Ballon Boy: He's six - so what's CNN's excuse?

In the news business, we're used to reporting bizarre stories. We report about life, which often is, as they say, stranger than fiction. The saga of Balloon Boy falls right in there with the strangest of the strange.
For those of you who missed it, the nation was riveted -- driven in part by CNN non-stop video coverage -- as a weird silver object looking way more like a mushroom than a balloon -- whisked its way across the Colorado landscape for some two hours.
CNN's talking heads narrated non-stop the journey of the dipping and diving device, all the while speculating whether the 6-year-old was A) in the balloon B) still alive C) fallen out of the balloon D) at home E) suffered other fate. Watching, I flashed back to a similar second-by-second video chase of a slow-rolling white bronco driving down a California highway.
OJ Simpson.
Balloon Boy.
Non-stop coverage of every twist and turn.
Talking heads with vacant air to fill, often making comments that sounded as if there was more air between their ears than in either the balloon or their time slot.
As I listened to this news report which was long on speculation and short on facts, I had another flashback of the grainy black-and-white video where Walter Cronkite reports the shooting of President Kennedy.
Cronkite's most memorable line -- at least among journalists -- was: Get it right. Not "Get it fast." Cronkite knew reporting news fast is worthless if whatever you get isn't also right.
No doubt about it, CNN's Balloon Boy report was great entertainment. It was a mixture of truth, human drama and pure bull.
Afterward, the public was outraged at the parents, partly I suspect because we'd been taken on a two-hour emotional roller coaster, courtesy of CNN.
In the old days, we called such stuff a fictionalized account based on actual events.
These days, it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.
Great entertainment. Great fun. Just not great reporting.
Meanwhile, let's not forget: Balloon Boy is a 6-year-old. They do and say childish things. Cause THEY'RE SIX. They do things which don't make sense. Cause THEY'RE SIX.
Sadly, we all don't have that same excuse.