On October 15, 2009, my wife and I were traveling from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon over to the North Rim. As described in my blog entry about that day:
Day three of our adventure started very early with us trying to catch the sun rising out on Yaki Point. We would have made it except the sun decided to rise up earlier than we wanted it to. Stupid Sun. But since we were up, we decided to start our day.
After checking out, we hit the road to Desert View, another Mary Colter design. Situated at the eastern end of the South Rim, it was another railroad tourist attraction that was designed by Mary Colter
After almost four hours, we arrived at the North Rim around 1:30 pm. The major difference between the North and South rims is the vegetation and the North’s lack of people. I really enjoyed the lodge here and would have napped all day in the round viewing room but my better half had different plans for us. So we hiked about a bit.
Day three ended up with us crossing into Utah and spending the night at a very bad Best Western in the town of Kanab with me very sick. It was a long sleepless night.
While we were spending our day, our nation was transfixed on the Balloon Boy saga as a father claimed that his 6-year old son was stuck inside a “ufo-looking” balloon that had escaped. From all reports — and there were tons of media — it was quiet a story. From the Wiki entry:
After an hours-long flight that covered more than 50 miles (80 km) across three counties, the balloon landed about 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Denver International Airport. Authorities closed down the Denver airport and sent several National Guard helicopters and local police in pursuit. After the balloon landed and the boy was found not to be inside, authorities began a manhunt of the entire area, raising fears that he had fallen from the balloon; it was reported that an object had detached from the balloon and fallen to the ground. Later that afternoon the boy was reported to have been hiding at his house the entire time. The saga was reported by news media around the world.
It was not until we got home that I learned about this story. Since I had not followed the story, I was not emotionally involved and actually found great amusement about the whole saga, including the parents and their quest for fame, the authorities and their very professional response, and mostly the national press and their lack of professionalism, or even asking the simple question about how the balloon was able to lift the kid.
So today the Balloon Boys dad Richard Heene goes to jail for 90 days on a felony conviction of attempting to influence a public servant. The mother Mayumi Heene will be serving 20 days.
My question is what about the media; Shouldn’t there be some penalty for them?
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