First, it was the balloon boy.
Half of Colorado was desperately trying to rescue what they thought was a child in a helium-filled balloon. And half of the word was watching it on television.
It was big, fat fake. A mother and father were longing for a gig on a reality television show, they cooked up a hoax that could have ended in some emergency crews killed. Helicopters were dispatched to watch the odd-looking contraption as it sailed across the state. Fire and rescue personnel were following it on the ground. Thousands and thousands of dollars were spent… dollars intended to go towards real rescues.
Instead, it was just a big false alarm. And it took the innocent statement of a child to bring it into the open.
Now…a slap on the wrist, and I predict the wing-nut parents will be back at it very soon…trying to blaze their way to fame, 2009 style.
And on top of that we learn a couple bluffed their way into a White House function. They were being followed by some reality television crew.
First, how in the word did they manage to con their way into the White House? I have been to a function at the White House, and I had to be checked six-ways-to-Sunday before I was escorted into The State Room. The security checks were just short of a body cavity search- and this was before the September 11th terror attacks.
First, who’s minding the door at The White House? Moe, Larry, and Curley?
Second, you have to be either deranged , or have criminal intent to pull off a stunt. So far as I can tell, these two nincompoops also had some kind of idea about being on television.
The only thing I can figure is that the lure of big money, and the addiction to public attention is so great with some people, they are willing to do anything to attain one or the other.
That’s not funny. That’s not amusing. It’s twisted.
Is it a disease that welled up inside these people and ate away their core or sensibility and responsibility? Or did they catch it from watching so many other people who are willing to bare it all on television?
You tell me.
Either way… it makes me sick, too.
Reality shows are cheap to produce. You don’t need a lot of production people, or a set, or writers…or a lot of other stuff… just a couple of cameras and some editors and post production people. The biggest budget saver is the fact that you don’t need performers.
It seems there are some people willing to audition for the gigs at the expense of decency and security.
And if these bad actors are not hammered by prosecutors right now…there are plenty more of them cooking up their own scripts for auditions right now.
