I watched this on CNN all day. It was really weird. I even got in trouble with a comment I posted. But, I won't go into too much detail about that. How much helium must have been in that balloon and where in the world would you get that much. I guess you can buy that stuff by the truck loads. Kids in my church group on trips used to inhale it and talk like Daffy Duck, until a nurse told them it was bad for your brain. It was a crazy day!!!

No one could replace the Gosselins. They have raised the bar for Freak show.

I am really glad this turned out allright.

Yes, cable tv is going off the deep end. Kinda feels like the Titanic right now. I am hanging on....but just about ready to jump!

lol

weird!

It was odd, to say the least, to watch unfold. I give credit to Shepherd Smith for correctly speculating that the boy was hiding, likely out of fear. Thankfully, this young boy was found safely. Shephard Smith, is a definite bright spot at Fox.

So glad I somehow missed this drama today! Are news programs just so afraid of not being first on the scene they will spend hours filming something like this?

Hear, hear! I second the Gosselin suggestion but only after the swap of Kate. She'd straighten out that family.

I am glad the little boy was safe, that is actually the most important thing after all of that speculation that he was in the balloon.

Do we HAVE to replace the Gosselins. I suggest we replace TLC...

I knew it! Bruce Willis told us that it was just a hoax, ...that the boy was hiding in the attic.

We should have listened to him.

Just wanted to clarify my first comment too. The kids in the church group were on a bus trip to Kentucky, not on a "trip". Just so no one wonders what kind of church that was. Haha.

And I agree with the previous commenter I like Shepard Smith. CNN did a good job too. They had very good information, I guess the balloon went all the way from Fort Collins, CO to Colorado Springs, CO.

This post says it all:

http://www.wastedcarbon.com/2009/10/balloon-boy-big-bag-o-bull/

Today we saw the death of journalism in America, and proof the tail is literally wagging the dog. Parents known to have a tenuous hold on reality claim their 6 year old child climbs into a weather balloon and launches it. To corroborate they rely on a sibling’s testimony. So the media goes nuts, launching helicopters and satellite trucks. Authorities, who probably want to first figure out what is going on, are forced to respond in force lest they look uncaring. So for 2 hours, the nation is held breathless as the balloon flutters across Colorado. The media crows how Australia and China are following the story. In the end, the child is not on the balloon, but hiding in plain sight. But no one took the time to step back and take a breath, and actually look into the veracity of the source. I have a feeling the whole world is laughing at our cable news run society. I, for one, feel nauseous.

I'm going out on a limb here, but what are the chances that the father was just looking for some publicity? It just makes sense to me since he was on a previous reality program.

Boy in Balloon Hoax: 'We Did This for a Show'
Check out the video here: http://www.cheatsheetnews.com

Obvious hoax. The father, "Mr. Science", knew that balloon was not capable of lifting a 60 lb. child. Then the kid forgot to lie when talking to CNN.

What? Media whoring from reality TV types? Say it ain't so!

My friend Lori told me last night this was all a hoax. What are we supposed to believe from the media these days. I am beginning to think the same thing about the healthcare plan. Now we have one bill that needs to merge into two and three bills it the congress that need to merge into one, that is five plans before it can reach the President's desk and I still don't know what is in it except for what I have learned from C-SPAN. There is something wrong here!

I learned about this incident on the broadcast evening news. Again, I don't feel bad or deprived that I don't have cable.

Unbelieveable, I need to go back to bed. I meant to say, the two bills in the senate that were merged into one and the three bills pending in the congress that need to be merged into one to equal five bills that need to come together before it can go the President for signing. And I learned that from CNN, who does a decent job. This almost seems ridiculous and I am sure it is not really compared to previous government bills, but the media will spend hours covering this balloon HOAX and give us no information about what is really in this Healthcare plan. Something is wrong and we need to fix it.

If this isn't proof that reality shows are the bane of American culture, I don't know what is. Add these parents to the cache of "lying liars" Z. And what is up with Wolf Blitzer and his crew letting the kid's admission go past unchecked?

Where have you gone, Walter Cronkite?

Come on, someone should have realized that baloon could have never lifted a 60 pound child. "mr science" the dad knew it all along, but someone involved in the invetsigation should have had the common sense to know the baloon isn't even close to the size needed to lift 60 pounds. Doesn't anyone watch mythbusters?

Z., I must confess I was one of millions thoroughly sucked into the 'balloon boy' drama played out for over two hours on T.V. yesterday afternoon in Colorado. I watched most of the suspenseful, potential tragedy on MSNBC, and some CNN live coverage, as well; totally riveted to the screen.

For me, in the end, the whole fiasco was almost like a bad gotcha-joke, where tons of folks following this runaway UFO-like homemade 'aircraft' could only imagine, in horror, what this little boy of six might be experiencing, and dreading his ultimate fate on landing, as he hurtled thru the atmosphere, at one point climbing to almost 10,000 feet above the Colorado landscape, and drifting along at speeds estimated at 25 to 30 MPH .... then shockingly being informed, in real time, that there likely never was a kid inside the aircraft, after discovering no one on-board shortly after landing relatively gently on terra firma in a recently plowed, open farm field.

