Politics: A few big lessons to take from the “Balloon Boy” hoax
- 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 winAfter 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 itselfWhy 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.