Why would parents do this?

[cwydro]

Put their child on the Today Show (yesterday) to tell the world what a hero he was in the Colorado shootings.

But he made it all up. Anyone else see that?

[calico1]

1. Yes. But my feeling is he also fooled

his parents. He looked and sounded sincere to me. It's a shame he would use this to get attention for himself.

[zonkers]

2. When did he reveal he made it all up? On the show?

[calico1]

3. I heard it on the evening news last night and

this morning they showed a clip of him admittinig that he lied.

[cwydro]

5. I missed that

and what you said about his fooling his parents may well be true, but I thought it odd even yesterday...I mean why would people go on the national news just to show their son as a hero, when all those other parents are dealing with death, assault, etc....? I don't know; it just seemed odd...like people looking for their 15 minutes of fame.

[cwydro]

4. Meredith Viera

announced it this morning and that was all I heard. Matt Lauer called it "despicable" and I have to agree...

[calico1]

6. I think that too often when something like this

happens the media jumps on a story they think will be popular without checking it out thoroughly first. As far as I know, the kid had called his dad and that's what the dad believed. I don't know how it got to the media though. But even if the family told someone in the media I think stories should be checked out better before airing.

[cwydro]

7. that I totally agree with

...too much in a hurry to get the "scoop". It just never seemed right to me. Can't find anything on it today though...

[Oeditpus Rex]

10. My guess would be

Dad first called the local teevee station, an NBC affiliate, and they did the story. Some "Today" producer then found out about it and said, "We gotta book this kid!"

(I don't know about teevee news, but I'm guessing it works similarly to newspapers, where a list of "top stories" from papers in a chain is available each day for others in the chain to peruse and select from.)

[idgiehkt]

8. Matt Lauer needs to just shut up.

that's about all I have to add.

[cwydro]

9. oh now

I had to agree with him today...and I did like his interview with the chimp...