'Experts' should have watched 'Mythbusters'

Experts now question whether there was enough helium in that Heene family balloon to lift a 6-year-old boy off the ground.

Well, duh!

I am not, of course, an expert in helium. Or balloons. Or science of any kind.

But I do watch TV. And I did see the episode of "Mythbusters" in which they tried to get enough lift from helium balloons to float a small child off the ground.

And it took a whole lot more helium than what was in the Heenes' balloon.

The whole thing was ridiculous from the start.

If the family is guilty of perpetrating a hoax on the public (criminal charges are pending), TV is complicit because of its ridiculous, overblown coverage of that hoax.

In particular, CNN humiliated itself not only with its coverage, but with anchorman Rick Gomez's embarrassingly stupid questions.

Like when he asked a "balloon expert," who would have had no possible way of knowing, when the child might have fallen out.

There are a lot of great things about TV news. But this ridiculous "balloon-boy" incident clearly underlined the three greatest flaws of 24-hour news channels:

First, if something has great pictures (like a car chase), it is covered all out of proportion to its importance.

Second, in the rush to be first and get on the air immediately, facts are not checked. It should have been obvious that there could not possibly have been a child in that balloon.

And, third, the talking heads feel compelled to jabber on whether they have anything to say or not. They're repetitive, uninformed and often just foolish.

Like when Gomez asked the nonplussed balloon expert to tell viewers at what altitude the boy would have fallen out of the balloon.

And, while I'm not going to condemn the entire reality-show genre — there are some very good programs out there — this incident also points to how weird things have gotten. Who would have imagined that someone would go to these extremes to land their own reality show?

(It's worth remembering that the folks at TLC — who have gotten a lot of much-deserved criticism for keeping "Jon & Kate Plus 8" on the air — turned down a pitch by the Heenes.)

Much to his credit, Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden admitted to the press that he and his department had been hoodwinked by the Heenes.

"They put on a very good show for us, and we bought it," he said of Richard and Mayumi Heene, parents of the alleged "balloon boy."