Posts Tagged ‘cnn’

The search for balloon boy sent the nation into panic as everyone feared the beloved boy from the Henne family named “Falcon” had died in the balloon launch.

Things were fine for the family after Falcon was found hiding in his attic until the child went off script during an interview and admitted he did everything for “the show.”
Balloon Boy Saga A Hoax

Now there are many people who are angry that a pair of crazy reality show parents who appeared on Wife Swap and filmed their children to appear in vulgar profanity filled music video pulled a publicity stunt to get their own reality show.
“Balloon Boy” Falcon Henne Admits: “We Did This For The Show”

This is so criminal and the kids to need to be with this two people who are poor excuses for parents. Balloon boy’s father even had the nerve to try and verbally attack Wolf Blitzer for asking Falcon about his remark concerning the reality show. No wonder the poor kid threw up on TV because he is terrified of his father.

Balloon Boy’s Father To CNN: “I’m Appalled At You!”

Does Richard Heene actually have to put Falcon in the balloon before Colorado takes those kids away?

We’ve had enough of this couple, who thought it would be fun to fool the country into believing their 6-year-old son was in that runaway balloon – a hoax that had us all holding our breath.

Authorities need to take little Non-Balloon Boy and his brothers Bradford and Ryo out of that mini-Creedmoor – pronto.

The kids were practically blinking out hostage messages during the family’s press conferences last week. After being used Thursday – as the whole world watched, fearing Falcon was dead – they were forced to endure even more media Friday.

All because their attention-craving dad, Richard Heene, hadn’t gotten enough the day before.

After Falcon outed him Friday when he said, “It was for the show,” Heene froze up, and the body language between father and son was deafening.

Guess 6-year-old Falcon was too young to stick to the script like his older brothers. Their parents brainwashed the kids into a hoax because of their desperate need for attention.

In 2003, when sons Bradford, now 9, and Ryo, 8, were toddlers, Heene created a show called “Boxtime: Playhouse” with the cameras pointed at them – and himself, of course.

The couple regularly pulled their sons out of school whenever they wanted to chased a hurricane or tornado – some 30 to 40 times a year. Heene would have them video the torrents – and himself – and post it all to YouTube or his MySpace page.

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• “Balloon Boy declared a hoax” and related posts (theblemish.com)
• Balloon Boy Halloween Costume Idea (manolith.com)
• Balloon stunt in works for months: report (cbc.ca)
• Balloon boy saga a ‘hoax,’ police say (cbc.ca)
• Runaway balloon a ‘publicity stunt,’ sheriff says (thestar.com)
• Balloon boy says “we did this for a show,” vomits live on TV; dad says he’s “appalled” (realityblurred.com)
• Is Falcon Fibbing? (takepart.com)
• Runaway-Balloon Family May Land In Court (blogs.wsj.com)

We are happy to report that poet laureate Maya Angelou is alive and well. A false TMZ report stated that the respected 80 something writer had been rushed to the hospital after a speaking engagement.  TMZ posted an update that they were told the wrong information. We send our best wishes to Ms. Angelou. We are glad to hear she is safe at home.
Octogenarian poet Maya Angelou was alive and well on Sunday, despite the dire overnight reports of online gossip site TMZ and a panicked army of Twitter followers.

TMZ reported on Saturday night that the prolific writer was hospitalized earlier in the evening ahead of a scheduled appearance at an awards show in Los Angeles.maya2 The report spread like wildfire through cyberspace, and Angelou became the top trending topic on Twitter as anguished members of the microblogging site passed around the news. Some morbid scribes added an “R.I.P.” for good measure.

The only problem is that 81-year-old Angelou was not ill, and was nowhere near Los Angeles. She was about 1,800 miles away in her hometown of St. Louis.

TMZ updated its story on Sunday to say that Angelou was never scheduled to appear at the event. It blamed the erroneous report on event organizers, saying that someone had told one of its cameramen that Angelou was a no-show because she had been hospitalized.

The online gossip community has had a mixed track record with recent deaths and mishaps. The emergence of Twitter means that such reports now get amplified. TMZ got the worldwide scoop on the death of Michael Jackson in June, but wrongly reported the following month that former UFC superstar Kimo Leopoldo had died. Last month, gossip columnist Perez Hilton claimed that former Charlie’s Angels star Jaclyn Smith had tried to commit suicide. It appeared to be a case of mistaken identity. Hilton also suggested in 2007 that Fidel Castro had died.

The thousands of lucky Michael Jackson fans on the planet who won a lottery ticket to the King of Pop’s funeral were notified via email.

It seems only too fitting for tickets for Michael Jackson’s memorial to be handed out in a Willa Wonka-like fasion.

More than 1.6 million MJ fans registered for free tickets to the King of Pop’s Tuesday memorial service, and the winners began finding out Sunday afternoon.

“I’m in shock that it has happened,” Deka Motanya, 27, of San Francisco told The Associated Press. “It’s surreal.”

She received an email Sunday afternoon simply saying, “Congratulations, your application was successful.”

