I Told You So!

After that warning in the Times about the lack of balloon handling training, some wayward M&Ms careened into a lightpole, causing a lamp to fall to the ground, injuring a child:

A giant balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, swinging out of control in sudden bursts of wind, struck a light pole in Times Square yesterday, injuring two spectators and scaring scores of others in a replay of a 1997 accident that had prompted changes in the handling of the balloons.

The M&M balloon, 515 pounds of polyurethane filled with 13,335 cubic feet of helium, began to tip erratically as it entered Times Square about 11:40 a.m., witnesses said, before it hit the light pole near 43rd Street and was punctured. As the balloon collapsed, it pulled off a light fixture, which crashed to the ground amid a crowd of spectators.

Police and emergency workers descended on the scene, and the victims – a 26-year-old woman who was using a wheelchair, and her 11-year-old sister – were taken to Bellevue Hospital Center, where they were treated for cuts and bruises.

. . .

Several volunteers said yesterday that their training had been adequate but not stringent.

Anne Kelly, 57, of Mountain Lakes, N.J., a first-time volunteer who helped handle the Jojo’s Circus balloon, said she had missed two voluntary training sessions at the Meadowlands but had read instructions on balloon handling provided by Macy’s and had listened to directions from other handlers, a captain and a pilot. “I didn’t feel unprepared,” she said.

I don’t think they’re gloating, “I told you so,” but then again, ten reporters contributed to the Times piece, compared with seven for the Post’s article and four for the Daily News’ article . . .

Meanwhile, the Times notes that if you were watching the NBC telecast of the parade yesterday, you wouldn’t have known anything was amiss, leading to allegations of a coverup at NBC:

NBC did not interrupt its broadcast of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade yesterday to bring viewers the news that an M&M balloon had crashed into a light pole, injuring two sisters.

In fact, when the time came in the tightly scripted three-hour program for the M&Ms’ appearance, NBC weaved in tape of the balloon crossing the finish line at last year’s parade – even as the damaged balloon itself was being dragged from the accident scene. At 11:47 a.m., as an 11-year-old girl and her 26-year-old sister were being treated for injuries, the parade’s on-air announcers – Katie Couric, Matt Lauer and Al Roker – kept up their light-hearted repartee from Herald Square, where the parade ends.

“Will these classic candymen get out of this delicious dilemma?” Mr. Roker asked, referring not to the accident but to the premise of the attraction, a red M&M’s attempt to save his yellow counterpart, who had been blown from the basket of a hot-air balloon.

Ten minutes later, the upbeat broadcast ended without mention of the accident in Times Square. CNN carried a flash about the accident at 11:51, while the parade telecast was still going on. NBC’s cable news network, MSNBC, followed two minutes later. And WNBC, the New York affiliate, carried the news at 12:30 p.m.

But Cameron Blanchard, a spokeswoman for NBC’s entertainment division, which broadcast the parade, said that the anchors did not deviate much from the script because it was not clear at the time what had happened. “We had been alerted that there had been an incident,” she said. “But no further details had been conveyed to us.”

When the balloon failed to arrive at Herald Square at the appointed time, she said, “we rolled with some previously recorded footage.”

That said, the situation made for a jarring confluence of scripted and unscripted reality.

At 11:47 a.m., about 7 minutes after the accident, the screen image faded from live coverage of a high school marching band from Kennesaw, Ga., to last year’s tape of the M&M balloon. Ms. Couric, advising the audience that it was now looking at old tape, riffed on the balloon’s concept of M&M’s in distress.

“Now, because of today’s windy conditions,” Ms. Couric told viewers, “these characters are on video, and if we told you they were not in a panic, we’d be full of hot air.”

Mr. Lauer, Ms. Couric’s co-anchor on the “Today” show, chimed in: “You may be thinking ‘color us clueless’ as they flirt with trouble, with Yellow hanging on by a thread and Red struggling to keep his best buddy from flying off into the blue.”

Mr. Roker then spoke his lines: “Will these classic candymen get out of this delicious dilemma? Hard to say, but when it comes to sweetness, Yellow and Red continue to melt your heart, but not in your hand.”

Ms. Blanchard said she did not know what the announcers knew about the accident at the time.