So what’s the fallout from the ridiculous balloon boy nonsense?
As I wear the hat of a former local TV news executive producer, here’s my conclusion:
The loser here isn’t Richard Heene – a sad, pathetic product of the YouTube and reality TV era who made his own bed here. Sure, it was fun to watch him implode. But, America’s already sick of this story. Don’t think so? Give it a couple days.
No, the true loser is cable TV news.
Yes, if a boy had truly been in that jiffy pop foil baggie, excuse me “LAV” (low altitude vehicle), it would have been a heck of a story. That’s why people tuned in. That’s why Denver’s news helicopters went up. That’s why the cable TV “news” turned away from the less sexy stories on their rundowns and went wall-to-wall on finding out what was going on in Colorado. I get that. Cable TV news has never been able to avoid the pack mentality.
Well, once the kid came out of hiding, and people saw this news conference, it was pretty clear what took place:
Notice he said he didn’t want to talk about his LAV… but he did.
And that Oscar-winning performance all came before the “we did it for the show” quote from the child who shall not be named here.
And the rest is history.
Hey CNN and your buddies, want to show your viewers you’re bigger than the next American idiot’s attempt to manipulate you? Then recognize the sanity of the people you’re dealing with sooner. Take a stand. Get your credibility back.
Who am I kidding, right? None of them will do that. These are “good stories.”
In this case, Richard Heene’s bizarre behavior and interest in doing interview after interview became the story. Of course it did.
He made his kid puke. Twice!
I’ll keep tuning out when this crap dominates the live TV news airwaves. I’ve got plenty of other programming to watch on my DVR, without commercials thank you.
So, beyond this “Dad of the year” episode for newsrooms to ponder, I leave you with two more takeaways:
-It’s going to be harder to stop the next American idiot fascinated by having or promoting a “show.”
-Some age 30+ people in cable, network and local TV news are likely wondering if they really feel good about the future of the profession. If not, it might be time to seek out a new line of work.
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