Do half-stories ruin the media: The Balloon Kid


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saulgoode is offline saulgoode Post #1  October 16,2009, 8:37am
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Maybe this isn't directly a politics problem, but it does hit the media.

Look at the balloon kid. Yesterday he was in the balloon.

Then he was in the rafters.

Then his parents "did it for a show." That was this morning.

Now they're saying Falcon said it because he'd taken reporters into the garage and shown them where he was hiding.

The real-time reporting of HALF-TRUTHS is what ruins the media for me.

I tend to read most of it every day, knowing it'll change in the next hour or two, and tomorrow it'll be a completely different story.

Gone are the days where the press would carefully report a well-thought story.

Gone are the days where you could discuss the news. You can't discuss it, because tomorrow it'll be something completely different!

It's all half-thoughts, half-truths padded with half-lies and deceptive catchy titles, reported to get the latest misleading headline, something that'll get you watching the television so you can offer your support to their sponsors.

Example:
Balloon boy: 'We did this for a show' (AP)

And the first sentence of the article:

The father of a 6-year-old boy who was thought to be in a helium balloon that floated away said Friday accusations that the ordeal was a publicity stunt are "extremely pathetic."



Mislead, lie, sell sell sell. You can't even tell what's true anymore.


- Saul
 
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dwreese182 is offline dwreese182 Post #2  October 16,2009, 11:45am
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We agree!

That story is all messed up......even more messed up is that family...."We don't ground our kids."!!?? What?! Get outta here with that new-age hippy carp! There would be no hugging, no kissing and CERTAINLY no tears (at least coming from me, the boys might be shedding a few though) if my kids were to do that. Holy child a.b.u.s.e batman, do you know what MY dad would have done to me if I did something so stupid and made national headlines like that? LoL Those cameras would have been my only protection, I would have begged for the news people to adopt me on the spot. I would have been beat simply for not answering him when he called, let alone having the national guard "supposedly" chasing after me with a blackhawk.

AND who builds a frickin helium balloon and keeps it in their garage anyways? Not to mention, how does it "accidentally" get launched from your garage? Let me guess, when the helium reacted with the aluminum foil it caused an electrical reaction with triggered the garage door causing it to open, then when the fathers head couldn't contain any more hot air it was released directly from his rear and created a breeze which blew it out the garage.....

Daddy is behind this. Make him reimburse the National Gaurd for the blackhawk that followed it around for 2-3 hours. With a running cost of (I'm guessing) somewhere around 80-100k an hour (including the maintanence after it lands) that should teach this m.o.r.o.n a lesson. Then hit him with every FAA violation you posibly can, because I'm quite sure that hippy didn't have ANY license to fly that thing.

Just looking at that hippy Brendon Fraser look alike erks me. Take up my news time with that pompous poppycock......grrrrr.
 
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dwreese182 is offline dwreese182 Post #3  October 16,2009, 11:48am
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Oh, and I agree with you on that "half-stories, half-truth" media bla bla bla thing too.
 
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bigfincat is offline bigfincat Post #4  October 16,2009, 7:09pm
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I never spend any of my time on those types of stories.

I really don't care where the kid was or wasn't.

People get hurt or lost every day. I know that.

I don't really care about the one that the media puts a spotlight on any more than any other.

It is amazing (& sad) the attention that kind of story can draw... yet I don't even give it a second thought... well... until I read a post on it.
 
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meri75 is offline meri75 Post #5  October 16,2009, 7:46pm
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Yes, I think they do.

This made our news. I couldn't believe my ears this morning on my way to grocery shopping when it aired! Only, the version we got was the police saying they thought it wasn't a hoax put on by the parents.
 
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jtkdp is offline jtkdp Post #6  October 17,2009, 10:28pm
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gets right on to the friction of the day...

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If I understand Saul correctly, I agree...there is a tendency to report, before there is anything to report. I think there is so much competition in the news, that the pressure is there to get a story when there isn't any.

Regularly, stories pop up, and are over-hyped, when they are, sadly, everyday occurences. I call these, "slow news days". Things like child abduction, shark attacks, and spousal abuse and murder have always happened, but seem to be over reported, or over focused on, for a while, and I wonder sometimes, if it is to distract people from the real problems we are having, or to dictate public policy.

Take the hot topic of public health care. I've heard only 2 positive stories, but hundreds of negative ones. It it really as bad as it is being reported, or does the news media want you to believe it is really that bad, and if so, who are they really working for, what is their agenda, and who's pocket are they in?

I think the news media has a negative influence on the way the US fights wars, too. I believe they keep us from doing what we need to do to win...look at the facts...we're still mired in 2 middle east wars, 7 or 8 years later, without a clear victory, and we won WWII less than 4 years after we entered. The difference is media coverage. I shudder to think how the allies would have been portrayed after the fire bombing of Dresden, or other German cities, or the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We would have lost the war inspite of our advantage, due to the media taking sides against our troops, and nature of our missions. Maybe it had something to do with what happened to us in Vietnam.

I could go on, but I think the media's main agenda is to control...they decide what we will hear and how we will hear it, regardless of what the facts really are. When they don't want to report 'hard' news, they give us tripe, like balloon boy.

Remember, 2 people recently died on the same day, Michael Jackson, and Farrah Fawcett...which one was constantly in the news for several days straight, and which one do I really miss? Was one really less news worthy, and were the thousands of other people who also died that day worth any less?
 
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mari3434 is offline mari3434 Post #7  October 17,2009, 10:43pm
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I agree that Daddy was up to this one- it was no accident...lol
 
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dito is offline dito Post #8  October 18,2009, 6:30am
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And it's still in the headlines!! Report it and get over it. The media is such a joke anymore. But as Ventura said it's the dumbing down of America.
 
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dwreese182 is offline dwreese182 Post #9  October 18,2009, 8:46am
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dito wrote :
And it's still in the headlines!! Report it and get over it. The media is such a joke anymore. But as Ventura said it's the dumbing down of America.
I know I have thrown this one out there several times, but that movie Idiocracy always comes to mind when these stories pop up. LoL

As much as I throw that movie out there you'd think that I would own it. I gotta go make an investment.
 
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TheThinker is offline TheThinker Post #10  October 18,2009, 9:09am
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I don't know if I'd blame the media on this one....from all appearances, this family is nuttier than squirrel t*rds.

The mother & father have a long history of putting their kids on youtube, reality shows, etc..
Anytime the Nat'l Guard gets called out...you better have some very good explanation as to why... I'm sure the governer was not happy with this guy.

They also called everyone else(the media) BEFORE they called 9-11...
Zat' normal??...

As a father, the very fact that they put a sick kid(yes, he puked on live TV) on the Today show, shows me that these people are about 3 french fries short of a "Happy Meal"...

Bottom line: the parents are well-known attention whores who are seeking their fifteen minutes of fame, and the kid basically "came clean"(kids say the darndest things!) and ratted them out...good on him.
yes, the media did get involved, but that's their job.
The parents are the ones to blame here.

I pray for those kids.
Last edited by TheThinker; October 18,2009 at 9:12am.
 
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