Posted on 02/01/2007 5:02:47 AM PST by Puppage
BOSTON -- Nine blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a marketing campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. At least one of the devices depicts a character giving the finger.
Highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices were harmless.
"It's a hoax -- and it's not funny," said Gov. Deval Patrick.
Turner Broadcasting, parent company of Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."
"The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," Turner said in a statement. 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.
"We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger," the company said.
Police said only that they were investigating where the device came from. The Department of Homeland Security said there are no credible reports of other devices being found elsewhere in the country.
An angry Mayor Thomas Menino said a stiff penalty will be pursued against whoever was responsible for the devices.
"It's about keeping a city on edge. It's about public safety," he said.
Authorities said some of the objects looked like circuit boards or had wires hanging from them.
The first device was found at a subway and bus station underneath Interstate 93, forcing the shutdown of the station and the highway.
Later, police said four calls, all around 1 p.m., reported devices at the Boston University Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge, both of which span the Charles River, at a Boston street corner and at the Tufts-New England Medical Center.
The package near the Boston University bridge was found attached to a structure beneath the span, authorities said.
Subway service across the Longfellow Bridge between Boston and Cambridge was briefly suspended, and Storrow Drive was closed as well.
Wanda Higgins, a 47-year-old Weymouth resident and a nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, heard about the threat as she watched television news coverage while preparing to leave work at 4 p.m.
"I saw the bomb squad guys carrying a paper bag with their bare hands," Higgins said. "I knew it couldn't be too serious."
Messages seeking additional comment from the Atlanta-based Cartoon Network were left with several publicists.
"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.
On this point, we are in enthusiastic agreement.
"A hoax is an attempt to trick an audience into believing that something false is real. There is often some material object (e.g., snake oil) involved which is actually a forgery; however, it is possible to perpetrate a hoax by making only true statements using unfamiliar wording or context (see DHMO)."
A retard, drama queen governor. Imagine that.
...and probably a couple of others as well.
Toons are a vast wasteland today. No real creative thoughts just garbage like The Simpsons, Bevis and Butthead, and of course the beloved of the clueless ones South-Park, all of which attack the family. There is no logic or even a plot to any cartoons of today. Garbage in garbage out.
Yup, yup, and yup.
The authorities in Boston were caught in a "you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't"-sort of situation, so they chose to over-react . . . because if they chose to under-react, and this turned out not to be some sort of lame "guerilla marketing" operation, people might have gotten hurt or killed. And you can be damned sure the Musselmen were paying attention to all of this, too.
I certainly hope Turner gets slapped bigtime for this.
Turner SHOULD pay for the entire fiasco!
Ah, the rest of the story, thank you.
Places where bills are frequently posted.
I can't help but suspect that the very ones whining about "over-reaction" would have been screaming to high heaven about under-reaction if they'd refused to check them out, and one of them blew up. A Freeper further up had it right--darned if they do, darned if they don't. I'm glad they checked them out. I'm equally glad they were harmless.
But the twits who did this should pay, big time. They kind of reminded me of the male version of Code Pink, they seemed to be still stuck in the 60s.
It wasn't a "marketing mistake." It was some idiot public officials over-reacting to a Lite Brite of Err giving the finger. This helps to explain why the Swimmer and J F'in K keep getting re-elected. The Boston mayor is a TFI.
> I don't think so. First of all, we ARE in a post 9-11 world. People who don't think this is a big deal are not understanding how much things have changed.
In addition, how were the police supposed to KNOW this was for a cartoon? <
Here's what one of the things looked like.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Mooninites-Ignignokt-Aqua-Teen-LED-Sign-Perfect_W0QQitemZ130075405697QQihZ003QQcategoryZ363QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Anyone who went to DefCon 5 over that should be fired.
Using your logic, we should strip search all pregnant women that walk around in public.
Can we throw Turner in jail?
I'm just glad they didn't have the Foreigner belt. Who knows what havoc they might have caused.
What you're seeing is what you get for your money when you give it to government government takes it.
It could now be said that the reaction to these ridiculous advertising signs provide real terrorists with a good indication of how they can tie up resources and authorities in multiple areas while hiding and using devices elsewhere. A nice "bait and switch" diversionary routine.
Also, very few people knew what that cartoon looked like before this episode.
Lastly, having seen the yahoos who pulled this with their ignorant behavior at the press conference, I am more convinced that this was a irresponsible PR stunt. I side with the Boston police.
OMG!!!!!!A BOMB!!!!!!!!!!!
SOMEONE CALL THE BOSTON PD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't NEED no instructions to know how to ROCK!
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