What did Denver TV stations covered that they were overeager?”
The story started with a phone call to Channel 9 shortly before 11:30 a.m. A panicked father reported that his homemade helium balloon was aloft with his son inside and asked the station to send a helicopter to track it. The station complied, and a sensational TV story, in both senses of the word, was launched. Terrific visuals of what looked like a flying Mylar muffin kept viewers glued to screens through a day of frantic coverage centered on 6-year-old Falcon Heene and the family’s loosed balloon. Longer than a freeway chase, more cinematic than news of a child trapped down a well, the balloon voyage was utterly transfixing as stations bounced from helicopter to Heene driveway scenes. Cable news picked up Denver stations’ footage, and international networks joined the nerve-wracking coverage. And on it went, with TV news reporting, retracting, recapping and updating the trauma minute by minute. TV anchors called for prayer. Experts theorized about the danger of asphyxiation. Could th
