Balloon Boy: Too Much Media Exposure?

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - On Friday Falcon Heene was visibly sick. During two morning show interviews, the 6-year-old -- who just the previous day was being searched far and wide after he was believed to have drifted off in a helium balloon -- vomited on live television while he and his family were being interviewed.

Many experts fear that Falcon and the other two children, Bradford and Ryo, have already received too much media exposure. Shortly after Falcon emerged from his family's garage, Richard and Mayumi Heene held a press conference with their children to discuss what had happened. They even asked Falcon to show them how and where he hid.

Then on Thursday night, the family was interviewed by CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "Larry King Live," on which Falcon said that the balloon incident was done "for a show."

"The parents aren't forced to do these media interviews," Mike Brody, chairman of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry's Television and Media Committee, told CNN . "They can say, 'We want to get together and process what happened here first.'"

Jim Watkins, an anchor at PIX News, wrote on the Huffington Post , "Did anybody else besides me think that the boys looked utterly confused and addled the whole time the cameras were on them? Little Falcon at one point, showing complete common sense in that situation, just ran away from the horde of reporters and photographers facing him from a few feet away. (Chuckling, his mom went and dragged him back into the fray. Oh, that Falcon!)"

Some psychologists worry about the long-term effects of such media exposure. Not only have the Heenes already been on two episodes of the ABC show "Wife Swap," but they will now likely remain in the spotlight for a while as they are investigated for whether they carried out a publicity stunt.

"He will never be the same again, because he's been on CNN, 'Good Morning America' or whatever, his 15 minutes of fame," Charles Figley, a psychology professor at Tulane University, told CNN.

While many people want there to be an inquiry into whether there was indeed a hoax, Watkins disagrees. "However, I would call in child protective services to look into the greedy, selfish, publicity-grasping response by the mother and dad to the whole thing, a response that clearly borders on being abusive toward their own flesh and blood."