Sunday, October 25, 2009, 2:34 PM
Celebrities, In the News, Stop the Presses
By Kevin Moreau

Reality bites

The Sunday Paper was on its way to the printer on Thursday, Oct. 15, as the world sat watching the saga of Falcon Heene, the “balloon boy.” By now, we all know how that little drama played out. If the authorities are correct, Richard Heene exploited his 6-year-old son and perpetrated a hoax on the American public. That’s deplorable. But I, for one, am just as disappointed in the reason Heene allegedly did these things: to get a reality TV show.

Reality television and exploitation go hand in hand. And that’s fine, assuming you’re legally old enough to decide whether to be used.

(For the purposes of this discussion, let’s clarify the terms: I’m not talking about talent competitions like “American Idol” or even “Top Chef,” but that particular strain of the genre in which simultaneously self-hating and self-obsessed bozos and bimbos open up themselves and/or their daily lives for the amusement of others, from “The Osbournes” and “Jon and Kate Plus 8” to “Tool Academy.”)

I doubt that the men and women who’ve laid down their lives for our freedoms would be happy to learn that they died so we could vie for the affections of has-beens on “For the Love of Ray J” or suck some woman’s toes on “The Bachelorette.” But hey, if you’re hell-bent on joining the ranks of the Kardashians, Pratts and other pitiable narcissists, that’s your inalienable, creator-endowed right. Knock yourself out.

But any reasonable human being can’t help but be saddened by all that energy squandered on such shallow aspirations. What happened to the idea of accomplishing something worthwhile, and letting that be its own reward?

Granted, the kind of people who tend to offer themselves up to the reality-TV meat grinder aren’t likely to have the cure for cancer or AIDS rattling around in their brains. And, yes, Richard Heene appears to be a nutcase who wants to commune with extraterrestrials. Still, where would we be today if, say, Jonas Salk had opted to put his considerable intelligence to work in the pursuit of fleeting “fame” instead of developing a polio vaccine? 

Call me skeptical, but I’m not convinced that all the negative publicity surrounding Richard Heene right now means he won’t at some point realize his dream. But I’m hoping the pop-culture industrial complex will exercise some all-too-rare discretion in this case. Besides, we’ve already got reality TV stars willing to exploit their children for fame: They’re called the Gosselins.