Balloon boy story fills me with the infinite rage of a thousand war-dead suns

[Triforcer]

I've never come so close to putting my hand through a TV screen, or wanting angry.bob's shooting-sodomy-through-the-internet gun so much.  Whoever decided that should get so much coverage shouldn't cover any news bigger than elementary school lunch lists.  

And I'm providing no link, for the children.  

[Venkman]

/agree.

Sensationalists. Then when their star fades, they'll get divorced and spend the next seasons divvying up the stuff until the husband realizes his breadbasket has all of it.

Oh, wait, wrong sensationalists.

Hate this crap anyway. I understand the appeal (hey, my life at least doesn't suck THAT much/I wish my life was like that/sure is cheaper than scripted dramedies), but everything about this stuff annoys me.

Having said that, if I hadn't know about their Wife Swap stint and the YouTube videos, I'd probably have been holding my breathe with some of the rest of the country. Thought I would have wondered how something so light could life a 40-60(?) pound kid without showing him as a tumor on the bottom.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I dunno, this is a perfectly acceptable story to me. Nothing more interesting than watching media whores get what's coming to them.

[Lt.Dan]

I felt the same way.  There was nothing newsworthy about the event per se.  You only had to look at the headlines the news to get perspective on that.  Hoax balloon escapade should rank well below bombings in Iraq, earthquakes in Indonesia, Health reform in the US, or any number of truly global news stories.  It was the drama of the events ocurring as they unfolded that led to retarded "me-too" news coverage.  Live camera coverage - check.  Inane filler coverage with no new information - check.  Coverage on all TV channels - check.  TV off till it all blows over - check.

[Samprimary]

The Balloon Boy story is kind of a tipping-point example of newsmedia priority. The story continues to be watched because it was a story that prompted watching in the first place, when there was a wide lens on a balloon floating in midair with no scale context to give anyone a real sense of how tiny it actually was. Since so many people followed the news watching a balloon which was believed at the time to have a boy in it — and if you've got live coverage of that, you have a story people will watch — so many people were receptive to gabbing about the fallout and the circus that follows. Once you're over the edge, the interest does not go away.

[Samprimary]

some more meta-analysis

My Kid, the Ratings Bonanza[/quote]

Whatever the outcome, children's advocates warn that reality-TV producers and news organizations are exploiting children from exotic backgrounds for higher ratings. In the "balloon boy" case, TV news was rewarded for sticking with the story: As the drama unfolded Thursday afternoon, the cable news networks logged ratings roughly double their usual averages, according to the Nielsen Co. Some of the coverage was deemed so crucial it aired without commercial interruption.

In discussing the subject, they correctly point to two other current-day examples of more successful kiddo exploitation: the Jon & Kate saga with its tabloid-friendly disintegrating abusive marriage, and 18 Kids and Counting, a look into the ugly guts of a heavily religious family of more than 20 people, where the children are homeschooled and raised by their sisters and the parents have an intense case of fundamentalist procreational monomania.

[Sky]

It's not like we're reforming health care, in two wars, with an economy in the shitter.

Well, the good news is the Dow bumped up something like 3000 points in a year, WHAT COULD GO WRONG.

[Cyrrex]

We've all been watching too many cartoons when we automatically believe that a balloon that size could even come close to carrying a 50-60 pound child.  I suspect it would seriously struggle with a bowling ball.  Any media outlet that gave this serious attention should be embarassed.  The guy should ultimately be prosecuted for yanking real emergency services around by the chain, but how fucking stupid are we for believing it?

[Xuri]

They (the family involved) weren't even good actors.

[Khaldun]

I am feeling quite happy about this story. Why? Because I completely missed it until it was not-the-only-thing-on. I was busy doing other shit. It makes me feel like I've achieved some kind of good mental health when I manage to be alive, consuming popular culture much as I always do, and yet somehow completely avoid a bullshit media event like this.

[01101010]

This is the new style reality tv. I can see more of these in the future - some tv exec is sitting there looking at the ratings and will make the connection. You'd be hard pressed to find any reliable news outlet these days.

[schild]

I just got spam in my inbox about the true story of balloon boy. SHOCKINGLY, it was about Cialis.

[apocrypha]

This kind of story makes you much less angry when you accept what the media is really for.

