The story of “Balloon Boy” Falcon Heene has become the newest national joke, the “I’ma let you finish” du jour. While the story is absurd, the media seems to be ignoring the darkest chapter. Recently, Rachel Maddow and Countdown ran humorous segments about the boy’s live vomiting on NBC’s Today Show. They’re not the only ones to make light of this, but they are the straws that broke the camel’s back.

Late yesterday, Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden told reporters that he expects to file criminal charges in the case of 6 year-old “Balloon Boy” Falcon Heene’s non-ride on a runaway helium balloon. He also said that his office was trying to obtain search warrants, and expressed disappointment that they could only file class 3 misdemeanor charges.

The announcement came on the heels of “Balloon Boy” dad Richard Heene’s bizarre press conference, in which he insisted there was “Absolutely no hoax,” then provided reporters a box in which to place their questions.

Balloon Boy Updates Here: Sheriff confirms that the flight was a hoax this afternoon in press conference. Richard Heene, Balloon Dad, will be charged with at least a Class 3 misdemeanor, if not federal charges, according to an announcement by Larimer County Colorado Sheriff Jim Alderden last night.

Richard Heene, the father of the infamous Balloon Boy, called reporters to his house this morning for a press conference of sorts. The man who has had the media, and frankly everyone on the Internet atwitter, made it seem like a big announcement would be made outside his home this morning. Instead, he only told the assembled reporters “Absolutely no hoax” before asking them to put their questions in a box so he could answer them later.

So did you guys hear about that kid and the helium balloon, but he wasn’t really in the balloon at all, and he was hiding the whole time? And it was maybe really just a publicity stunt by his somewhat off kilter family? Oh, you did? Really? Well it turns out he wasn’t just the embodiment of an anticlimax, he was also kind of a ripoff as well. Here are some people who really did some far-out things with balloons:

Wolf Blitzer was handed, on a mylar platter, the scoop of the day – “Balloon Boy”, Falcon Heene, responding to the question of why he hid in the attic so long with a tenuous, “You guys said that we did this for the show.” His father reacted like the jig was up (“Man…”); his mother, holding out hope, pushed back. I immediately sent the tweet “Um, I think the Balloon Boy just said he didn’t come out of hiding because, ‘we did it for a show.’ Wolf, want to check on that?”

Fortunately, “Balloon boy” Falcon Henne was just found alive in an attic. But when it wasn’t certain whether he was dead, the Internet went wild making jokes about him. It doesn’t help that “balloon” is a funny-sounding word and that the craft in question is funny-looking, but the detachedness with which many people treated the possible death of a 6-year-old boy is disturbing.

Cable news took America on a wild ride today reporting of an amazing story of Falcon Henne and his wild balloon ride. Judging by Twitter the early cavalier snark turned to genuine concern when the boy was not found and images of items falling from the aircraft surfaced. Turns out he was hiding in a box in the attic. One can only wonder how much ad revenue the cable newers forfeited in going wall -to-wall — all because a 6-year-old was hiding in the attic?

Cable channels covered the soft landing of the balloon contraption that had earlier been reported to be carrying six year-old Falcon Henne. The balloon was empty at landing, but there was growing concern that the child may have fallen out mid-flight. Thankfully the boy has since been found safe, but the decisions behind the live broadcast of something potentially so gruesome is still worth questioning.

The bottom part of the balloon contraption is reportedly “not very well attached to the balloon” according to a local law enforcement official. Given the real chance that the six year-old on board could fall over 5,000 feet to the ground or even crash into a mountain, shouldn’t cable news cut away from wall-to-wall live coverage? Is a seven-second delay enough to avoid airing a potential tragedy?

As the father of a six year-old boy, I think not.

All three Cable News Channels have gone wall-to-wall in covering the breaking story of the Six year-old boy in Fort Collins, Colorado boy who floated away from the family home on an “experimental aircraft” this morning. Yes, you read that correctly. All channels are currently airing live shots of the floating balloon, leaving cable hosts to fill airtime as best they can.