See?!?!? This is exactly what I meant.

Oy, vey. From People:

Three days after the nation watched the televised image of a silver flying saucer-shaped balloon traveling across the Colorado sky, it turns out the saga of the balloon boy may have been all hot air.

"It has been determined this was a hoax. It was a publicity stunt," Larimer County, Colo., Sheriff Jim Alderden told reporters Sunday. He said no arrests will be made until the investigation is complete.

Alderden said the hoax was hatched more than two weeks ago by either one or both of 6-year-old Falcon Heene's parents as a means of landing their own reality TV show. Authorities are investigating whether others are involved.

Let me get this straight. Two people coerced their young son into abetting their depraved lust for fame, to the point that he was instructed to lie to law enforcement personnel and the media. When asked about what happened, the poor child became so upset he vomited on air. Twice.

What the holy hell is wrong with you awful, awful people?!?

As I've mentioned recently, fame is not good for small children, particularly when it invades and corrodes their families. I don't want to beat a dead horse, so I'm going to stop now and take some slow, deep breaths. But maybe our national craze for cramming television cameras in people's homes has reached kind of a crisis point, and we should look elsewhere for our entertainments.