It's not for telling the truth, informing the public or disseminating news. It's just there to make money. Which is why the entire media focuses on a tiny selection of stories every day and all the same ones.

There's far too much going on in the world to tell everyone everything every day - there has to be some selectivity, it's just that all the 100s of competing media companies all tell the same stupid stories every day rather than presenting any kind of diversity, because they're all just chasing ratings. If you want a proper media, a useful media, then you'd have to get rid of the profit motive.

[Brogarn]

I've never come so close to putting my hand through a TV screen, or wanting angry.bob's shooting-sodomy-through-the-internet gun so much.  Whoever decided that should get so much coverage shouldn't cover any news bigger than elementary school lunch lists.  

And I'm providing no link, for the children.  

I'm with you 100% on this.

[Mrbloodworth]

This is what happens when you need 24 hour news and all your anchors act like EVERYTHING is OF DIRE CONSEQUENCES TO THE WORLD! and shit.

I still like the story when the bridges fell down, the one with the bus. You know, the bus that did not fall full of children. The part I like, is that apparently that's not news worthy (everyone was safe), what is news worthy, is this CG animation we made of WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED to the bus, complete with children flying through the air... now isn't that just terrible, horrific, and ratings worthy,............................. if it had happened.

[Samprimary]

We've all been watching too many cartoons when we automatically believe that a balloon that size could even come close to carrying a 50-60 pound child. 

I'll admit I was totally going along with the story when I was watching the event on the news, with the balloon followed by heavily zoomed-in helicopter lenses. Without perceptual context I thought it was a huge balloon. There was nothing in range to gauge its size by until it started to land. When the guy ran up to it on the ground I realized it was way way way smaller than I thought it was.

[Cyrrex]

We've all been watching too many cartoons when we automatically believe that a balloon that size could even come close to carrying a 50-60 pound child. 

I'll admit I was totally going along with the story when I was watching the event on the news, with the balloon followed by heavily zoomed-in helicopter lenses. Without perceptual context I thought it was a huge balloon. There was nothing in range to gauge its size by until it started to land. When the guy ran up to it on the ground I realized it was way way way smaller than I thought it was.

My ire and ridicule was mostly directed at the media...because surely they could've found an "expert" to find out, you know, how big the thing was (I would bet money they already had information on it's size) and if it was even remotely possible that it could lift a child off the ground.  Fuck, they could have just called the fucking Mythbusters. 

[Sky]

It's not just news, it's nature and science, too. Sharks aren't cool enough on their own, but THEY COULD ATTACK with tons of looped footage of some dipshit who stuck his foot in a shark mouth spliced in with stock footage of sharks feeding. No mention of how many millions of sharks are killed for every human killed by a shark.

Meteors aren't cool enough, but THEY COULD END EXISTENCE ON OUR PLANET. That at least I could see a defense for, since dipshits won't fund science unless it's saving their ass or making their dick hard.

But maybe death by nature beats the fucking hippy agenda inserted into nature shows. Tough call.

[Samprimary]

My ire and ridicule was mostly directed at the media...because surely they could've found an "expert" to find out, you know, how big the thing was (I would bet money they already had information on it's size) and if it was even remotely possible that it could lift a child off the ground.  Fuck, they could have just called the fucking Mythbusters. 

Oh, in that sense, what happened was totally understandable — the only scale information anyone had on the balloon when they sent helicopters out to follow it was provided by falcon's dad, and he'd lied about the size. The helicopter crews had already started to openly speculate about the size and weight capacity of the balloon while the 'chase' was still in progress but information from the mythbusters (which the news networks had actually called) hadn't had time to filter in.

People's bullshit-dars started going off en masse the second the balloon got in range of the ground too. Thankfully.

[Nevermore]

As long as news is treated as a for-profit business rather than a public service, we'll have sensationalist crap like this.  Same reason they always trot out all the irrelevant sex stories during the sweeps weeks.

[IainC]

As long as news is treated as a for-profit business rather than a public service, we'll have sensationalist crap like this.  Same reason they always trot out all the irrelevant sex stories during the sweeps weeks.

I can prove this wrong by referencing the sales of any of the shitty chat magazines that you find at the supermarket checkout vs the sales of say The Economist. Given a choice between actual news and populist non-news, people unerringly go for the wrong option. Some people are genuinely interested in news, they don't watch the news channels but get their information from a synthesis of other sources. News channels are there for everyone else because even not-for-profit broadcasters still have to worry about audience share.

