Today the media is busy trying to scare the shit out of you with ebola reports and rumors that are not even close to the facts.

If we go back in time, 5 years ago Today, the story that the media was harping on was "Balloon Boy."

Yep, it was 5 years ago that Falcon Heene and his family gripped the nation as a balloon said to be carrying Falcon was blowing across the Colorado sky.

The media was all over the story as rescuers searched frantically for the boy, then 6, whose parents said had floated away in the balloon.

Fears quickly turned to skepticism and then outright hostility when the boy eventually appeared at his parents' Fort Collins home. Richard and Mayumi Heene insisted the boy had hidden in the garage.

The evening after Falcon's reappearance, when Richard Heene during a CNN interview (note: CNN still covered news back in those days) asked Falcon why he didn't come out when he heard his parents calling his name during the search, the boy said, "You guys said that we did this for the show."

It was a stunt and the media fell for it.

Now, the media wants you to fall for the ebola scare that is sweeping the nation.

Makes you kind of miss Balloon Boy now doesn't it.

H/T KUSA