A Story Full of Hot Air
Wouldn't it make things a lot easier on the media if, like Sunday morning golfers, they got mulligans when they erred?
If that do-over was in place, here's how the headline would have read for today's breaking news event:
Empty hot-air balloon floats harmlessly over Denver skyline; absolutely no one harmed
At the very least, it would make the news more accurate.
The national media demonstrated again today why they struggle to earn our trust when they led us to believe a six-year-old boy was stuck helplessly in his father's homemade weather chaser, headed for certain injury, until the balloon crashed and we discovered the basket was empty.
Oops.
Did anybody think to search the house before, you know, breaking into daytime soap operas across the country? Or is it now sufficient to accept the word of parents who once traded each other in for a different model?
This is the problem with 24/7 news. They tend to make things news that never should have been made news in the first place because they have the time, so we become desensitized to the important stuff.
Nowadays it takes a story of epic proportions to rattle us out of our talking head-induced daze. We would rather watch television shows about women with pickle cravings who — surprise! — didn't know they were pregnant, or arguing parents with eight kids, because they are more believable than Wolf Blitzer.
I suppose it's like eating ice cream every single day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Eventually you'll get sick of it.