Of course wild speculation ensued (more like continued); scenarios ranging from maybe the young boy, Falcon Heene could have somehow fallen out of the balloon's circular, make-shift hanging basket that apparently had some sort of rudimentary door, or perhaps the boy had never even entered the helium balloon contraption, but was possibly hiding out somewhere in the vicinity of his home, and that his older brother's claim that he saw his little brother go aloft was either made up, or just an innocent misperception on the part of the older sibling. The suspense in not knowing the actual fate of little Falcon was palpable, and many were expecting a worst-case-scenario conclusion.

Turns out, as we soon learned, the kid had allegedly been scared by his yelling dad, at which point he said he ran into the family garage and hid up in the rafters in a large box, out of fear, and stayed there for several hours; basically the duration of time that the bogus drama, and its aftermath had unfolded. Eventually he came out of hiding, a most happy conclusion to a most bizarre story.

A great relief, but hardly case-closed. A lot of unanswered questions remain, and one really has to wonder what kind of family dynamics are going on w/ this Heene clan, who already have experienced some high-profile T.V. exposure on two episodes of the reality show "Wife Swap" back in March, '09. Now speculation is rampant, and folks are asking themselves if this whole side-show was merely a well-orchestrated, premeditated, sicko, publicity stunt concocted by this UFO seeking, storm-chasing couple, who after their earlier fifteen minutes (and then some) of fame, just crave even more of that alluring limelight. I hope this isn't the case, although it is hardly beyond the realm of possibility.

Richard, Falcon's hyper-intense dad, seems very controlling, tightly wound, w/ some kind of pent-up rage, or mania just lurking below the surface ( just my perception). It's been revealed that a few years back while trying to 'make it' as a legitimate actor in Hollywood, and living in a rented apartment in Burbank, CA, he and his family basically stiffed their apartment manager for over $6,000.00 in back rent and security deposits, and just slipped away, relocating in Colorado.

Mark my words, watch for cutie-pie little Falcon showing up on the "Today Show" or "Letterman" early next week ( a new segment called "Stupid Kid Tricks" ? HA!) ..... the teaser promo, "The Kid Who Flew The Coop, But Never Really Left Terra Firma". Just think of the possible ratings bonanza, eh?

For me, the same warped, mindless fascination that grabs peoples' immediate attention as those inane, hyped-up T.V. car chases, was at work in yesterday's errant balloon scenario.
Iran could be lobbing SCUD missiles towards Tel Aviv, yet if a suspected stolen vehicle traveling at speeds upwards of 90 MPH and slamming thru red-lights on the suburban streets of L.A., is transpiring, chances are good that local stations will break to cover the all-out, ensuing police pursuit; basically the breaking hard-news story out of the Middle-East can wait. (I may be hyperbolizing a tad here, but you get my drift?)

If, indeed, this child was actually accidently carried away in this helium-buoyed mushroom-shaped craft, then I believe the unfolding story WOULD qualify as a credible developing news event, and would warrant ongoing media coverage. However, as this drama played out yesterday, and the little boy was a no-show on touchdown, it was such a stunning, befuddling, turn of events, w/ most viewers, including myself, feeling a mix of emotion, from sheer relief, to utter confusion, to somehow feeling duped, yet also genuinely concerned over the actual whereabouts of the child, who at that point was still missing.

Bottom line, the boy was discovered safe and sound. But this is hardly a neat and tidy 'wrap' to this wacky mid-October mystery flight. Today, the media is still all abuzz w/ this bizarre story; speculation is rife; the public consensus appearing to be that this whole deal amounts to some kind of hoax perpetrated by publicity-hound, Richard Heene, and that the truth will eventually be revealed in time.

As one of our fellow bloggers earlier opined, maybe this quirky Heene family will, at some point, end up on TLC w/ their own reality T.V gig. Stranger things have happened.

My! My! Chuck Yeager must be rolling around in his grave .... not to mention manned-flight pioneers, brothers Orville and Wibur Wright.

Fasten your seat-belts folks, this bizarre 'magical mystery tour' is far from over! Cable T.V. will make darn sure of that.

ALEX

http://www.zacktaylor.ca/blog/2009/10/the-heene-family-is-heading-to-the-discovery-channel.html

Discovery has picked them up for a show. Unfreakingbelievable!!!

Yikes FreeTheGosselin8 - If the Discovery channel picks up this family then they will lose a lot of credibility with me. That would be unbelievable. The dad seems so incredibly unbelieveable in the interviews I have seen.

Hmmm, Larry King had Wolf Blitzer on tonight filling in for him and Wolf Blitzer asked some pretty good questions. He interviwed the family of the balloon incident . Officials said that class III misdemeanor charges will likely be filed in this case.

I guess the Discovery channel show is out the window then. This has been an interesting story. I know I was glued to the coverage. The madness goes on.

To me the laugh is all of these media people, including the author of this article, blast away at others who covered the story all the while writing columns themselves. Hypocrisy.

The media is just running after sensational news, no matter how rubbish it is.