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Balloon Boy bonanza ... but there's more

Here’s the irony of the Balloon Boy fiasco:

The whole episode, which turned out to be a hoax, still delivered its desired result.

The gaping goobers who covered the story got big ratings.

And for all intents and purposes, Richard Heene still has a reality show, only it’s playing out for now on news channels. For free (although some media may actually have paid him already).

It will continue to play out up until, and after, he and his wife are arrested for concocting the story, which TV latched onto like read meat, few questions asked.

Even more ironic: After all of this plays out, I wouldn’t be surprised if the family still gets a series.

Remember, dysfunction sells. Nobody tunes in to these shows to watch well-adjusted people do reasonable stuff.

This just in: Rod Blagojevich will appear "The Celebrity Apprentice" on NBC.

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Posted by Allen Johnson on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 8:11 pm

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brian444

October 21, 2009 - 12:47 pm EDT

I found their balloon hoax to be a clever and amusing diversion. Clearly an example of bad parenting though, since any decent parent would be able to keep their kid's mouth shut.

Allen Johnson

October 21, 2009 - 12:48 pm EDT

It may have been clever, but it was expensive, too.

brian444

October 21, 2009 - 11:13 pm EDT

You have to weigh the entertainment value against the cost of gassing up a couple of helicopters. And even then, you have to consider for the Keynesian "pump priming" dimension of the hoax in terms of increased advertising revenue for the cable networks, which I'm sure more than compensated for the cost of the search.