She responded instantly on Twitter: “OMG OMG OMG OMG i got tickets to the michael jackson memorial service!!!”

Fans had from 10 a.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Saturday to register for a pair of tickets to the service, which will take place at the Staples Center, a sports complex in downtown Los Angeles.

A random draw selected 8,750 names and each person selected will receive two tickets.

Winners will be assigned a unique barcode and instructions for picking up their tickets on Monday. They will receive both a ticket and a wristband, both of which must be displayed to gain entry to the service.

According to Jackson family spokesperson Ken Sunshine, AEG, the company that owns and operates the Staples Center, will “scrub” the entries to remove duplicates and ensure none have been generated by automated systems. This will ensure scalpers don’t get their hands on tickets, he said.

Fans not selected in the draw have one other opportunity to attend the memorial. About 6,500 tickets will be given away for the overflow section at the Nokia Theater, which is next door.

After an overwhelming amount of Michael Jackson fans registered over the weekend for free tickets to the King of Pop’s memorial the tickets have been released, and the winning registrants have been notified.

“The Insider” confirms that ticket winners received vouchers from Ticketmaster via e-mail, and were instructed to pick up their tickets Monday June 6 at Dodger Stadium.

Winners were determined by a random drawing of 8,750 of the total number of registrants. Those selected will receive two tickets to the memorial service Tuesday June at either the Staples Center, or the live simulcast at the Nokia Theatre.

1.6 million people signed up for the lottery for tickets to the King of Pop’s public memorial service. Registration began on Friday, July 3 at 10 a.m. PT and ended on July 4 at 6 p.m.

The memorial service will be televised with live broadcast coverage.

At 12 days and counting, the length of coverage has already run longer than anyone’s idea of a state funeral. Tuesday, the degree of saturation of TV coverage on the death of Michael Jackson reaches the boiling point.

All of the major networks and cable channels will be offering live coverage of the Jackson memorial service starting at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Staples center in Los Angeles.

NBC had looked as if it would skip live coverage and go only with a one-hour prime-time special Tuesday night. But network executives changed their plans Sunday, and announced that NBC will join ABC and CBS in covering the memorial service live.

Meredith Vieira will anchor NBC’s coverage of the memorial service, as well as serving as co-host of Tuesday’s Today show from the Staples Center. ABC has Charles Gibson penciled in at the anchor desk in New York for its full court press Tuesday afternoon.

CBS didn’t announce live coverage of the memorial service until Monday, but it already had Katie Couric in Los Angeles anchoring the CBS Evening News from the Staples Center. She will be out front on its live memorial broadcast starting at 1.

In addition to Couric’s newscast, CBS has also been doing its Early Show out of the Staples Center since Monday. And there is a prime-time Jackson hour planned for Tuesday night with Couric as host. Among the networks, none gets the importance of this story more clearly than CBS.

Expect nonstop coverage on MSNBC, Fox and CNN throughout the day — unless there is a huge breaking story elsewhere. The 24/7 cable channels were among the first to announce plans to cover the memorial service live.

CNN, which has enjoyed a strong ratings surge for its Jackson programming, lists its coverage as starting at 6 a.m. with Kiran Chetry anchoring American Morning from Los Angeles. The memorial itself will become the focus at noon with Don Lemon continuing to anchor CNN’s coverage from Los Angeles. He will be joined there by Soledad O’Brien, Anderson Cooper and Larry King.

Several of CNN’s sister channels — HLN, CNN International and CNN en Espanol — will also be carrying the memorial live. Robin Meade, A.J. Hammer and Jane Velez-Mitchell will anchor the coverage at HLN (formerly Headline News).

Just as it did for the inauguration of President Barack Obama, CNN will again team up with Facebook Connect so that Internet users can watch CNN coverage online as they update their Facebook status or communicate with friends using the CNN.com live video player. That coverage starts at 8:30 a.m.

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We are saddened, shocked and devastated by the tragic news that Michael Jackson died on Thursday at the age of 50.  We will always remember and cherish Michael Jackson as a musical genius and hail him as the King of Pop.  There will not be another talent who has done so much with his music. Michael Jackson changed the world. The King of Pop was planning to stage a comeback tour in July.  Our condolences and prayers go to the Jackson family and to Michael Jackson’s children who have lost their father. We hope that Michael can now rest in peace.  Many celebrities have released statements including Madonna.

“I can’t stop crying over the sad news. I have always admired Michael Jackson. The world has lost one of the greats, but his music will live on forever!

My heart goes out to his three children and other members of his family. God bless.”

- Madonna

Jermaine Jackson Press Conference on Michael Jackson’s Death

Michael Jackson’s brother says it’s believed that the pop star died of cardiac arrest.

Jermaine Jackson cautioned at a hospital press conference Thursday that the cause of his death would not be known until an autopsy was performed.

He said Michael Jackson’s personal doctor and paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his rented home in Holmby Hills. A team of doctors at UCLA Medical Center also tried for more than an hour.

