Cable news networks riveted by 'balloon boy' [updated]

Forget health care or Afghanistan. For about two hours today, the cable news networks devoted nonstop coverage to tracking the progress of a silver balloon floating across the fields of northern Colorado. Initial reports that a 6-year-old boy was inside the balloon proved unfounded once it landed, and now the search is on for the child, whose parents are amateur storm chasers and had the device in their back yard.

The story was irresistable to the news networks, which quickly tracked down balloon experts to opine on the speed of the craft and how long it could remain airborne. Inside CNN's New York headquarters, staffers stood up at their desks, watching the footage incredulously.

“If there’s ever a book about what I did for the first 20 years of my working life, Oct. 15 will have at least a page," said Fox News anchor Shepard Smith on the air, adding: "Of nothing else, we’ve had a fascinating hour and a half with no commercials of watching a beautiful day in Colorado.”

As the orb floated through the sky, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC delayed their broadcast of the footage for at least several seconds in case the contraption crashed to the ground. Out of caution, CNN upped its delay to 10 seconds, and Fox cut away to Smith when the balloon came down. (Still, critics questioned their decision to show the footage, arguing that they may have even inadvertently broadcast an image of the boy's death if he indeed fell out of the craft while it was airborne.) The flying device thumped onto a field and was quickly attacked by sheriff's deputies, who punched holes in the balloon to keep it from floating away again. When it became clear that the boy was not inside, the cable news anchors were left to  puzzle out his whereabouts. Maybe, Smith suggested hopefully, he was hiding under his bed.

[Updated at 3:28 p.m.: In the end, the cable news channels spent the afternoon following an empty balloon through the sky. The news that the 6-year-old boy was found at home hiding in the attic came as an anticlimactic finish to the breathless reports about his whereabouts.

Jay Wallace, vice president of news editorial for Fox News, said the network’s nonstop coverage reflected what news executives knew at the time. “People were running in my office from the newsroom saying, ‘Are you watching this? This is insane!’ ” he said. “All parents had that feeling of ‘Oh, my God, could you imagine being the parent of this 6-year-old?’ It was a drama-made story.”

In a large part, the story was driven by the compelling images of the flying orb, which resembled a silver space ship. “It’s what we do in 24-hour cable news,” he said. “Live pictures are out there, and we follow it to its end. Obviously, we tried to be very respectful of what could go wrong.”

Wallace said that about 10 minutes into Fox's coverage, he switched the footage to a delay of seven to nine seconds. “You hope for the miracle on the Hudson, but on the other hand, you always have to be ready for the worst outcome,” he said.

 -- Matea Gold

Related: Authorities try to find out fate of child after balloon-like craft lands without him inside

ABC's "Wife Swap" family's balloon is subject of airborne drama

Comments

[David Claiborne]

My thoughts are with that young boy today, and I certainly hope he is alive and well.

However, the family deserves a bit of scorn, I believe. It seems completely irresponsible to have an experimental aircraft lazily tied up in the backyard where a 6-year-old child can easily climb in and take off. If these people had enough intelligence to build such an aircraft, they should have had the common sense to have kept it safely away from their children.

What a shame... let's hope the little fellow is only hiding somewhere nearby, terrified at having created such a commotion. If he has been injured, or worse, his fate rests completely in the hands of those negligent parents.

[Alan S.]

Yes let's now waste countless time, money and media time investigating this event and the boys parents. This whole thing went off like an episode of Leave it to Beaver. As soon as I had my first look at that flimsy balloon I could tell that there was no way that it was even capable of lifting the weight of a small child. Let's just just chalk this one up to boys will be boys and a lack of common sense of our national media.

[Marcia Twane]

Charge the parents for the cost of the resources wasted on this and have the family evaluated by the Department of Child Protective Services to determine if the kids should be left with the parents.

