Media Blow 'Boy in Balloon' Story

Tragic story or hoax? TV media and the press for hours today covered the saga of a 6-year-old boy who allegedly climbed into a homemade balloon aircraft in Colorado and floated away. Live TV showed the balloon coming down miles away and rescuers rushing there, expecting the worst. Instead, no boy was found inside.

Some of us weren't surprised--I'd been tweeting that likely outcome for almost an hour, noting the lack of sourcing and the floating of the craft which suggested no payload.

Did the boy--improbably named Falcon--fall out en route? Or was it all a hoax perpetrated by his father, who is "storm chaser" and appeared on the reality TV show "Wife Swap"?

Now the boy has been found--in the attic of his home.

Just before that, CNN was focusing on a deputy sheriff's claim to have seen an "object" fall from the craft at one point early on. They even posted a photo that some said may have shown that.

In any case, the press and news agencies reported for over an hour that a boy was in the balloon, without any qualifiers, even though the only witness was a sibling who saw him climb inside.

The AP stories and updates opened with: "A 6-year-old boy climbed into a homemade balloon aircraft in Colorado and floated away Thursday, forcing officials to scramble to figure out how to rescue the boy as the balloon hurtled through the air."

Even when the craft came down, and some doubts about boy's presence had begun to be aired, AP sent a bulletin: "Balloon carrying 6-year-old boy slowly descends into Colorado field; child's fate unclear."

Reuters had reported: "A 6-year-old boy who climbed into a small homemade helium balloon at his family's home was flying out of control above Colorado Thursday as authorities scrambled to try to rescue him."

At least the BBC had added, "reportedly."

Only after the crash did TV hosts stress that reports of a boy in it were "unverified" and raised the possibility of a hoax. Few had raised the issue of whether such a balloon could even lift off with a 50-pound kid inside, and then float the way it did. Some did later. CNN had an expert do the calculations. But, of course, the experts could be wrong.

Shep Smith on Fox repeated referred to the craft as like a "Jiffy Pop" container.

But it was the media's credibility that popped.

UPDATE: Tonight on CNN, Wolf Blitzer asked the boy why he didn't come out of hiding when he heard his name being shouted. He replied that he had been told "it was for a show." His father then appeared extremely uneasy. Meaning unclear.

Greg Mitchell is editor of Editor & Publisher. His latest book is "Why Obama Won."

 

 

Follow Greg Mitchell on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GregMitch

Comments

[drumz]

The media got pwned! As soon as I heard that the guy was a reality show contestant I knew it was a hoax. But, by using faux spews as an example, people are always tune in for a good train wreck, car chase or teabagging birthers.

[ArgumentativePatti]

Shep Smith was the only one to raise the possibility of a hoax while the ballon was in flight.

[NHBill]

Unless you watched CNN! They used the words "possibly in the balloon" consistently!

[NHBill]

What nonsense!

The sheriff and the National Guard were involved in this story!

If the local authorities bought this tall tale to that level why shouldn't the media cover it!

The bottom line here is the sheriff's department was making all kinds of official statements supporting the story about the boy in the balloon. At that point the media would have been negligent to ignore the story! It's easy in hindsight to play shoulda, coulda, woulda. But when the government gets involved it's news, period!

[terramartom]

Modern news = yellow journalism right from the desk of W.R. Hearst.
Make it up, because in the end, it is all for entertainment!

[NHBill]

What's made up about the National Guard scrambling helicopters and making plans to lower someone down to the balloon on a wire!? The involvement of major arms of the local government made this a story!

[nunaem]

If the parents get charged, the media should be charged for aiding and abetting the crime.

[peterbeagle]

hoax or no hoax, nobody was hurt ... it was a non-news story. Why the MSM thinks it was more important than reporting what's going on with a couple of wars, a horrible economy, the fight for health care reform, etc, is beyond comprehension.

(of course, if it WAS a hoax, those bozos should be sued from now till forever.)

[ArgumentativePatti]

It's as much "non-news" as any story about a celebrity that doesn't have to do with their (book movie reason for fame whatever).

It definitely fits as "human interest" and even the aftermath fits that, wondering if these people are going to be prosecuted, will they get help, were they encouraged by some media outlet that they were "working with" etc. From a human interest perspective, it's as newsy as it gets.

Sure, health care is important. But there's plenty of information on it, and a gazillion hours of coverage and miles of print have been devoted to it. And no shortage of places to get this information.

So what if we want to watch the balloon story and see what comes of it? It's interesting.

Interesting isn't good enough for "news?" it's got to be important? Fine, then scrub ALL celebrity news and become C-span. What are their ratings like, anyway?

[LarBear]

Ahhhhhhhhhh..... YES! The Monday morning quarterbacks... Had the child actually been in the balloon, no doubt all those who are saying "I told you so" or, "I did not ever believe the child" or, "It had to be a hoax" will now step forward and tell us all how wrong they were???

Where is the evidence it was a HOAX? Is the Sheriff (and other authorities) feeling MSM pressure to file charges, or is there evidence? The child said it was being filmed for a show, but that can make sense as the Father/Family is science minded and perhaps the balloon was created to film a demonstration of the lift power of Balloons??? So, which show was the child referring to??? Interesting, all those who "Never Believed" the older boys statement that his little brother was inside the balloon, but now want to convict the Family based on a statement of a six year old...

And, MSNBC... Your sanctimonious statements about how could these Parents allow there child to be so stressed he was throwing up on Live TV... Our Reporter even had to call the Mothers attention to it... So, for years, we have watched (or stopped watching) as Morning Joe Scarborough constantly harasses and abuses wimpy Mika on Live TV... So, where is your condemnation of Morning Joe? What did your MSM crew contribute to the child's and families stress??? Guess your role in this is flawless, huh?

[Counterglow]

And so, yet again, the so-called news media execute another spectacular face plant because they failed to do some basic fact-checking and they failed to investigate. In short, they failed to live up to their responsibilities as alleged "professionals".

This is exactly what happened in the run-up to the Iraq invasion. Questionable assertions were accepted at face value and vomited up onto the public stage as proven fact. Thousands of US soldiers died, and tens of thousand Iraqis (perhaps hundreds of thousands).

This proves the news media have learned nothing, and are unworthy of trust.

[NHBill]

They fact checked with the Sheriff who confirmed his belief that the boy was possibly in the balloon. The National Guard got involved! How is that not news when major civil authorities get involved in a child rescue story? The possible hoax is news too because it means these same authorities were duped. it all seems like news to me.

[RuWii]

It might be news, but it's not national news. They could have run the story after the fact and no one would have noticed the difference. The truth is they smelled a story bigger than "boy in a well" and went running after it and are still, in fact getting plenty of broadcast mileage out of it.

It's not that no one should have been mobilized to attempt a rescue. It's whether the news is even news anymore or strictly yellow journalism. In this case they got caught with their pants down. And they will again after everyone forgets this one.

[Counterglow]

I think you might find an examination of the time line instructive.

[josephXY]

Interesting what matters in this time of economic crisis. The attention is in any case diverted
from financial media and their mistakes, to say the least. Mistakes and misleading, that can be related to current serious individual problems to many financial commentators, pundits,
who were so incredibly wrong like in that flashback. Something those networks would definitely not do
is run flashbacks like: "Look, what sort of advise, forecasts, etc. we entertained you with":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I0QN-FYkpw

[greg556]

My favorite line here is "I had been posting on twitter for hours that the boy was not inside." (I refuse to use that other word.) I have been unable to find a use for twitter for years, now I see. It's to time stamp how much smarter you are than everyone else.

Congratulations!

[ProudMilVet]

Can't we just be glad that the kid did'nt get hurt or killed ?

[lauram]

Could we also think about all the other children who will die today in Pakistan/A­fghanistan­? Or is it only American kids that count and deserve non-stop coverage?

[Munesous]

Has anyone done the math on this one? Obviously, the child was not in the balloon, but I have my doubts that that balloon would even have had the lifting capacity to even get off the ground with a child aboard, much less travel the distance it did. For that reason, I doubted the story from the beginning.

[raker]

What's everybody acting so surprised about. This story was typical TV news junk. Put a weather report in front, followed by the freak show of the day, with a feel-good story on the other end and you have the NBC Nightly News. The best part was the morning programs that had it both ways, interviewing the narcissistic game show contestants live and pretending this was a real-life drama, and in the next segment they lamented the likely hoax and their part in it.

TV news is a degrading enterprise, with or without balloon boy.

[JonathanDS2U]

I will say this once, and you won't believe it (but you will and you will sort of believe it but you mostly won't believe it). I was talking a few days ago (for the first time in 30 years) about how, when I was at CalArts during the '76 McCartney first US tour, I was told confidentially that saying you were on the BALLOON crew would get you backstage. Me in relation to McCartney is always big news among certain folk. Several years later, when I was told confidentially that, should you be in the immediate presence of McCartney, the strongest drug you should have on your person was pot (everything else being taboo), just one week later there occurred the famous McCartney pot bust/incarceration in a Japanese prison. I had nothing to do with it, everyone knew he smoked pot - but they timed this bust to coincide with the word that had just reached me. The coinciding of the timing of this balloon story tells me exactly where to file it.

[greg556]

You were talking yesterday for the first time in 30 years?! Wow! Congratulations! How'd it feel?

[WilliePilgrim]

Technicalities in language aside (BBC added "reportedly"?) I wouldn't say the media blew it at all. The only way it could have been better would have been if it was a little bit longer and started earlier.
This is one thing that the media actually does well, covering live events with great human drama, provided they occur within range of a major media market so it can go live. The fact that it's a circus of sorts and that the jargon goes hyperbolic is sort of what's expected, isn't it? I mean, if I put a bunch of Mentos mints into a 2 liter jug o' soda it is gonna grab your attention as our monkey instincts compell us to watch it go...over and over on youtube if you want...if only it could have included a train wreck of some sort, but really it is a masterpiece of truth disguised as fiction...you really couldn't make this up; boy in home-made flying saucer/str­omchasing/­cop cars, emergency vehicles, planes and helicopters...the military?...it was great. Even the ending with the little boy puking twice on national TV....my sentiments exactly.

[Project4NuBostonTeaParty]

Meanwhile, none of us knows what happened on Capitol hill today regarding health care reform.

.

[NHBill]

Lighten up! There was plenty of coverage on Health Care, The Economy and The Wars. Cable is not the be all and end all of news!

[PatA]

Hoax

[NHBill]

dokes