Balloon Boy Story: "Who the Hell is Wolf?" Sums Up Hoax

The Balloon Boy story isn't just about a fame-hungry guy willing to exploit his six-year-old boy. It's also about a media industry unable to blink in the face of a spectacle, and so unable to critically assess whether or not they are looking at a real story. Richard Heene knew this, which is why his plan to gain worldwide attention with the Balloon Boy hoax, for better or worse, worked like a charm. The Heene family's opinion of the media is perfectly captured in this video clip, in which, when told they're being interviewed by CNN and to say hello to Wolf Blitzer, a younger Falcon Heene replies, "Who the hell is Wolf?".

It's easy (and natural) for us to ask, "What the hell were they thinking?" It's hard to imagine a scenario in which the Heenes got away with their scheme for too long. Expecting a six-year-old to keep it together in the face of worldwide media scrutiny was only one of the flaws: the tensile strength of cardboard, and its inability to hold a small person aloft, was another.

But are we learning anything we don't already know? We flock to human-interest stories because they're easier to parse than the electoral landscape in Afghanistan. Richard Heene knew this because we taught him: his family saw the junk-food fame of reality TV twice on Wife Swap. Richard Heene and his family didn't respect TV media- why should they? The Heenes knew that they were in the driver's seat. Now the Heenes will likely face charges over the Balloon Boy hoax- even if the media didn't pay attention at all, emergency services would still be deployed, and rescue helicopters ain't cheap.

That sort of lust for fame is pretty much pathetic, but exploiting a kid like that? We, as a culture, need to make a habit of not rewarding that. We need to understand that, just because something is stupid, that doesn't mean that someone won't try it.

In the meantime, if you want to see a real balloon boy, you have to go back to 1964.