[Bill]

Alan,

I couldn't agree more. However, think of the ratings the news networks received. This story alone made their ratings quota for the month. Living in Colorado, I had several people contact me about this (as if I knew something or could see the unfoldings). The point is that people were tuned in, and that's what the networks want. War, poverty, health care etc.... that's old news. This was James Bond material. America was waiting for the special forces unit to drop from the helicopter and pull the young boy out alive.

Back to the soap operas....

[hank]

this smelled like a HOAX from the get go, when word came that the only eyewitnesses were the other kids then you knew something was up, too bad the sheriff didn't start to ask questions right away...........

[JD]

Oh good! Busy day at work today, missed the whole thing. Off to Europe for two weeks tomorrow, where I hope I have the same good fortune I did on a similar trip back in the 90s...

missed the entire OJ car chase debacle. Is that the mother lode, or what?

[Chicka]

I've never heard of this "wife swap" program, but surely sending a child's mother *away* and bringing in some other woman with a camera crew HAS to qualify as child abuse.

Not to mention tornado chasing with your very young children. Posting videos on CNN about "martian pyramids"?

And that rap video? Three kids walking on train tracks. I betcha I know who was filming it too.

Child services have to look into this family.

[lin]

All that airtime and the networks failed to do even the most basic research on the family, which would have alerted viewers of a possible hoax early on. The videos this father posted on Youtube tell the whole story -- these are sick parents.

The failure of the media in this case can only encourage other parents to exploit their kids in the hope of selling rights to a big story.

[Evan]

Just to be clear ... the LA Times also sent out a Breaking News Alert about the balloon boy, too, and featured it as the main story on latimes.com. So, plenty of blame ... =)

[More Senseless Information]

Goes to show how useless media is. Absolutely useless. Has nothing to do with information, it's all about distraction. Was there some sort of controversial legislation going on at the time? Did they pass a wiretapping law? No, they already did that. What could the distraction be? Who cares because Americans wouldn't care anyway. We're more concerned with what celebrities and people who give two you-know-whats, about us are doing. This world continues to slip into a cavernous, dark, cold crevice of obtuse reality.

[Cleo Watts]

As a black man, my take is that if you do not like the coverage, change the channel. It is what I do whenever I see a television tuned into CNN or MSNBC.

[Kevin]

I watched, as we all did, in horror and disbelief that there could be a small child on that flight. Once seeing the father interviewed, after the son was located, all I can say is: Look at the father. Total publicity stunt that got the entire world watching for what he refers to as his "invention."! The child was a pawn, probably told, playfully, to 'pull the string', which let the balloon go - then reprimanded. Father, with his publicity seeking background, is the suspect, and should pay the costs of everything involved.
BTW - why do we need to be shielded from the truth? I.E., if it had crashed. It makes it ridiculous to show everthing except the ending. It is what it is, whatever it may be.

[Dave9]

Did no one actually ask the father if the balloon was capable of lifting his 6 year old? Did no one check to see if it's even possible? It's an easy calculation, if an average 6 year old is about 50 pounds, you need about 900 cubic feet to lift that, more if you want it to go up. So a 20 foot balloon with an average thickness of 3 feet is about 900 cubic feet which is barely enough.

[LV]

I want the LA Times commemorative front page of this momentous event in American history. And the coffee mug.

[Mark]

My first thought when I saw it: "I can't believe they're spending this much time and effort covering something so inconsequential."

[D. Wilson]

Yeah! Let's all focus on this feel good story for a week and turn a blind eye to everything else going on in the world! Yeah! News!

[Fred Smoller]

I'm sure"balloon boy" along with his "balloon family" will appear on Larry King, and then be asked to write a book about their "ordeal", with an "inflated" advance! Next stop, Oprah! Thank God for NPR.

[P-Cat]

I'm totally disgusted and ashamed of our news networks. It's just beyond comprehension why they covered this thing for HOURS when we have so much at stake right now. CNN in particular is just beyond garbage now.

Seriously, what on Earth happened to the people in charge of the news? Have they lost their minds?