From the desk of Ren LaForme

The U.S. is in a pretty sorry condition when an empty balloon captures its collective attention for hours at a time.

The other day, I was surfing reddit.com, a popular news aggregation and social media site, when I saw this headline:

Balloon Boy is the perfect metaphor for cable news: America spent hours riveted by a powerful and gripping story that turned out to be totally meaningless, and will have no significant impact on anybody’s lives going forward

This is exactly right. We now have 24-hour news stations, but not 24-hour news – meaning the extra time is filled with meaningless garbage that means nothing to any of us in any way, shape or form.

Sometimes we get to see car chases happening thousands of miles away. Sometimes we wonder if the president’s choice of attire is appropriate. We even get to see Bristol Palin’s baby-daddy from time to time.

When did he become relevant again?

We are going to be watching balloon boy news for months to come. There are going to be further interviews with his family. Talking heads like Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck will discuss whether his parents are suitable and will bring social services workers on to their shows to discuss the matter.

Taken from the San Diego Union Tribune

The fact of the matter is that 24-hour news is here to stay. So instead of mindlessly watching cheesy stories about kids in balloons, we should focus on the stories that really matter.

Earthquakes in Asian countries that kill thousands of people. Tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. AIDS crises in Africa.

We need to pay attention to these stories because they matter – we can do things to help them.

The Heene family is messed up and there is nothing we can do about it.

Let’s move forward.

UPDATED: Gawker is reporting that Heene’s former assistant came forward to say that he helped set up the hoax.

It looks like there’s finally a leak in this balloon.

Reuters and the Associated Press are reporting that someone is going to be charged for something in the balloon boy case.

I don’t think anyone would be surprised if they will be going after the father, Richard Heene.

His apparent short temper combined with his bizarre desire to be on television really throws up a red flag. Add in the fact that his son openly said that they did the whole thing to get on TV and there’s a strong case to be made here.

At the very least, the family should pay for all of the emergency vehicle and salary costs for the rescue. But Child Protective Services should take a look into this family as well.

Stay tuned for further updates.