Context is everything
Posted on 02/01/2007 12:45:38 AM PST by raccoonradio
Menino Wants Turner To Reimburse Cities
Boston police say they have made in arrest in connection to the suspicious device scare that turned out to be a marketing ploy for a television cartoon. The Peter Berdvosky was arrested in Arlington Wednesday night and charged under a recently enacted statute making it a crime to place a hoax device that results in panic.
The scare forced bomb units to scramble across Boston all day. The "devices" were actually magnetic lights which resemble a character on the show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", on Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network.
WBZ spoke with the Berdvosky's lawyer and legal guardian Michael Rich, who said the Mass. College of Art student did cooperate with police. Rich also tells us the suspect is an exchange student from Belarus.
"It's very disturbing," said Rich, "that what was just (an) employment for a struggling artist turned into some major misunderstanding."
Berdvosky was apparently working for InterferenceInc.com, which was the company hired by Cartoon Network to carry out the ad campaign. He will be arraigned at Charlestown District Court on Thursday morning.
The suspicious device reports forced the temporary shutdowns of Interstate 93 out of the city, a key inbound roadway, a bridge between Boston and Cambridge, and a portion of the Charles River but were quickly determined not to be explosive.
"It's a hoax -- and it's not funny," Gov. Deval Patrick said.
"We apologize to the citizens of Boston that part of a marketing campaign was mistaken for a public danger....We deeply regret the hardships experienced as a result of this incident," said Turner Broadcasting Chair and CEO Phil Kent in a writen statement.
More Than ten devices were found in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville. Attorney General Martha Coakley believes 38 of the light up boards were planted throughout the city.
The first device was found at an MBTA subway and bus station located under Interstate 93 on Wednesday morning. The device was detonated and determined to be harmless, but as a precaution the station and the interstate shut down temporarily.
Then, around 1 p.m., four calls came into Boston Police reporting suspicious devices at the Boston University Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge, which both span the Charles River, and the corner of Stuart and Columbus Streets and at the Tufts-New England Medical Center.
Another device was found in Somerville under the McGrath Highway Bridge. The latest package was found outside Fenway Park around 5:30 p.m.
Mayor Menino said the hoax cost the state and cities about $750,000. He wants Turner Broadcasting to pay for it all.
“It is outrageous, in a post 9/11 world, that a company would use this type of marketing scheme. I am prepared to take any and all legal action against Turner Broadcasting and its affiliates for any and all expenses incurred during the response to today’s incidents. Boston will look to coordinate our efforts going forward with Cambridge, Somerville and any other affected agencies.”
"Aqua Teen Hunger Force" is a cartoon with a cultish following that airs as part of the Adult Swim late-night block of programs for adults on the Cartoon Network. A feature length film based on the show is slated for release March 23.
The surreal series centers on a talking milkshake (Master Shake), fries (Frylock) and a meatball (Meatwad).
The cartoon also includes two trouble-making, 1980s-graphic-like characters called "mooninites," named Ignignokt and Err -- who were pictured on the suspicious devices. They are known for making the obscene hand gesture depicted on the devices.
It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston; New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Atlanta; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; and Philadelphia.
Having attended a graduation at MCofArt I can only say that this guy looks like a clean-cut student compared to the average student. Very weird!
Agreed! I can't stop laughing every time I see that picture.
Context is everything
The "jump" to calling it a hoax was totally appropriate after the devices were found NOT to be dangerous to civilians and structures, but before it was revealed that it was an incredibly stupid marketing campaign for an equally stupid TV show on an equally stupid TV channel, run by an equally stupid media corporation, run by an admitted communist.
An all you can come up with, your best shot, is "lame????"
How about throwing the slick-e-boy marketing moron who thought this crap up. You want to punish the foot soldier, but let the mastermind get away scott free for his/her idiocy? The marketing doof should be in the clink for 10 times longer than this student foot soldier.
What hoax are they talking about? These cartoon lights weren't intended to be fake bombs
I suggest you go look up what hoax means.
Toss them all in jail as far I am concerned. If they had permits to do this it wouldn't bother me....If I had been late or missed work I would be mad. Its a shame but we don't know what bombs will look like. I don't think these looked like bombs but what do I know about bombs? I don't like Turner and it would be fine to see him and his wife in the slammer.....From the foot soldier to the brains behind this they all ought to pay. Why wouldn't you just get a permit? Sounds easy enough to me.
My understanding from this morning's news is that there may be some criminal charges lodged against representatives of Turner, and I would think some civil action against the company and others as well, if only to recover the cost to the city for its reaction to this "threat."
Regardless of whether this was a harmless prank or a bad advertising idea, thing is -- in this day and age after 9/11, when people will panic at just about anything, it seems to me that someone in authority should have been notified that this was going to happen.
Call me old-fashioned, but I hate those "blind" marketing gimmicks that don't tell you what they're advertising. At least those old aggravating drug commercials that didn't tell you what they were actually for had the excuse that the FDA wouldn't let them.
And how effective is a marketing campaign that's not noticed for two weeks? One good snowstorm, and they'd never have been noticed at all.
I agree 100%. If we as Americans weren't running around like screaming ninnies we would not play so easily into their hands (e.g. spending a fortune in over-reacting to everything under the sun).
I wish that as a nation we had the fortitude to admit that you can't prevent dedicated attacks by an enemy within your borders, some people ARE going to die... Victory depends not on their deaths, but upon our reaction to it. If this seems unjust, it is... We live in a fallen world, but there will be justice in the end-- God's perfect justice. If that is not reassuring, then one who fears death should move to a rural area that is not likely to be attacked.
I thought the same thing.
Looks enough like him in his younger years, probably thinks like Sean Penn as well....nutjob.
Wow. I've been saying that was a Les Nessman quote, but it was actually Mr. Carlson (which I remembered as soon as I started watching the clip).
"Why shouldn't Turner pay for it?"
Because he didn't do anything wrong. They actually placed these things out of reach so people wouldn't steal them! It is no different than posting a bill on a lamp post.
The Boston police are at fault here. They over-reacted. They are the only ones in the country who did. They look like morons now and are pissed. Those kids are feeling the scorn of those who have been shown their own stupidity.
Did Turner Boradcasting NOT warn the Boston Police that they would be doing this? If not, then Boston did the right thing, and the network has egg on its face. If the city or police had known in advance, and exactly where each device was planted, they could have just let folks who called about the devices know that they were aware of them.
>>Has CNN been reporting on this story at all, anyone know?
Actually yes; in fact Howie Carr was interviewed by
Anderson Cooper about it.
>>Did Turner Boradcasting NOT warn the Boston Police that they would be doing this? If not, then Boston did the right thing, and the network has egg on its face. If the city or police had known in advance, and exactly where each device was planted, they could have just let folks who called about the devices know that they were aware of them.
Yes, the city did the right thing. Someone called up WBZ
radio and said that bombs have four parts: switch, power,
high explosive, low explosive (something like that) and this
device had the first two, plus maybe some protruding wires, etc. Placed on the supports of a bridge, etc.; sure, it could be a prank but they were being careful just in case it was a bomb.
The resulting tie-ups may have resulted in people not getting to job appointments, dialysis treatments,
or various other important things in life...
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