My boomers are generally distrustful of government, but it's taken this stupid balloon story for my dad (ex-Navy) to see how flagrantly fake the media is.
For the unitiated, if the balloon thing was real you'd never have heard about it... It's have been dealt with probably before reaching out airspace.
Comms.
If something reaches the public awareness via MSM, it's not pre-programming. It's a planned event.