This clip’s better than the one I posted in Headlines last night. Blitzer does follow up after the kid blurts out something about a show, and dad … gets awfully defensive. Maybe the kid simply meant that they built the balloon in the first place with an eye to appearing on some reality or science show? (Which might explain why the brothers were videotaping the backyard.) That makes no sense in the context of the question, admittedly, but that’s six-year-olds for you. On the other hand, after a long, traumatic day in which at least one of their kids outright lied to them about whether his brother was in the balloon or not, it’s … odd that the parents were holding full family media availabilities with CNN mere hours later, no?
To clarify one lingering ambiguity being kicked around in comments last night: The reason the parents didn’t speak up and tell anyone that there was no box/basket attached to the balloon while the media was still reporting that the boy might be trapped inside is that the basket was attached during the whole flight. There was a lot of confusion about that yesterday, but the cops finally said last night that it was still on there when the balloon crashed. So, yeah, the parents might genuinely have thought he was inside. Might.
Update: More context from the CBC. Question: If it is a stunt, why would the parents run the risk of having the kids spill the beans by letting them field questions from the media?
