This isn’t just about the Balloon Boy and that his odd first name of “Falcon” is remeniscent of those odd first names Sarah Palin gave to her kids. But it is about those 15 minutes of fame Palin is seeking to extend through whacked out Facebook entries and ghost written books, and how her attmpts at fame aren’t all that different than Heene’s. It’s also about the American fascination with the specter of tragedy, as is constantly reported by Nancy Grace. The Heene’s reportedly staged that balloon event this weekend, according to police, and will be charged. They likely had Nancy Grace on the edge of her seat wondering about ratings and the like. The over/under on days Nancy Grace features this story is 15, by the way, and the next few days could see that line increase, so make your bets now.
Of course, all of the above is bad for kids, and this trend of people going for the brass ring of cheap fame didn’t start with Sarah Palin and her American Idol candidacy, nor was Nancy Grace the first to latch onto the suffering of people to pull ratings (usually white people, as evidenced by this article). No, the explosion of reality shows doesn’t mark the first time Americans have shown a willingness to do anything for even a feeting bit of fame, but this crap seems to be permeating the culture, with shows about Octomom, Jon and Kate Plus Eight, about Pauly Shore adopting a baby from Africa, and even about families swapping Moms. Oh yeah, the Heenes were on that show, and you can get video of that, with little Falcon swearing a blue streak, on Gawker, along with video of Mr. Heene taking the kids out to chase tornados. Heck, here you can find the Heene kids in a homemade hate video. There’s a guy out there confessing to helping Richard Heene concoct the balloon hoax, and also a video where Richard Heene accuses Hillary Clinton of being a replicant.

OK, I know what somebody is going to say, that the Heene family is simply nuts and that we’ve always had nuts. My claim is that they are nuts who grew at the cloverleaf where the Conservative Highway meets the Reality Show Turnpike with the news media hysteria bearing down on them. There’s a ton of blame to go around here, and while if I were judge and jury out there in the Rocky Mountain state I just might take those kids away from Mr. Heene, I’m thinking this should be about those other influences as well. Hey, it couldn’t be just about a man with money troubles who decides to use his kids to help raise the cash illegally, could it?

How do I blame reality TV? I sat in California talking to a perfectly reasonable mother just two days ago. I’ve not seen finer kids than hers, and yet the three of them, mother and children, had an extended conversation about the relative merits of various American Idol contestants and about whether the supposed underdog nobodies would end up selling records. That’s the thing with these shows, they’re used by American families as a kind of lottery, a pie in the sky dream that elbows hard work and responsibility out of they way. If you’re a big enough nutcase, like a William Hung or Sarah Palin, you just might cash in. Sure, there’s been a sucker born every minute since PT Barnum coined the phrase, but Reality TV basically encourages people to be suckers. The problem here is that they drag their kids along the way, teaching them the values of reality TV, that it is better to be a whackjob than to do honest work.

Of course I can always blame conservatives. It surprises me not one little bit that Richard Heene has whackjob theories about Hillary Clinton. The ENTIRE GOP HAS WHACKJOB THEORIES ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON! The GOP has been a reality TV show since the mid 90’s, and they even ran Sarah Palin as the first Reality TV candidate. Seriously, what was the difference between Paris Hilton on a farm and the folks in line waiting to see Sarah Palin? Oh, I get it. Sarah Palin has a more normal name than Paris, though she made up for that in the names of her kids, didn’t she? Track? Willow? And every time Palin opened her mouth she sounded like Miss South Carolina, that there, ummm, err. . . everywhere like such as. It takes a certain kind of stupid, which has been cultivated by conservatives in this country, to imagine Reality TV as a career.

The whole Balloon Boy incident drives me nuts. It shows more than anything the nexus from which the coarsening of this country is being driven. No, it ain’t violence on TV and it ain’t condoms or abortion or gays marrying and destroying marriage. It’s reality TV, from Bill O’Reilly to Fear Factor, that’s to blame. And the dumbing down of America by Fear Factor. And NANCY GRACE and the fear show. Let’s throw in 24 and the Homeland Security color coded threat level system and hysteria about kidnapped children and Amber Alerts, etc. If TV isn’t promoting blatant unreality and fantasy with “Reality” TV, then it’s set out to scare the bejesus out of watchers with shows like Nancy Grace. Go ahead, take a look at the front page of her web site. There are at least 20 stories there about people in dire trouble. She’s got dead high schoolers, dead Moms, missing kids. Nancy Grace’s show feeds viewers the kind of danger drug they need to get through the day and forget that the mortgage payment is late or that the car got scratched. Is it any wonder parents won’t let their kids out of their sight? And if they don’t, will those kids ever really grow up?

OK, this is mostly a rant, but my perspective changed a bit when I became a Dad. Sure, I always thought that we pamper kids too much and that there was such a nexus of fear out there that it is likely ruining millions of children. Remember, I worked teaching college for over 20 years, and I saw the result of the fear, the poor educational system, etc. I’ve seen the deterioration of the minds of young people up close and personal. I was a bit worried before I became a Dad, and now I’m petrified about our country, but I’m petrified not because of the exaggerated fears promoted by the GOP or by Nancy Grace, but by the GOP and Nancy Grace, and by Reality TV. I’m terrified for my son. If a man can actually raise his kids to think it is OK to pretend to be stranded in a balloon all for the sake of getting on TV, then we’ve got big problems. As of now I have no solutions for those problems, but here’s a couple things. Starting today my house is Teality TV free, we will not even consider pretending conservative whackjob positions are remotely worth debate, and we will use the fearmongers, such as Grace and Beck et. al, as a source of laughter. I will tell my son Nancy Grace is a comedian, and hope he grows to understand thetime in our history when black comedy played such a critical role in our body politic. Hey, either that or we’ll head off to a remote island for Jack’s education.