Balloons and the ethics of hoaxing
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last five days, you’ve seen the ‘Balloon Boy’ story, in which a Colorado family claimed that their 6-year-old son had climbed into a homemade helium balloon which then floated across the nation’s television screens for the next four hours. When the balloon finally crash-landed, would-be rescuers discovered the boy had never been in the balloon, but had purportedly been hiding out in his family’s attic. Over the weekend, the local sheriff accused the Heene family of deliberately hoaxing the public.
We’re joined by famous hoaxter Joey Skaggs; Skaggs has been pulling off hoaxes since the 1960s, and he claims that his website, The Art of the Prank, was one of the first to claim this as a hoax. He agrees that the Heene story feels like a scam and says it violates all the ethical rules of hoaxters.
The story you just read is available to read for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, the reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
When you make a gift of $10 or more a month, we’ll invite you to a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of our newsroom to thank you for being with The World.