6-year-old boy is floating away

Count me among the skeptical about whether the parents were in on this. My experience playing hide and seek with kids that age is they can only stay hidden for no more than a few minutes before succumbing to the urge to reveal themselves. I know none who could've silently remained inside a cardboard box for several hours with their parents (presumably) desperately calling for them. Add in the attention-seeking reality show past of the parents and there's plenty of room for suspicion here.

 

You're absolutely right. There's no editor in the world with the ability to cover this story live who wouldn't do it. TV news drives me nuts, but newspaper people do tend to criticize unfairly sometimes just because they often have a lot more opportunity to put a story in perspective before figuring out how to play it.

 

Yes, because the democracy will topple if we miss out on a half-hour of what Lindsey Graham ate for breakfast.

Trust me, I think that the 24-hour news channels far too often go for the sensational nothing story over important news. And no one believes Americans need to be more civic minded more than me. And I hate reality television.

But, come on, Arianna. This was great theater, with a happy ending. Get off your high horse.

 

Seems like "Falcon" was misnamed. They should call him Hidey Heene.

 

Thank God...

 

Exactly. But CNN still has to explain exactly what Rick Sanchez does for a living.

 

What a bunch of hot air!! *ducking*...

 

Doesn't make it the most important issue.

 

I'm just trying to figure out how many of Beaver's dumb stunts on Leave It to Beaver that got him a fatherly pipe-puffing chat from Ward would go cable TV 24/7 today if they happened in real life.
Oh, and to the defenders of TV covering this live. I'll grant a point. But don't defend all three networks leading the national news with this story AFTER THEY KNEW IT WASN'T A STORY AND THE KID HAD NEVER LEFT THE GROUND!!!
Which they all did. Too bad for any somewhat older kids who might've gotten hurt or worse in Afghanistan today. They didn't have film of that.

 

"But ... but ... I tweet! And you can reach me on facebook and myspace!"

 

How can anyone bash the coverage? Would it have been worth covering if the kid was dead? Would you wait to see if he was dead before reporting it? There's a giant silver UFO floating over Ft Collins, how do you not follow it?

Agree some of the scramble for so-called folks in the know goes over the top. But in the big picture this sort of story draws people to what we do, ie cover breaking stories, and there's nothing wrong with that.