Yesterday in our story “Publicity stunt or coincidence? Balloon Boy has a video called “I’m Not Pussified,” we suggested that the story was a publicity stunt. But trying to be sensitive to the family, just in case we were wrong, we posed this as a question rather than a charge. Well, we were right. Just listen to not-so-crafty-after-all little co-conspirator Falcon cause his parents Richard and Mayumi to freeze in shock as he tells CNN’s Wolfe Blitzer that “We did this for a show.”
Sounds like another Wife Swap encore is in order for this clever family. Either that, or a visit by Child Protection Services.
Update: Here’s a clip of Wolfe Blitzer coming back to Falcon’s comment, gently asking for clarification. We’re no body language experts, but we’d say he knows he was busted big time. Given Wolfe’s performance on Celebrity Jeopardy last month, we’re lucky he even picked up on the slip.
This post was last modified on October 18, 2009
View Comments (8)
Looks like the family is in some hot water after all. Can you say comeuppance?
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20091018/US.Balloon.Boy/
Big Al
Interesting comment. Its incredible that the 24 hour news outlets claim to be so important to our democracy - yet most of the time they are showing this voyeuristic crap or car chases and when they are giving us news, its mostly biased sound bites.
Symbolic of the stupidity of most Americans. If you watched this for more than 30 seconds you are too stupid to vote.
BUSTED.
That dad is a jagoff
I read earlier that it was symbolic that a whole nation was fascinated by a hot air ballon that had noone in it.
Parents shoud be sued by every municipality for costs of emergency services. Feds should look into charging father and mother with crime and jail them for , oh lets say , 120 months.
Here is the actual balloon lifting off, while mom and dad begin the hoax.
The way this updated video started, I was impressed with Wolfe. At the end, I lost all respect for him. The d-bag "dad" wouldn't let his kid speak and was stammering through his whole explanation. If he had been asked that before by the media, how come he didn't have his scripted response ready? Plus, try to focus on that kid for the length of the video. He's a little spazz - no way I buy he was hiding in the attic for 90 minutes.
Wolfe should've gone for the throat at the end insetad of knuckling under. If this guy's so sick of dragging his family through all the media, this may have been the straw that broke the camel's back. Then he just might stop doing all these interviews. YA RIGHT...............
The parents ought to be taken into custody by local law enforcement officials and charged with child exploitation, abuse, and neglect and then assessed the entire municipal cost of the search by police, fire, and others. Child Protection Services should then remove the children from these bohemian oddballs.