Posted on 10/16/2009 9:51:58 AM PDT by Rufus2007
When a UFO shaped helium balloon took off from Colorado, possibly harboring a 6-year-old boy, the broadcast and cable news organizations were transfixed. But when it turned out to be a possible "publicity stunt" the networks continued to give it enormous amounts of coverage.
That's exactly the opposite of the way the networks covered made-up quotes attributed to conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh that had portrayed him as racist.
...more (w/video)...
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
Rush should fly a ballon outside his studio...
What a complete non-story. [shakes head]
My understanding is that the balloon had a lifting capacity of 2-5-8-10 lbs. Something like that. I understand the parents were freaked that their kid disappeared and conflated that with the runaway of the balloon. Why they couldn’t expend 15 seconds of thought to eliminate the possibility of junior floating away speaks to either idiocy or deliberate media manipulation on their part. Of course, the media couldn’t resist going apes**t over it. And it still isn’t over. This is a form of enforced stupidity that I find deeply offensive. But not unexpected.
I’m at work when this whole thing starts and the crew are watching CNN. It gave me a chance to point out that Rick Sanchez is a hit-and-run DUI driver who killed a man, that Wolf Blitzer flunked on Jeopardy and Larry King has a mug shot on the internet.
Oooooh, they didn’t know any of that.
And when I walked in on this balloon boy story I cried bs from the very beginning - that no six-year-old child is going to figure out how to untether a balloon and get in it at the same time without anyone’s help. I said either the boy is not in the balloon or he had help.
When the balloon turns up empty I said “told ya” and when the story turns to the boy is missing, I said “I’ll bet he’s in hiding somewhere near the house” and later got to say “told ya”.
So, I wound up looking pretty smart at the office yesterday while also dishing on the empty heads at Commie News Network.
You just can't ask for more than a kid that throws up for the cameras.
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