Balloon Boy: another symptom in the reality show disease

You want to know the funny thing?

When someone first told me about this story, they said it was the boy in the bubble.

Anyway, I digress.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A couple who frantically told a 911 dispatcher their 6-year-old son had floated off in an inflatable balloon remain in the spotlight, but now it's for a series of bizarre TV interviews about the escapade, a previous 911 call and efforts to land a reality TV show gig.

Sheriff's investigators hoped to talk to Richard and Mayumi Heene again Saturday to resolve lingering questions over whether the drama — with military helicopters scrambling to catch up to the helium balloon and rescue the boy supposedly inside — could have been a hoax.

It turns out little Falcon Heene was hiding in the rafters of the family garage, apparently without his parents or two brothers knowing.

Source: Dan Elliot, Associate Press

This article goes on to tell Richard Heene's bizarre publicity starved history, about how he was on "Wife Swap" several times and how he has made numerous pitches for his own reality shows. This, of course, raises a very pressing question:

Are we too obsessed with reality?

I understand people watch them: truth is stranger than fiction, the human drama and all that. I also understand why the networks keep making them: all the emotion, comedy, and even the ratings of both sitcoms and hour-long-dramas without the need for writers or actors. Yet it seems as if our culture has become some bizarre stage where every octo-parent, d-grade celebrity, pick up artist or Highway Tattoo artist vies for national attention. This is all well and good, except for one problem:

This is not reality.

How many Tattoo parlors do you know operate out of a cross country bus? How many Parents would set out in there mind to have 8 kids in one go? How many single people will honestly spend weeks at a time, forgoing work, family, and friends, just to compete with a group of strangers over the affection of some person who they don't even know if they like. These people are structuring our lives around the hope of national attention. And when they do, there are no shortage of people ready to chastise them.

Yet whose fault is it really? Who keeps watching these shows and getting drawn into the weave of their dramas. Octomom wasn't vying to get on televisions in front of empty chairs. Jon & Kate's divorce didn't draw so much attention because of neighborhood gossip. And Richard Heene didn't set up a "science experiment" in front of a camera with no film. We judge these people, yet we created the media culture that encourages them to perform.

If you wish to see who really started all this, turn the camera around.