Anyone remember the Ballon Boy Hoax? If you don’t, here is the quick rundown.
That was when Richard and Mayumi Heene let a helium filled ballon fly away from their home and they thought their six year-old son Falcon was in it. From there, there were news reports where everyone was chasing the ballon. It went 50 miles in three counties and when it landed at the Denver International Airport, there was no one inside.
Instead, Falcon was hiding in the basement and suddenly, the question was whether this was a hoax perpetrated by the parents. It didn’t help when Wolf Blitzer interviewed Falcon on the Larry King show and he said that you guys - the parents - did it for the show.
Eventually, both of them went to jail. Richard for 90 days and Mayumi for 20 days. The fine was $36,000.
The criticism for all this later on was on media, questioning the difference between journalism and reality television. In addition, there was the issue of exploitation of children for news stories.
Well, now all the questions have been answered about the Manti Te’o hoax, there will be all kinds of opinions. Maybe the only thing to wonder is how Deadspin caught on to this to begin with. An embarrassment to the media in any case.
I have to say the world has changed. Here is this college athlete who can probably go out with just about any women he wants to goes and gets involved in this hoax. How does it happen? He never met this woman in the first place. It was all on line. They were just on-line friends?
Do you really have to wonder who you’re communicating with on-line especially through twitter. I mean, we have people on twitter who tell baseball players like Josh Thole that I hope you die just because he’s not having a good year for the Mets.
Why would someone pull this kind of hoax in the first place? To get 15 minutes of fame. To embarrass Manti Te’o. Well, if that was the plan, it looks like it worked.
I mean, I guess it should be expected when you have NFL players who tweet when they’re not supposed to and get fined for it. We live in a day and age now where we have to be online and be in the social media world in order to get noticed. In Manti Te’o’s case, he got noticed, probably more than he wanted to.
Some people will say they’re sad for Te’o. Some will be angry at him. I’m sure others will laugh about this. He pays the price of the embarrassment by not getting the Heisman Trophy.
In the end, does he move on to the NFL? I can’t see why not. If he’s good enough, he’ll be there. And at some point, this story will go away, just like the Ballon Boy.
Rick Holman
That was when Richard and Mayumi Heene let a helium filled ballon fly away from their home and they thought their six year-old son Falcon was in it. From there, there were news reports where everyone was chasing the ballon. It went 50 miles in three counties and when it landed at the Denver International Airport, there was no one inside.
Instead, Falcon was hiding in the basement and suddenly, the question was whether this was a hoax perpetrated by the parents. It didn’t help when Wolf Blitzer interviewed Falcon on the Larry King show and he said that you guys - the parents - did it for the show.
Eventually, both of them went to jail. Richard for 90 days and Mayumi for 20 days. The fine was $36,000.
The criticism for all this later on was on media, questioning the difference between journalism and reality television. In addition, there was the issue of exploitation of children for news stories.
Well, now all the questions have been answered about the Manti Te’o hoax, there will be all kinds of opinions. Maybe the only thing to wonder is how Deadspin caught on to this to begin with. An embarrassment to the media in any case.
I have to say the world has changed. Here is this college athlete who can probably go out with just about any women he wants to goes and gets involved in this hoax. How does it happen? He never met this woman in the first place. It was all on line. They were just on-line friends?
Do you really have to wonder who you’re communicating with on-line especially through twitter. I mean, we have people on twitter who tell baseball players like Josh Thole that I hope you die just because he’s not having a good year for the Mets.
Why would someone pull this kind of hoax in the first place? To get 15 minutes of fame. To embarrass Manti Te’o. Well, if that was the plan, it looks like it worked.
I mean, I guess it should be expected when you have NFL players who tweet when they’re not supposed to and get fined for it. We live in a day and age now where we have to be online and be in the social media world in order to get noticed. In Manti Te’o’s case, he got noticed, probably more than he wanted to.
Some people will say they’re sad for Te’o. Some will be angry at him. I’m sure others will laugh about this. He pays the price of the embarrassment by not getting the Heisman Trophy.
In the end, does he move on to the NFL? I can’t see why not. If he’s good enough, he’ll be there. And at some point, this story will go away, just like the Ballon Boy.
Rick Holman