[Samprimary]

I'm quite unfortunately the exact sort of hussy they peddle this shit out to, since I track stories of exploitative parental dysfunction. Munchausen's by Proxy, reproductive monomania (see: Duggars, Octomom) have both been combed over from me so the Heene story makes a good central case for parents who want to whore their family out for media attention.

Some people are genuinely interested in news, they don't watch the news channels but get their information from a synthesis of other sources. News channels are there for everyone else because even not-for-profit broadcasters still have to worry about audience share.

This is actually pretty much why Fox News has the dominant share of cable news networks. The demographics that the other news networks would be keeping as an audience have moved onto that (largely internet based) synthesis and dislike the talking-heads format. Fox news keeps an older, more recalcitrant, less tech-savvy demo that actively seeks 'ideologically sympathetic input' — i.e., the news they want to hear, from only angles they are comfortable with over regard to angles which are more objectively factual or impartial.

[Nevermore]

As long as news is treated as a for-profit business rather than a public service, we'll have sensationalist crap like this.  Same reason they always trot out all the irrelevant sex stories during the sweeps weeks.

I can prove this wrong by referencing the sales of any of the shitty chat magazines that you find at the supermarket checkout vs the sales of say The Economist. Given a choice between actual news and populist non-news, people unerringly go for the wrong option. Some people are genuinely interested in news, they don't watch the news channels but get their information from a synthesis of other sources. News channels are there for everyone else because even not-for-profit broadcasters still have to worry about audience share.

Nothing you said here really contradicts what I posted except for implying that The Economist has better circulation than gossip mags.  To this, I will say:

The Economist: Circulation 1.4 million per week
People: Circulation 3.75 million per week

Source: Wikipedia, because I wasn't willing to spend an hour fact checking.  You know, just like cable news. ;)

Of course there are people who only want the news without the crap.  I for one have never turned on a cable news station and never will.  That doesn't change the fact that news stations, especially the 24 hour cable networks, basically just attention whore with this sensationalist crap for ratings.

[IainC]

Nothing you said here really contradicts what I posted except for implying that The Economist has better circulation than gossip mags.

Erm, I was implying the exact opposite.

ETA: taking the profit motive away from news won't magically fix the problem because more people are interested in shitty non-news and 'human stories' than they are in actual journalism. 'Real news' would cater to the tiny fraction of the population who are already getting 'real news' and the rest would keep on consuming the same stuff that's pouring out of 'news channels' now.

[Nevermore]

Then I suppose I'm just not understanding how you were proving the statement you quoted wrong.  Of course, it's been a long day and my brain currently has the consistency of tapioca so it's hardly surprising.

[rattran]

Suns?

[Merusk]

Hey look, Gay bashing, too!  Surely a more quality pair of specimens of Homo Rubor will never be found.

[Ingmar]

Hey look, Gay bashing, too!  Surely a more quality pair of specimens of Homo Rubor will never be found.

 

[Samprimary]

Yeah and I just finished the complete wife swap footage.

Hahahahahahahaha oh god the parents are a tragedy of the human condition.

[Sky]

Nobody can beat the family who brushed their teeth with butter and ate rotten meat.

[Der Helm]

Nobody can beat the family who brushed their teeth with butter and ate rotten meat.

What ? 

[lamaros]

Is it so bad over there that you can't just... not watch shitty news stations and not read shitty papers? Are they knocking on your door and making you give a shit?

[Cheddar]

Is it so bad over there that you can't just... not watch shitty news stations and not read shitty papers? Are they knocking on your door and making you give a shit?

Yes. 

[FatuousTwat]

I wasn't even aware of this until this thread appeared. I haven't watched anything except PBS in months.

And really, who is surprised that the fucking parents are retarded? They named their kids Falcon, Ogre, and Dipshit (no I'm not going to go look up their actual retarded names, the 30 seconds it took me to post this and skim a news article has already wasted too much of my time).

[Gutboy Barrelhouse]

You can check out Richard Henne's themesongs he made up for the tv show this balloon stunt was done for here:


http://www.aolcdn.com/tmz_audio/1019_science_detective.mp3

http://www.aolcdn.com/tmz_audio/1019_the_contactor.mp3