Last week, KUSA-TV in Denver got a call from a man who sounded frantic about his “missing” 6-year-old son who he said had climbed inside a helium-filled balloon. People around the country would soon turn to the news station for local coverage of what quickly became a national story.
I talked with Patti Dennis, the station’s vice president/news director, to find out more about how award-winning KUSA-TV decided to cover the story. Dennis has led the station’s coverage of difficult stories before, including the Columbine shootings.
Al Tompkins: Tell us how your newsroom handled the call from Richard Heene. Before you put the story on the air, what did you do to try to figure out if the story was real?
Patti Dennis: Richard Heene called the newsroom at 11:05 a.m. In hysterics, he told our assignment manager that his son had floated away in a helium balloon shaped like a flying saucer and asked if we could launch Sky9 to find him. The manager kept pressing Heene about whether this was really true.
Heene told the manager that he called us and his wife was calling 911. The manager asked for a phone number and told him he was going to talk with the news director. The manager came into my office pretty wound up about a flying saucer floating away over Fort Collins with the 6-year-old boy inside. It took me a few minutes to even get a grasp of what he was saying.
Our desk was already calling Fort Collins police and the Larimer County Sheriff’s office. When we did not get immediate confirmation, I asked for Heene’s number so I could call him. He identified himself and told me that his son was floating away after accidentally getting inside their helium-filled, saucer-shaped balloon. I told him I did not believe him.
I asked him why he wasn’t following the balloon in his car. Heene told me that “they” told him to stay put. I asked for his son’s name and what school he attended, as I thought this would help us cross-reference his story. Then I asked him why he hadn’t called police, and Heene told me the officer was there. I told Heene to put the officer on the phone.
The officer got on and I asked for his name. I told him I didn’t believe him and thought he might be part of this. I told him we would absolutely use our helicopter if this was real. Then I asked for his name, badge number and his supervisor’s name. At that time, Officer Jake Bowser told me “Ma’am, this is the real deal.”
It was 11:52 a.m. and just as he said that, one of our managers got the call back from the Larimer County Sheriff’s PIO that they were beginning a missing child search in a balloon. We launched the helicopter, sent an e-mail blast, text message, posted a Web story and topped the noon news with the story and a map.
We had our first Sky9 live pictures at 12:09 p.m. and our first sighting of the flying saucer balloon at 12:34 p.m.
Did anybody in your newsroom recognize Heene before you went on the air? Did you know who you were dealing with?
Dennis: No one recognized his name, but viewers quickly started e-mailing us to say that he was on the TV show “Wife Swap.” One of our investigative producers did an archive search just on a hunch and found out he and his wife were on our morning show in 2007 doing a demonstration of how to build miniature rockets.
You have a coverage agreement with KMGH-TV. How did that agreement figure into your decision to go live?
Dennis: We treated this “tip” as an enterprise story, so we decided it was ours until other stations found out. But as soon as KMGH-TV learned of the breaking news, we shared the helicopter equally. They were on the air quickly and used all the same live video as we did.
What precautions did you take not to show a terrible crash-landing or a kid falling out of the balloon?
Dennis: I was in the control room during the entire event and we talked about what to do. We do not have a delay in the system, so we were just prepared to switch off the live video as it was landing. As it turned out, the balloon was making a very slow descent, so we decided to stay with it the entire time.
How does a story like this affect your news judgment? It must be tempting not to believe anyone anymore.
Dennis: I think we have always had a good dose of skepticism and continue to do so. We pressed Heene hard on this report from the first call and in the call I made to the Heene house. We decided that when officials tell us there is an emergency, we have a moral obligation to use our resources and ability to inform the public as quickly as we can. These are not easy calls to make.
During Columbine, the volume of viewer calls about seeing police, fire and ambulances at Columbine High School gave me confidence that something was going on that was going to be news. You have to ask as many questions as possible, be skeptical and use your gut!
Here is a softball, open-ended question, but what can you teach us about what you learned from this story?
Dennis: There are more and more people who are likely to fool and manipulate the media. You must have a process of vetting the consumer contributions to journalism. Everyone in the newsroom must be diligent in checking tips and calls. We get hundreds of tips each week.
We spend a lot of time trying to determine if there is a story and how to work around the agenda the news tipper probably has. Nothing too profound, but just sound journalism in an age where everyone gets to play.
Disclosure: I have taught ethics and producing courses with Dennis, here at Poynter and on the road. She is a friend of mine. I have also said, when interviewed, that I believe KUSA-TV acted responsibly and reasonably in its live coverage of the Balloon Boy incident.
