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01 Jun 2011 20:50

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Offbeat: For sale: One balloon. Once used in infamous hoax. Boy not included.

  • The money from the winning bid goes to Japan. Buy it outright for $1 million. Want to help the people of Japan and own an insane piece of swag in one fell swoop? Get a hold of our boy Richard Heene, who is selling the balloon he falsely claimed his son Falcon was flying from. Now that the hoax is long-forgotten, the Heene family apparently wants to help out the people of Japan — so all net proceeds go to that. In case you’re wondering if this is a scam, the site where said balloon is being sold claims otherwise: “The winning bidder’s funds will go directly into the Trust Account of Attorney Perry H. Rausher of Calabasas, California. Mr. Rausher will then write a check to a selected charitable organization that is helping the Japanese cause. The Heene family will not receive anything from the sale.” Alright, who wants to start a Kickstarter project to turn this thing into a killer Flaming Lips stage prop? (via Cheat Sheet) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Oct 2010 09:43

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Offbeat: Balloon Boy’s dad, in retrospect: “He was a crackpot”

  • I can’t help but feel I was responsible for stirring the thirst for fame inside of him that led to last year’s hoax. It’s something I have to live with, and sometimes it makes me feel like I want to climb into a box and hide.
  • AOL News contributor David Moye • Explaining how his dealings with Richard Heene may have contributed to the “Balloon Boy” incident a year ago this week. See, Moye worked as senior editor for a service called FlashNews, which provided odd, offbeat news to radio stations and newspaper columnists. And Heene, see, is a crackpot. So Moye covered him more than once. The first time, he referred to Heene as the “Bob Vila of Cardboard Boxes,” after Heene made a video for kids featuring a cardboard puppet named “Boxter.” Dude loves his boxes. Moye also did stories with Heene playing  wacky storm-chaser in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. “After all,” he writes, “he was a crackpot and my audience — wacky morning disc jockeys — would eat this stuff up.” All of this, by the way, was before he got pseudo-famous on “Wife Swap.” Great work, David. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Dec 2009 09:47

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Culture: Good luck with that: Reality TV’s trying to improve its image

  • Vetting processes are going to get a lot stricter. The background checks are becoming more and more rigorous. Clearly, each time there’s a slip-up, the bar goes higher.
  • Former VH1 exec (and current Ish Entertainment owner) Michael Hirschorn • Describing the state of the reality TV industry at the moment. After the triple-whammy of the Ryan Jenkins case (which directly affected his former network), Balloon Boy and White House gate crashers Michaele and Tareq Salahi, TV producers are trying their best to improve their vetting processes. The Jenkins case in particular – which wasn’t a media stunt but a brutal murder that led to a suicide – has increased background checks by 25%. Still, it may not be enough. “People will go to pretty extreme measures to make themselves stars,” Hischorn said. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Nov 2009 11:27

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Culture: It’s official; the Balloon Boy parents plead guilty

  • No word on if they’ll be sentenced to a tomato-thowing at the town square. Richard and Mayumi Heene made things easy on the American public by pleading guilty today – Richard on a felony charge and Mayumi on a misdemeanor. Hopefully the court can legally prevent them from profiting off their non-story so we can ignore them for once and for all. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Oct 2009 01:30

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Culture: Sounds about right: The mom squealed in the “Balloon Boy” case

  • Both parents told their kids to lie. Good job. The Balloon Boy story now has even more hot air to feed itself, thanks to the acquisition of a search warrant by the Fort Collins Coloradan which straight-up broke open the case. The warrant claims that Mayumi Heene admitted that she and her husband lied about what happened, and that they told their kids to lie. And even further, they did it to further their 15 seconds of fame. All obvious points, but now we know who the whistleblower was. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Oct 2009 20:24

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Politics: A few big lessons to take from the “Balloon Boy” hoax



As media addicts, we've been watching "Balloon Boy" closely. Not because this story is necessarily a particularly important saga in the grand scheme of things. But culturally, it could be a turning point for how we handle trash culture. Gawker deftly touched on this today, and here are some thoughts of our own:
  • Fame is addictive Despite his obvious failures as a human being, Richard Heene started from a common place – he had an interesting life, someone recognized him for it and put him on TV, and he wanted more. He has lots in common with Real World/Road Rules Challenge contestants in that regard. Heene’s problem is that, in his quest for fame, he became too desperate and manipulative. Not cool, dude.
  • Fame is addictive Despite his obvious failures as a human being, Richard Heene started from a common place – he had an interesting life, someone recognized him for it and put him on TV, and he wanted more. He has lots in common with Real World/Road Rules Challenge contestants in that regard. Heene’s problem is that, in his quest for fame, he became too desperate and manipulative. Not cool, dude.
  • Culture hackers win After the Heene family is punished for their actions, they’re probably going to get exactly what they wanted out of it. They’ve already been paid once for an interview. Richard might get a book deal. When Falcon’s old and screwed up like the rest of us, you know he’s going on Larry King again (if Larry’s still alive). Don’t believe us? Look at Rod Blagojevich’s recent career. Cheaters win. Kinda.
  • Fame is addictive Despite his obvious failures as a human being, Richard Heene started from a common place – he had an interesting life, someone recognized him for it and put him on TV, and he wanted more. He has lots in common with Real World/Road Rules Challenge contestants in that regard. Heene’s problem is that, in his quest for fame, he became too desperate and manipulative. Not cool, dude.
  • Culture hackers win After the Heene family is punished for their actions, they’re probably going to get exactly what they wanted out of it. They’ve already been paid once for an interview. Richard might get a book deal. When Falcon’s old and screwed up like the rest of us, you know he’s going on Larry King again (if Larry’s still alive). Don’t believe us? Look at Rod Blagojevich’s recent career. Cheaters win. Kinda.
  • The media eats itself Why do stories like this get to stick around? Easy. Our popular culture is a series of loops that lock into each other. Something happens on TV, and it gets blogged about 600 times. Something gets blogged about 600 times, and it ends up on Twitter. And then it might end up on TV. While to some degree we enjoy it, we don’t know how to make it stop. Does anyone feel manipulated? We do.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Oct 2009 21:37

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U.S.: Balloon Boy’s parents are probably gonna get charged

  • Great news everyone! For wasting everyone’s time, for wasting taxpayer’s money, for making internet memes, for being named Richard Heene, for embarrassing Fort Collins, for showing us Falcon’s vomit, for keeping up amused, and for eating up the news, you’re damn right the parents are gonna get charged. (But not arrested.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

17 Oct 2009 10:35

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U.S.: GREAT … Balloon Boy’s family has a “big” announcement today

  • I’m going to have a press conference out here at, let’s say, 10 a.m. Okay? So it’s a few more hours. So, I’d like to speak everybody about a few things. Okay? So, it’s a big announcement.
  • Richard Heene • Father of “Balloon Boy” Falcon Heene, on a big announcement that the family plans to share. Is it going to be, “we just hoaxed everyone?” Is it going to be, “we have a new reality TV show deal?” Is it going to be that fame makes Falcon Heene sick? Is it going to be something else? Either way, we’re going to be waiting by the seat of our pants for Noon EST (10 a.m. MST in Fort Collins, Colorado) to roll around. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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