Los Angeles police Lt. Gregg Strenk said at a separate news conference that police robbery-homicide detectives have been ordered to investigate, which is common in a high-profile case. Strenk says the coroner’s office, which will handle inquiries into the type of death, is taking possession of the body.

Michael Jackson, the singer, has died after suffering a suspected cardiac arrest. He was 50.

Paramedics who responded to an emergency call to his home in Los Angeles said that he had stopped breathing by the time they arrived.

Sources at the UCLA Medical Centre said that the self-styled “King of Pop” did not come out of a coma and died.

Jackson’s  mother and other relatives had rushed to the singer’s bedside at the hospital, while tearful fans gathered outside.

Earlier, the singer’s father Joe said he had been told his son was “in a bad way”. Other unnamed family members said that Jackson “was in really bad shape”.

Jackson is widely credited with revolutionising pop music with albums including Bad and Thriller, but his career was tainted with allegations of child abuse.

He was due to perform a highly-anticipated 50-date “farewell” residency at the O2 Arena in Greenwich, south London, starting next month. Fears for his health emerged after he postponed the first dates.

Jackson lived as a virtual recluse following his 2005 acquittal on charges including child molestation and plotting to kidnap his young accuser. Despite his acquittal, the trial was a body blow from which the pop superstar struggled to recover.

Four years later, Jackson is still worshipped by fans and lauded by critics, for his infectious, dance pop music. The attention, however, paid to him in recent years has been less flattering, focusing on repeated cosmetic surgery – which he always denied – his baby-dangling antics and a decade of child abuse claims.

His friend, the performer Uri Geller, said last night there had been no indication that the singer was in such a frail condition.

“I’m absolutely devastated and shocked. I really have no words,” he said. “He was a young and terribly fit man and he was getting ready for performances in England. He was just fine, the last I heard.”

Matt Blank from the Michael Jackson World Network fan club said he was “a bit dumfounded and a bit shellshocked by it all”.

He added: “I find it hard to believe this could be a reality.

“In the past, health issues of Michael Jackson have always been rumoured. I can only imagine this is down to the amount of stress he was under to come out and perform.”

He added: “It’s just unimaginable that Michael Jackson is no more, it’s just unbelievable.”

Brian Oxman, a Jackson family lawyer, told CNN he was told by the star’s brother, Randy Jackson, that he had collapsed at his home in west Los Angeles.

A cardiologist at UCLA told showbiz website TMZ.com that Jackson died of cardiac arrest after failing to respond to attempts at resuscitation. It also said his sister LaToya ran into the hospital sobbing.

A spokesman for the hospital declined to comment.

Jackson last toured 12 years ago when he played 82 shows in 58 cities for the HIStory tour. He has spent time living outside the United States since his 2005 acquittal on child molestation charges.

AEG Live, which organised the O2 concerts, said Jackson had passed a lengthy physical exam in early 2009, before the London concerts were announced.

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• Singer Michael Jackson dies in LA (news.bbc.co.uk)
• BREAKING: Michael Jackson Dies, According to Reports (cinematical.com)
• Pop icon Michael Jackson dies at 50 (ctv.ca)
• Michael Jackson Dead (mediabistro.com)

We send our condolences to the family members and relatives of this latest tragedy.  Air France has confirmed that the missing plane has crashed.

Air France confirms the plane crash

An Air France plane feared to have crashed in the Atlantic with 228 people aboard reported electrical problems in stormy weather before it lost contact, the airline said Monday, describing the loss as a “catastrophe.”

Officials said the Airbus A330-200 sent automated messages of electrical failure and pressure loss as it hit turbulence, vanishing from the radar early in its flight from Rio de Janeiro to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

Brazil and France have scrambled search and rescue aircraft on both sides of the Atlantic, but with a vast area to scour, there were dwindling hopes of finding survivors.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said most of the passengers are Brazilian, and about 40 are French.

“It doesn’t change anything; they’re all victims,” he told reporters at Charles de Gaulle, where he had arrived to meet with relatives of the missing.

Air France said earlier that 80 Brazilians and 73 French citizens were on the missing flight, CNN affiliate TV Globo reported.

The loss of a relatively new model of one of the aviation sector’s most reliable and state-of-the-art aircraft has stunned analysts who say it would take extremely violent weather to bring down such a large jet.

Former Airbus pilot John Wiley told CNN that speculation lightning had brought down the plane was likely to prove unfounded since most modern passenger aircraft were capable of withstanding direct strikes.

The last known contact with the plane — carrying 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby, plus the crew — was at 0133 GMT Monday (8:33 p.m. Sunday ET), according to the Brazilian Air Force.

Brazil says it has launched two air force squadrons to hunt near the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha in the Atlantic Ocean, 365 kilometers (226 miles) from its coast, although the plane vanished outside the country’s radar coverage.

The Air Force said the jet was last logged flying at an altitude of 10,600 meters (35,000 feet) before contact was lost. When the plane failed to make further contact, Brazilian air controllers contacted their counterparts in Senegal.

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