Skip to content
Culture & Religion

Balloon Ruse?

An accident full of hot air.
Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Gawker claims that “all the naysayers seem to have been right. Little Falcon Heene, who will now forever be immortalized as the balloon boy who sparked a media sensation, appeared on Larry King [last night] and spilled the beans: it was a ruse!” The website claims a “confused” Falcon unwittingly dropped his family’s cover. “Explaining why he didn’t come out of hiding when he heard his parents calling his name, blurted, ‘You guys said, that, um, we did this for the show.’ [Gawker] assumes he’s referring to Wife Swap, a show upon which the family has appeared twice.” His father later said he was “simply appalled” by intimations the boy’s disappearance was a stunt.

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Related

Up Next