Bubble Boy
October 15th, 2009
WTF?! moment of the day: MSNBC’s Ed Schultz interrupts his own demand that we focus like a laser beam on healthcare to question the wannabe psychic neighbor of the Balloon Boy.
**UPDATE: Then his next guest sort of points that out:
Actually, Ed Shultz is an MSNBC host. I only mention it because as a political satirist, I thought you'd know.
In all seriousness, I'm a huge fan of Candorville and I've recommended it to my family and friends.
Talking head overload. Unless it's on Fox "News," it's all the same to me.
"No one wants to see a boy fall 8,500 feet to his death. That's why it was covered."
Say what?
Yeah, why are they still covering this? I mean… isn't there an attractive co-ed missing or murdered?
… unless they had footage of a child falling 8,500 feet to his death.
I was quite concerned for the child, and am relieved to hear he's ok – http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/15/colorado.boy.bal...
People please, don't leave filled weather balloons just floating about, especially if there are children around. I mean, sure, Lawn Chair Larry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Walters#Film) was funny for like, five minutes, and "Danny Deckchair" was an ok movie. But when children get involved and are endangered, it's no longer funny.
According to one news report I read, his parents had participated in that horrid network reality show, "Wife Swap".
Once I saw that, I wasn't terribly concerned. The kid had already survived much, much worse.
Ah! Here's the article: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/21306839/det...
Oh, and now they're reporting the father called the media before he called the cops: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13573057
Yeah, I'm starting to think my cynicism and snarky comments were fully justified and not the sign I'm an evil psychopath who hates children.
I was cynical the minute I heard the boy hid in the closet…why wasn't the house searched BEFORE the couple million dollars were spent? But then, the boy in an interview said HE DID IT FOR A FILM. Any questions about what went on? When we call paramedics, we have to pay an arm and a leg…nearly literally. Not fair if these people don't have to pay the bill.
To be honest, for those people concerned about the child's welfare, they could have just run a ticker at the bottom explaining the basics. But I believe the bottom line is they wanted to be able to say they were the first to cover it, with the most coverage.
As for the voyeurism, I believe it's much like Ken intimated, people have this morbid fascination with seeing what happens in a situation like that, good or bad; sometimes especially when it's bad. It's like the people who slow down on the highway to see what happened when there's a wreck.
How far will the media go? If the boy HAD fallen, would they have shown the whole death scene?