Balloon Boy
AS FEATURED ON ABC STATEWIDE DRIVE WITH KATHY BEDFORD
Like the rest of the world, I watched the balloon boy saga unfold with great interest. (by saying ‘great interest’ it makes me feel less like a guy slowing down to watch a car accident).
NEWSFLASH - A boy appears to have climbed into a weather balloon and taken off.
NEWSFLASH - The balloon lands and the boy is MISSING probably DEAD.
NEWSFLASH - The boy is found hiding in his parent’s garage, scared that he’ll get in trouble.
NEWSFLASH - The boy admits on live TV that his parents allegedly put him up to it because they allegedly wanted to build a media profile and allegedly get on reality TV show. Allegedly.
This is where I come in.
Whenever you want informed opinion on ‘making stuff up’ or ‘talking out of your backside’ then I’m the guy to talk to.
Apparently, the nation’s media agree. I came back to my computer after a few days off sick to find a pile of requests from various media outlets for interviews to discuss the issue.
So here it is.
In the golden age of the con artist, swindlers would impersonate powerful and influential people for profit. Frank Abagnale pretended to be an airline pilot and rode the skies for free. Wilheim Voight pretended to be a Swiss army captain and confiscated a town’s treasury. Christophie Raconcourt pretended to be a long lost relative of the Rockefeller family.
These days, con artists pretend to be interesting people.
A suburban American family pretends to be child suspending adventurers.
James Fey pretends to be an ex junkie in his fake memoir A Million Tiny Pieces.
Reality TV contestant Darva Conger took part in the “Who Wants To Marry A Multimillionaire” and won, marrying the millionaire and then declaring she just “was playing a role.”
We live in age where reality programming is king. And when reality is enough, we create a better one and sell our shiny new personalities to the world at a very reasonable price.
I worry about people so desperate to get on TV and so void of any actual personality that they have to pretend to tie their six year old to a weather balloon just to get people to look at them.
I’m surprised I have not seen your name attached to some sort of elaborate hoax.
Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth…