Bless the Heene family.

We’ve had some weighty topics to consider lately: Health care reform is working its way through Congress. President Obama is wrestling with whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. Rush Limbaugh recently expressed interest in buying the St. Louis Rams, only to be dropped by a group of investors.

Amid all those pressing issues, here comes the Heene family of Fort Collins, Colo., and their incorrigible youngest scamp, Falcon.

Thanks to the Heenes, we took a break from worrying about soldiers dying in a foreign country or how big the federal budget deficits will grow. Instead, we watched a chef’s hat made of Reynold’s Wrap swirl and float over the high plains of eastern Colorado and worried that little Falcie was trapped inside.

Consider what happened last week a sign of the times in which we live.

Richard Heene called the Larimer County Sheriff’s Department around 11:30 a.m. to report that his son might be trapped inside the balloon. In short order, this story went viral. Television stations began following the balloon with helicopters and beaming live footage. Internet sites began posting. Twitter began tweeting.

Even CNN went wall to wall with coverage. The network showed maps of the balloon’s flight path and predicted its altitude, speed and direction. We saw maps and GPS locations. Even Wolf Blitzer scrambled to find experimental aircraft experts who speculated whether the balloon a guy built in his garage could actually hold a small boy and how best to capture the thing without injuring Falcon.

The flight also tied up tremendous resources of emergency officials as military helicopters, patrol cruisers and ambulances followed the balloon through the Colorado countryside. Flights heading north from Denver International Airport were diverted.

The whole nation was caught up in the drama.

Then, a few hours later, Falcon appeared, as if nothing had happened. The story began to unravel when Falcon admitted that he didn’t come out of hiding because “we did this for the show.” Already suspicious, the media pounced. On Sunday, the Larimer County sheriff said the incident was a hoax and felony charges could be filed against the parents.

Today, we’re left to wonder what the Heenes were thinking. Are they a family of storm-chasing crackpots who dabble in science or abhorrent attention-seekers who weren’t satisfied with two appearances on the reality show “Wife Swap”? Reporters will interview everyone connected to the Heene’s in an attempt to figure this out.

But whether Richard Heene is portrayed as a villain or a bumbling but caring father, we most certainly acted as his accomplices. We switched on our TVs, logged onto the news sites and posted our opinions on numerous social networking sites — all intensified by the speed at which news travels these days.

Whether knowingly or unknowingly, the Heene’s provided us with the fuel to ignite a media event. And we swallowed hook, line and sinker.

If the saga of “balloon boy” is in fact a hoax, it’s a joke that we played on ourselves.

Steve Booher’s column runs on Monday. He can be reached at steveb@npgco.com.