was just sad, next thing you know he will be following along with "important" topics like the latest missing white woman or a bear loose in a neighborhood, what health foods are bad for you, and what junk food is good for you. Never expected the Ed show to fall for this crap. And if Rachel pulls this same stuff it will be a real shame.

[ElaineHe]

Holy cow - this guy is soooooo annoying. Arianna is always so calm, level headed, and supremely articulate. I WISH more media outlets had people like her in the driver seat. Reality programming and "news" like this - not to mention all the sugar and crap people are eating and the lack of education - is dumbing down America. Gob bless us indeed!

[Breslin]

Fair play Arianna, you were right on the button on this one. If this isn't a non-story I don't know what is. Its not like there is even a shortage of events that the media could be covering, discussing or speculating on. This is the kind of news story that reduces the level of debate in America and the sooner that the media remembers that substance is more important not just being able to claim "Breaking News" all the time.