Even the media doubted balloon boy
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
We’ve been punk’d.
For those who haven’t been subjected to MTV in recent years, we’ll just say manipulated.
Thursday, when a Fort Collins, Colo., couple called law enforcement authorities to report that their 6-year-old son was aboard a flying saucer-shaped helium balloon soaring high over the mountainous terrain, it attracted worldwide attention.
Newspapers, live television and Internet sites all followed the harrowing journey.
According to an Associated Press story, the balloon traveled more than 50 miles and generated an all-out, five-hour search that included military helicopters, a ground search and even a mounted posse.
The AP story said officials even rerouted commercial aircraft and shut down some flights at the Denver airport. (Imagine how the people whose flights were delayed felt about this.)
When the balloon landed and the boy was nowhere in sight, a search began for his body, thought to have fallen out somewhere along the craft’s path. However, the 6-year-old, Falcon Heene, wasn’t actually in the balloon. Instead he was said to have been hiding in the rafters of the family’s garage during the heart-pounding search.
The world breathed a collective sigh of relief for a day or so.
Then information began surfacing that the whole story seemed a bit off. It didn’t help that the family had participated in the ABC show “Wife Swap.” Twice. That was the first (or maybe second or third) hint that things might be a bit off.
As the AP quoted Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden, the family “put on a very good show for us, and we bought it."
As of Sunday, news reports indicated the whole thing was a plan two weeks in the making, an effort to seal a deal for another reality show touting the father of the family as a “mad scientist.”
Authorities are even looking into the possibility that others conspired with the family to stage the hoax. Criminal charges are pending, and there’s also the issue of the search and rescue costs — about $14,500 just for the helicopters.
Nobody was surprised to learn that the parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, met in acting school in Hollywood.
* * *
How does someone manipulate the media enough to get this kind of attention?
It starts with the authorities. Journalists usually don’t make up stories. We get our information from official sources that we consider to be credible. When people who are experts in this kind of thing tell us something, we generally believe them, at least initially.
There’s also the link to the local Colorado media. Stories, even stories on the Internet, don’t go as global as quickly as this one did unless reporters at newspapers, television stations and Web sites in that vicinity put the news out.
The Associated Press might have an office in Denver, but initial Associated Press reports would have come from local media.
That’s not meant to be critical of either the authorities or the local media. If someone reports something that means a child’s life might be at risk, it is the authorities’ job to act first and ask questions later — which is what they did.
The media followed their lead, though they did manage to get the real story turned around rather quickly.
The incident also serves as a good example of the changing media. Thirty years ago, without the instant news of the Internet, most media would have had time to investigate a bit further before printing or broadcasting the story. Now all we can do is go back and undo the lies we told our readers with explanations of how they happened.
* * *
Continuing on the theme of change discussed in this space last week, we have more changes coming, but if things work the way we hope they will, readers won’t even notice.
The changes we are making involve internal processes concerning how we write stories and produce pages for your newspaper. We hope it will be a smooth transition that will allow us to better serve our readers in a variety of ways.
Don’t hesitate to let me know if you notice problems, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed as we continue our efforts to be the best product we can be.
The Reader Representative line is currently out of service, so call (409)838-2846 if you need to contact me.
We’ve been punk’d.
For those who haven’t been subjected to MTV in recent years, we’ll just say manipulated.
Thursday, when a Fort Collins, Colo., couple called law enforcement authorities to report that their 6-year-old son was aboard a flying saucer-shaped helium balloon soaring high over the mountainous terrain, it attracted worldwide attention.
Newspapers, live television and Internet sites all followed the harrowing journey.
According to an Associated Press story, the balloon traveled more than 50 miles and generated an all-out, five-hour search that included military helicopters, a ground search and even a mounted posse.
The AP story said officials even rerouted commercial aircraft and shut down some flights at the Denver airport. (Imagine how the people whose flights were delayed felt about this.)
When the balloon landed and the boy was nowhere in sight, a search began for his body, thought to have fallen out somewhere along the craft’s path. However, the 6-year-old, Falcon Heene, wasn’t actually in the balloon. Instead he was said to have been hiding in the rafters of the family’s garage during the heart-pounding search.
The world breathed a collective sigh of relief for a day or so.
Then information began surfacing that the whole story seemed a bit off. It didn’t help that the family had participated in the ABC show “Wife Swap.” Twice. That was the first (or maybe second or third) hint that things might be a bit off.
As the AP quoted Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden, the family “put on a very good show for us, and we bought it."
As of Sunday, news reports indicated the whole thing was a plan two weeks in the making, an effort to seal a deal for another reality show touting the father of the family as a “mad scientist.”
Authorities are even looking into the possibility that others conspired with the family to stage the hoax. Criminal charges are pending, and there’s also the issue of the search and rescue costs — about $14,500 just for the helicopters.
Nobody was surprised to learn that the parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, met in acting school in Hollywood.
* * *
How does someone manipulate the media enough to get this kind of attention?
It starts with the authorities. Journalists usually don’t make up stories. We get our information from official sources that we consider to be credible. When people who are experts in this kind of thing tell us something, we generally believe them, at least initially.
There’s also the link to the local Colorado media. Stories, even stories on the Internet, don’t go as global as quickly as this one did unless reporters at newspapers, television stations and Web sites in that vicinity put the news out.
The Associated Press might have an office in Denver, but initial Associated Press reports would have come from local media.
That’s not meant to be critical of either the authorities or the local media. If someone reports something that means a child’s life might be at risk, it is the authorities’ job to act first and ask questions later — which is what they did.
The media followed their lead, though they did manage to get the real story turned around rather quickly.
The incident also serves as a good example of the changing media. Thirty years ago, without the instant news of the Internet, most media would have had time to investigate a bit further before printing or broadcasting the story. Now all we can do is go back and undo the lies we told our readers with explanations of how they happened.
* * *
Continuing on the theme of change discussed in this space last week, we have more changes coming, but if things work the way we hope they will, readers won’t even notice.
The changes we are making involve internal processes concerning how we write stories and produce pages for your newspaper. We hope it will be a smooth transition that will allow us to better serve our readers in a variety of ways.
Don’t hesitate to let me know if you notice problems, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed as we continue our efforts to be the best product we can be.
The Reader Representative line is currently out of service, so call (409)838-2846 if you need to contact me.
posted by Sheila Friedeck at 12:15 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home