Balloon boy and live TV do not mix
Friday, October 16th, 2009First, some background from the BBC as they insert a few “those damn crazy Americans” type jabs into this report giving a little background on the family, their weird weather hobbies, past history on Wife Swap and a summary of yesterdays saga:
During this painful-to-watch CNN interview with the family, Falcon (the balloon boy) was asked by his father Richard why he did not come out of the attic despite his parents repeatedly calling his name. Falcon answers “You guys said that … we did this for the show”, to which his dad just ignores while his mother tries to correct him and tell him “…no…”, so.. eh… wtf? If that wasn’t weird enough, the interviewer, Wolf Blitzer (lulz. Wolf asks Falcon) asks for clarity about that and the uncomfortableness goes nuclear as the father pauses, thinks how he can re-ask the question to his son, pretends to not understand the question by asking Wolf what it was again, then pausing more turning toward his son before finally saying he will not re-ask that question because of CNN’s nefarious motives he thinks are behind the question. weeeeeeird…
I have a hard time imagining someone holding a full family interview on the subject of their son just hours after they supposedly thought he was in a life threatening situation thousands of feet in the air, but they also seem pretty different in general in general so who can tell for sure.
The 911 call by the family was released. I didn’t listen to it because I don’t care, but I guess it’s worth posting. Does it sound like the family is acting or genuinely terrified? It seems really weird that if the parents were behind this as a hoax that they would let the kid go on live tv to uncover the whole thing but I guess stranger things have happened.
Police say they believe there was no hoax based on body language:
“I don’t know, after three hours of dealing with the media I couldn’t tell you what he was saying at that time or what he meant. What I can tell you is that our investigators were there from the onset, very experienced investigators,” [Larimer County Sheriff Jim] Alderden said. “They can do forensic interviews; they’re well trained at looking at body language . . . nonverbal communications to look for deception.”
Alderden says the investigators on scene believed the incident was legitimate and not a hoax even after interviewing Falcon separately from his family.
“After the boy came out they did a forensic interview with the boy just between the investigators and them and they again thought that it was a legitimate thing from his perspective,” he explained…
“Now, if this turns out to be a hoax and it can be proved that it is a hoax and criminal charges are filed certainly we would seek compensation for everybody’s effort,” Alderden said.
Should the fact that the family was pitching a reality show be factored in? I guess. but its still hard to tell wtf this means.
All I know is that this family needs to stop dragging this poor kid, who is sick (probably with swine flu) onto life TV interviews because it never goes well…
