Sailing Away With Balloon Boy

It would be too simple to write off last week’s tumultuous balloon incident as a twisted misdirection of the public by a few Colorado kooks looking for their fifteen minutes. The hoax’s exposure brings with it another one of much greater significance. Obsessive television coverage of “Balloon Boy” is indicative of the media’s own sordid state. This episode brings to light a news environment in which sensationalism trumps responsible reporting and where the quick sell far outweighs any shade of journalistic integrity.

As the balloon flew last Thursday, rabid coverage filled the airwaves and the Internet. It was forced into the public consciousness and crowded out almost all other news for hours. While Balloon Boy’s father and his convoluted morality may have sparked the media fire, lingering on the hoax itself should not distract from identification of the other, larger, problem at issue—that is, the essence of Richard Heene’s plot was to exploit a sensationalist media. He knew his story would explode as soon as the media caught wind, giving him all the attention he could want. The media reaction only proved Heene right.

Granted, it was impossible to know for sure that Falcon Heene was not inside the balloon. However, the mainstream media’s utter lack of skepticism is troubling and was far from prudent or excusable. The first phone call made by Falcon’s father to the local television affiliate was met by a stubborn, “I don’t believe you.” It was only after Heene put a police deputy on the line that the local station reluctantly sent up its helicopter to investigate. In contrast to this commendable local reporting, cable-news anchors expressed no such skepticism upon picking up the story and instead gladly broadcast spectacular images of the flight, salivating as their ratings doubled on the hour.

Even after the boy was found safely at home, the mainstream media persisted in its sensationalism. They awarded the family several rounds of interviews in the days following the flight to keep the ratings-grabbing story alive. Upon exposure that it was a hoax two weeks in the making, the media persisted, conducting interviews with the Heenes’ lawyer and dispatching reporters to follow them to such mundane venues as their local Wal-Mart.

The broader mess is not free of other culprits. The police should not have continued expressing their belief in Heene’s story once they had secured evidence that it was a hoax, which happened as early as the night of the incident itself. Even if this disclosure could only come at the expense of the family’s cooperation, it is not legitimate civil practice to deceive the public. The Heenes too, of course, are at fault, and the state of Colorado may yet charge them with three felonies for their brash fame-seeking. If upheld, such charges could result in as many as six years in prison and $500,000 in fines. But the biggest culprit was the media, which forgot that its primary responsibility is not to tell unverified tall tales, but to report the facts.

In reporting this event in the way it did, the mainstream media tacitly reaffirmed Heene’s belief in its own sensationalism and put this obvious yellow bent on display for the world to see. We encourage the media to take a close look at its coverage over the past week. Next time a similarly fantastical story should break, CNN, Fox News, and others must be more skeptical and ask more questions before jumping on board and letting the story supersede every other newsworthy issue. Such incidents do have a place in the news, but the media must be more judicious in assigning that place if it cares at all to maintain its own credibility.