SUSPICIOUS MINDS

Was Balloon Boy a Hoax?

CNN slip has observers skeptical of family story.

America wasted two hours of its collective life Thursday following live coverage of a helium balloon said to contain a frightened six-year-old. Now they're demanding answers as to whether it was all a hoax after the boy in question, Falcon Heene, was found hiding in his home the whole time. In a CNN interview on Thursday, Falcon answered a question as to why he didn't reveal himself to his parents even though they were searching the house with authorities by saying to his father: "You had said we did this for a show." Pressed as to whether the child had let the cat out of the bag on a publicity stunt, Falcon's father Richard Heene denied the claim. "I'm kind of appalled after all the feelings that I went through, up and down, that you guys are trying to suggest something else," he said. Local authorities also say they do not believe the story was a hoax, but the press has fixated on the family's history of reality show and YouTube appearances as evidence of a possible motive.