COLUMNIST SAYS "BALLOON BOY" HOAX A PRODUCT OF CURRENT TV
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COLUMNIST SAYS "BALLOON BOY" HOAX A PRODUCT OF CURRENT TV
New York Times columnist Frank Rich has condoned the actions of "balloon boy" father Richard Heene and blamed the news media in general and cable news outlets in particular for setting the stage for Heene's alleged hoax. That so few viewers questioned their coverage, he wrote on Sunday, "is an indication of how practiced we are at suspending disbelief when watching anything labeled news, whether the subject is W.M.D.'s in Iraq or celebrity gossip in Hollywood." Heene, Rich commented, is the "inevitable product" of a culture in which news and reality TV "are hopelessly scrambled." Heene, an experienced reality TV performer, he observed, "knew how easy it would be to float 'balloon boy' when the demarcation between truth and fiction has been obliterated."
26/10/2009
