One of my favorite Sunday rituals aside from shouting “hallelujah, hollaback” as I curl next to pillow (kidding, mom) is reading Frank Rich’s column in the New York Times.

This week, Mr. Rich tackled subject matter I’ve longed tried to avoid acknowledging: “Balloon Boy.”

I agree with Rich when he writes:

Richard Heene is the inevitable product of this reigning culture, where “news,” “reality” television and reality itself are hopelessly scrambled and the warp-speed imperatives of cable-Internet competition allow no time for fact checking.

Coverage of “balloon boy” usurping attention away from President Obama’s speech in New Orleans is a testament to the cable news cycle and their unwavering quest for ratings at the expense of you know, actual news.

But as Rich went on he tried to tie the plight of “balloon boy’s” hoax-generating father with the state of the economy. While he doesn’t absolve Heene from exploiting his child for financial gain, he does argue that there is “some poignancy in his determination to grab what he and many others see as among the last accessible scraps of the American dream.”

With only a high school education, Rich argues that Heene “saw the ‘balloon boy’ stunt as a sad response to his economic plight.”

And in doing so, Rich concludes that Heene’s actions harkens back to the days of the Great Depression:

Heene is a direct descendant of those Americans of the Great Depression who fantasized, usually in vain, that they might find financial salvation if only they could grab a spotlight in show business. Some aspired to the “American Idol” of the day — “Major Bowes Amateur Hour,” a hugely popular weekly talent contest on network radio. Others traveled the seedy dance marathon circuit, entering 24/7 endurance contests that promised food and prize money in exchange for freak-show degradation and physical punishment. Horace McCoy’s 1935 novel memorializing this Depression milieu was aptly titled “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”

While I do agree this could apply to the discover of such “fascinating” people like Jon and Kate Gosselin and the “Octomom,” I feel even if we were enjoying a great economic boom we’d still have plenty of people pulling publicity stunts in the chase for fame. Look at people of privilege like Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, and Kim Kardashian and how they’ve mastered the art of being famous for nothing. They didn’t come from humble beginnings yet their lust for fame was arguably no less intense than Heene’s.

Granted, desperate times call for even more desperate measures, but these days, be it rich or poor don’t far too many have it in their mind that they’re meant to be a star?

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