{"id":226,"date":"2009-10-21T08:40:45","date_gmt":"2009-10-21T14:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sebersole.wordpress.com\/?p=226"},"modified":"2009-10-21T08:40:45","modified_gmt":"2009-10-21T14:40:45","slug":"balloon-boy-makes-my-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebersolemedia.com\/blog\/balloon-boy-makes-my-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Balloon Boy Makes My Point"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-227 alignright\" title=\"hoax\" src=\"http:\/\/ebersolemedia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/hoax.jpg\" alt=\"hoax\" width=\"383\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ebersolemedia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/hoax.jpg 426w, https:\/\/ebersolemedia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/hoax-300x220.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 383px) 100vw, 383px\" \/>When I posted <a href=\"http:\/\/sebersole.wordpress.com\/2009\/10\/15\/accuracy-of-news-media\/\">my blog entry about accuracy in the media <\/a>last week, it was the day before the Balloon Boy story broke. Since then we&#8217;ve been served a non-stop drama that started with a young child at risk, progressed to a possible media hoax, and reached a crescendo with apparent criminal charges filed against parents Richard and\u00a0 Mayumi Heene. The media circus that gave birth to the spectacle is now feeding off of the dead carcass and will continue to do so until all that remains are bleached bones. Would-be actors who craved instant fame got infamy, which they will now try to peddle to unscrupulous reality show producers and tabloid publishers. There&#8217;s even an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.balloonboygame.com\/\">online video game<\/a> based on the whole sordid affair. The one bright spot in all of this, if there is one, is that Colorado law prevents criminals from profiting from their criminal actions. Forgive me if I come across as harsh and skeptical&#8230;but perhaps a healthy dose of skepticism was what was needed last Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I posted my blog entry about accuracy in the media last week, it was the day before the Balloon Boy story broke. Since then we&#8217;ve been served a non-stop drama that started with a young child at risk, progressed to a possible media hoax, and reached a crescendo with apparent criminal charges filed against &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ebersolemedia.com\/blog\/balloon-boy-makes-my-point\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Balloon Boy Makes My Point&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13,14,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism","category-media-effects","category-media-industry","category-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebersolemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebersolemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebersolemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebersolemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebersolemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ebersolemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebersolemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebersolemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebersolemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}