You See What Happens When I Give Someone the Benefit of the Doubt?

Clearly the Heene family has a screw (or several) loose. But when I last posted here on Friday, I wasn't 100 percent convinced that the parents had intentionally perpetrated a hoax on the American public, blatantly toying with our emotions in order to secure a reality show contract to become another Jon and Kate, as if they're not enough of a cautionary tale.

Perhaps the kids messed up, I thought, and the 10-year-old mistakenly thought he saw his brother on board that homemade helium balloon while 6-year-old Falcon Heene hid in fear because his dad had yelled at him. I thought it was possible. I wasn't ready to put the cuffs on 'em right away, though the whole thing looked mighty odd.

If there was one thing of which I WAS convinced, however, it was that Richard and Mayumi Heene were certainly guilty of bad parenting, as demonstrated by the Friday morning news interviews they continued to do while their youngest son -- aka faux "balloon boy" -- was literally puking. What kind of a parent keeps going while the kid is sick? The Wife Swap debacles, where the parents encouraged wretched behavior, as well as the rap video with the boys saying manner of awful garbage were solid evidence that the Heenes were poster children for bad parenting.

Then over the weekend, the local sheriff confirmed what many, including myself suspected even though, prior to this, we had no solid proof on which to pin their guilt:

"They put on a very good show for us, and we bought it," the sheriff said Sunday morning, according to the New York Times following a search of the family's home and computers, as well as new interviews with each Heene individually. And as a result, the Wife Swap lunatics may be charged with three felony counts including conspiracy to commit a crime, contributing to the deliquency of a minor and an attempt to influence a public servant, as well as the misdemeanor charge of filing a false police report, according to the New York Times. Children's protective services has also gotten involved in the case.

I further read this morning that Richard and Mayumi met in ACTING class and that they'd been shopping around a reality TV show and had thus far failed. Listening to the 9-1-1 tape, the Heenes seemed to be experiencing parental anguish, which makes me even more angry that I spent even a minute of my life feeling sorry for the heart ache I thought they experienced. But, according to police, it was all bogus. Planned in advance.

Apparently Falcon Heene was the only one telling the truth when he said on CNN that the reason he hid (where, it's still not clear) was because, as he said to his father, "You guys said that we did this for the show."

I think Saturday Night Live put this whole, God-awful mess into the right context:

Faux Balloon Boy Mess Seems . . . Um, Odd, Doesn't It?

Once the world learned yesterday that the 6-year-old Colorado boy, Falcon Heene, was NOT inside that homemade helium balloon which flew 50 miles away from his home and crashed into a field, that the kid was safe hiding in his attic, everyone breathed a sigh of relief . . . after all the cable networks went wall-to-wall with live coverage of the runaway balloon after which the U.S. military sent a Black Hawk helicopter and other aircraft, and for which the FAA grounded take-offs in the area. The child's older brother had told authorities that he thought his younger brother was on board the balloon.

Then we started learning other things about the family, which apparently spends spare time chasing storms and inventing things. Videos of them on the reality show Wife Swap surfaced, as did a "rap video" the three young Heene boys did.

Then it got even weirder.

They went on CNN last night and, when the boy was asked why he hid from his family, Falcon said, "We did this for a show." (The CNN clip is shown in the Today Show segment below.)

This morning, the Heene family did the circuit of morning talk shows. During NBC's Today Show, Falcon threw up. Did the family cut the interview short? Nope. The interview continued, thoug Meredith Vieira offered to take a break and return once the family had gathered itself together, much too late for my tastes. The Heene family also did another interview on ABC's Good Morning America even though their son was physically ill. Diane Sawyer had to suggest to the Heenes that perhaps one of them should go after the 6-year-old who ran away from the camera while puking. After his mother helped him in the bathroom -- vomiting clearly heard over the microphones -- the mom and Falcon RETURNED to sit in front of the camera. Here's the link to the Good Morning America interview.

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The Heene family also released a video of the moment when the balloon took off yesterday.

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Am I simply a jaded cynic to suggest that something just does not seem right here?

UPDATE: My Mommy Tracked column on this whole saga is now up on Mommy Tracked.