Sunday, October 18, 2009

CNN

I was reading CNN on friday and I came across a very interesting and rather disturbing story that seemed to catch the whole nations attention. Falcon Heene was supposedly caught in a balloon that was floating away. This caused a search for the balloon to find the boy who was reported to be in it by his parents. Then later on in the day it was discovered that the boy was not in the balloon but rather he was in the attic in his house the entire time. When appearing on "Larry King Live" on CNN Falcon revealed that his parents knew he was in the attic the entire time and when asked by his father on TV why he hid in the attic he responded with "you said we did it for the show". The father, it was revealed, called the media before he called the police to report his son being missing and in the balloon. This whole story was a sham, and the family was exploiting a young child to try and further themselves in their endeavors to become a celebrity family. This whole notion of reality TV and these families becoming famous has gotten way out of hand. People have become way too obsessed with this whole notion of reality TV and the celebrity status that accompanies it. This story is just one example of many where a family lies about something in order to gain national attention. The family involved in this story deserves to be punished in some way because they used our (taxpayer) money to put on an elaborate search over two counties in Colorado when in fact this was not necessary at all. This to me shows how little certain people value family and the relationships accompanying it and instead value gaining a certain status within the American culture.