"Balloon" Boy Tells CNN: "We Did This For A Show"

dont think for a second that little kid had anything to do with this......facking media whores

I totally agree this white trash family are attention whores. Too bad the kid didn't fall out of the balloon. One less entry point into the gene pool.

that kid needs a serious butt whoopin doing what he did. The amount of recourses, manpower, time and money wasted on his prank.

What a joke of a non story. Don't we have more important issues and problems to discuss?

Blitzer was just being a modern journalist. If you can't ask politicians tough questions, how would you justify doing it to these even-more-pathetic sons o' bitches?

"Man...."

and then you notice how itchy and distracted Dad looks afterwards??

goddamn I hate these people.

Apparently Blitzer did come back and ask about it after a break. Still didn't push it, though, and pretty much apologized for having brought it up... after the father avoided the question and went on about how appalled he was to be asked that.

http://www.thecelebritytruth.com/hoax-claim-balloon-boys-dad-agitated-appalled/0010692

Sully would have known what to do.

www.forgotten-ny.com

Lock 'em all up. The kid, too.

I think it was rather important for Blitzer to not grill the family and the poor kid, who is already obviously being used and abused by his attention-whore parents, on live tv, in the heat of the moment. They're getting theirs anyway!

So how is that Blitzer said that he heard what the kid says, but just went on with the interview as if it meant nothing.

Already had the questions written out, I guess, and couldn't come up with any new ones on his own.

OMG I FUCKING CALLED THIS! (See above)

Attention-grubbing maniac media whores! Poor kids, too.

Did you see how freakin nervous the dad got just now when the kid blows his cover?

I hope that the authorities charge this family for the cost of the balloon chase!

There's something very disturbing about this family. They're like the Osmonds of weird-ass experimental balloon crap.

Maaaaaaan this kid better get an old fashioned ass whoopin.

I would go down to shitfuck Colorado to do it myself but I can't find my weather balloon.

EdEx above got it exactly right.

And they are already on TV being interviewed by CNN.

They say the kid fell asleep in the attic in a box, while we were glued to our TVs thinking he was in the balloon.

"I let Daddy's balloon loose, Im in big trouble, I think its nap time'

Gothamist should just add "and whatever else we find interesting" to that mission statement, so we wouldn't get the pointless "this has nothing to do with NYC" comments all the time.

On the other hand, a pageview is a pageview, so those comments are helping to pay the bills.

brandonz is a dickweed.

White people is Kraaaaazzzyyyy.

We're all lucky it wasn't another kid in a well. White people would be going apeshit about that.

51, I think everyone "likes" the story in general, just don't understand why Gothamist is covering it when it has nothing to do with New York. Which I had understood the "point" of Gothamist was-- NYC local/regional goings-on. It isn't like we aren't all reading about it on every other website already, anyway.

gee 48 comments before you, somebody likes the story.

Was the balloon even capable of holding that much weight?

What's the NYC connection?

I don't read Gothamist to see every single national/international story repeated. Come on, guys.

follow the money

I love this story.

he's alive

This sounds like a Jules Verne sort of story...except for the kid.

Come on people this is Colorado, the state that is working very hard to be the new nuthouse state.

Read the biggest WTF headline news in the last fifteen years and who comes out on top? Colorado. Lets start with Jon Benet and move on to Columbine and etc. etc. etc. The state totally sucks. Not as much as Jersey, but it's right up there.

Maybe the boy released the balloon accidentally, knew he was wrong for doing so, knew his dad would be mad and ran away to avoid being punished.

Not too far fetched.

No way that balloon could have lifted off with a 50+lbs kid in there. A Mythbusters episode showed that to lift a 44lbs kid even a few feet into the air, it would take 3500 helium filled party balloons, much much more than what that thing looked like it could hold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8i7ESjCw3o

My bet is that the kid is hiding somewhere.

Some rough calculations based on the dimensions the Times gave of 20 feet diameter by 7 feet tall give me a volume of about 1500 cubic feet. The lifting capacity of 1500 cubic feet of helium is 92 pounds, so it's plausible. The difference between this and the Mythbusters story is that individual party balloons have a lot of wasted space between them, not to mention a lot of surface area in terms of latex.

150 large party balloons carrying an adult man, a lawn chair, and three 15-gallon barrels full of Kool-Aid:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-080705-lawn-chair-balloonist-pg,0,3417425.photogallery

Granted, bigger than typical balloons but certainly not bigger than 3500 regular balloons. Of course, the weight of the balloons themselves has to be taken into account; this "UFO" probably weighed a lot less empty than those toy balloons did.

Six year olds do the darndest things.

Blame the parents.

PREDICTION: Both kids were playing with balloon, older one tells younger to get in and he will hold tether line while he floats up 20 feet or so and gust of wind rips it from older boys hand. Young guy realizes this at altitude of 50-75 feet and jumps out or tris to slide down rope, he'll be found a few thousand feet from home.

an absolutely tragic story, no doubt about it, but wtf does it have to do with "new york city food, arts, and events"?

gothamist: stick to your purpose or risk diluting it.

Nothing ever happens in New York. Stop crying, nerd.

What exactly would be the possible consequences of taking that "risk"?

Losing out on the highest number of pageviews of anything posted here today? Oooh, scary!

If the kid is stuck inside the balloon and the balloon is filled with helium, he must be laughing his ass off.

Not to worry earthlings. We have come from lightyears away and to capture from you yes. Many waters. Teh child you speak of is our link to your planet. Zorgon and me CharlieMan are aware of your interplanetary probes and we will succeed.

Hopefully it's like that Simpsons episode when Bart was in his room the whole time.

Hate to be cynical without knowing if the kid's okay, but if they were on Wife Swap they might just be looking for more camera time.

family is a bunch of attention whore know-it-alls, doesn't surprise me at all. They probably have him at home in the closet.

close. lol

it's like db cooper without the money. or the bourbon and the black suit.

He went to the future. Flight of the navigator bitches

how would he get out of the balloon, though? it looked pretty sealed up.

Little Falcon obviously faked his own death.

he probably fell out early on and they didnt catch it. what a shitty way to go

The kid jumped out, but noones looking for him b/c they all followed the balloon.

South Park couldnt even make this up....

But they sure will cover it.

MSNBC says they were on Wife Swap last year. Good lord. So basically at this point the kid is either hiding or dead? If my parents were on Wife Swap, I might be either...

shenanigans.

that's one way to tell your kid to get lost.

So I know this is kind of the elephant in the room, but where's the kid?

That's too horrible to imagine - 8000 feet up. If that kid really was in the balloon when it went up...

Breaking news: Monserate found not guilty except for one misdemeanor

no kid inside

No one is inside the balloon.

This is so weird. He's not in it. His name is FALCON. Whaaaat the fuuuuuck?

gee whiz, that's the best science project ever!

No kid..... who called that in? the Dad?

where's the kid?

phew - he's down.

helicopter fly over and push him down...

holy shit! GET HIM! hope this thing eases down...

PS it looks like it was going down and the cameras panned away .. and switched to previous footage

i see the floating disc, is the kid inside it or what

Yeah, there's a little basket under the balloon which the boy is sitting inside of.

Nothing to see here, folks. Just Disney trying to promote their 3D BluRay release of "Up".

I had the check my caledar to make sure it wasn't April 1.

My guess is he'll soon be performing as "Balloon Boy" at a mall near you!

HEY! I first posted the music video angle here in the comments, and you guys just snagged it like that without even "a commenter pointed out" like you do with other stories? Low!

Publicity stunt/hoax. The kid was on WIFE SWAP and here's his music video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBWJXXgaYBo