Balloon Boy Family to Face Charges

Backed off when judge ruled family couldn't profit from hoax

(NEWSER) - ABC News was just about to pay the family of "balloon boy" Jason Heene $10,000 for a video of their stunt and an interview before a judge ruled last month that the family couldn't profit from their hoax. "ABC pulled the story because it didn't want the scrutiny," a source told the New York Post . NBC has recently come under heat for "pay-for-play" perks to news sources. More»

He's the 'inevitable product' of our era

(NEWSER) - A little sympathy for the Balloon Boy dad, please. Yes, he "grotesquely" put his kids through hell, but he’s also a fitting emblem—and the “inevitable product”—of our time, writes Frank Rich. Richard Heene gave us a fake spectacle that reflects our era much as “War of the Worlds” did on the eve of WWII. It's not his fault we live in an age in which “news, reality television and reality itself are hopelessly scrambled, and the warp-speed imperatives of cable-Internet competition allow no time for fact checking.” More»

(NEWSER) - Just about everyone seems to hate Richard Heene, but the emotion just proves how powerfully the balloon boy hoax gripped our collective imagination. “Had Richard called 911 and reported that he’d last seen his son near a Greyhound bus station, almost nobody would have cared,” writes Brandon Keim for True/Slant. But balloons still hold a thrill. More»

More bizarre background on 'Balloon Boy' dad Richard Heene comes out

(NEWSER) - Richard Heene’s totally sensible motivation for his balloon hoax: He “believes the world is going to end in 2012," explained a lawyer for one of Heene’s researchers, who police recently interviewed. "Because of that he wanted to make money quickly, become rich enough to build a bunker or something underground, where he can be safe from the sun exploding,” the Telegraph reports. More on Heene: More»

Flight delays at Denver airport during caper could result in fines

(NEWSER) - The Federal Aviation Administration is the latest agency to start its own investigation of last week’s Colorado balloon circus, with authorities looking into delays at Denver International Airport during the craft’s flight. And while local law enforcement wants criminal charges against the Heene family, any FAA violations would most likely draw fines or civil penalties, a rep tells the Coloradoan. More»