Hell hath no fury like an infotainment show duped. On Oct. 19, ABC's “Good Morning America” started the week by picking up where it left off the previous Friday. On Monday, GMA wasted over 14 minutes whining about the bogus balloon boy story [1] and his family's lack of “remorse.”
On Oct 16 [1], GMA spent 25 minutes hyping balloon boy, covering every angle by talking to the family, the sheriff, and a former co-worker. Now that it's apparent that the boy had taken them “for a ride,” the morning show wants an apology.
“If you are among those who feel deceived and are waiting for a public apology from the family,” said reporter Ryan Owens, “you may be waiting for a while.”
You may be waiting as long as, say, Rush Limbaugh for an apology from GMA for repeating baseless charges of racism.
On Oct. 13, after news broke that Rush Limbaugh was in the bidding to own the St. Louis Rams, Robin Roberts claimed that “Limbaugh has a history of making racially offensive comments, some directed squarely at NFL players.” She even went so far as to compare Limbaugh to Marge Schott, a baseball owner who spoke favorably of Hitler.
And when it became painfully obvious [2] that the racial comments linked to Limbaugh were false, GMA didn't backtrack. In fact, on Oct. 15, Chris Cuomo [3] simply reported that Limbaugh had been “sacked” in his bid for the St. Louis Rams and then implied it was because of racial comments, saying, “[Limbaugh] had been criticized for past statements about black players."
GMA hasn't addressed the topic since.
So while “Good Morning America” laments that probably no one in the balloon boy family “will ever serve a day in jail,” it doesn't see any harm in falsely accusing a man of racism.
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