These children did not think in those terms. They were told to do this,....except the part of repeating what their father said in their presence, "We will let the spaceship loose, already filled with helium, claim our six year old child is in it, manipulate every media outlet in the country, so we can get ratings up for the show. We'll do it for the show".
That is the process a six year old kid would have to go through in his mind to come up with his explaination...."We did it for the show."
the kids says “you said we did it for the show”
That could mean anything. Picture it this way...dad finds the little brat hiding. Then confronts the older kid for saying his brother was on the balloon. They just do the usual little kid crap and say “i don’t know”.
Then dad says “you guys will do anything for a show!”
Now on live television the little brat can’t think of anything to say so he just repeats what his dad said to him.