It's Not Rocket Surgery ([info]bostonista) wrote in [info]b0st0n,
2007-02-01 09:30:00
Dear Mayor Menino, Martha Coakley, and Boston news organizations,

Please stop calling yesterday's debacle the result of a "hoax." There was no hoax. There was only a misinterpreted advertising campaign. Your continuous use of the word "hoax" implies that there was an intent on the part of the ad agency or the poor art school grad who placed the signs to cleverly deceive you into thinking that cartoon LED characters were actually bombs.

There was no intent, there was only the city's desire to "detonate" a "bomb" with a water cannon. Yes, you look stupid. Please accept it and move on, and drop the court case against the people who placed the signs. Their prosecution will only waste more public funds.

Hilariously yours,

-Misanthropica

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  • 28 comments

[info]littlestarletta

February 1 2007, 14:43:08 UTC 5 years ago

IAWTP. Everyone on the news has been annoying the shit out of me.

[info]uandursister

February 1 2007, 14:56:53 UTC 5 years ago

I believe the reason it's being called a hoax is because a person or persons (and no, not panicked residents) called it in as a bomb to police. The 911 tapes are also being investigated at this point.

[info]bostonista

February 1 2007, 15:02:59 UTC 5 years ago

It's only a hoax if someone created the thing with the intention that it be mistaken for a bomb, or if someone reported it to be a bomb while knowing very well that it wasn't. What you're describing is a mistake.

[info]uandursister

February 1 2007, 15:26:59 UTC 5 years ago

Like I said: it was called in as a BOMB to police.

[info]bostonista

February 1 2007, 15:28:22 UTC 5 years ago

Still not a hoax, but a mistake. Please re-read my comment.

[info]uandursister

February 1 2007, 15:36:11 UTC 5 years ago

I read your comment

You said:

"or if someone reported it to be a bomb"

Dude, I'm done.

[info]bostonista

February 1 2007, 15:38:18 UTC 5 years ago

Re: I read your comment

"if someone reported it to be a bomb while knowing very well that it wasn't"

...is what I said. The person calling it in as a bomb had no idea it wasn't.

Mistake, not hoax.

Have a great day!

[info]uandursister

February 1 2007, 16:09:15 UTC 5 years ago

Re: I read your comment

Did you take the 911 call?

[info]bostonista

February 1 2007, 16:12:34 UTC 5 years ago

Re: I read your comment

So you're saying that the person who called it in obviously knew that it was an LED light advertising the upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, and not a bomb, and that this person deliberately failed to mention this in their description of the item?

Yes, that's obviously the simplest explanation. Total hoax. Right.

[info]uandursister

5 years ago

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[info]bostonista

5 years ago

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[info]playertwo

5 years ago

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[info]sparkin

February 1 2007, 15:47:50 UTC 5 years ago

bullshit. sorry, but that's true.

[info]shaxxon

February 1 2007, 15:04:21 UTC 5 years ago

I completely agree. There is no reason this should be called a "hoax"--it's making it seem like Turner and the artists meant for these objects to look like bombs, which was never their intention in the first place. I'm also made that the media has been calling the objects any number of dangerous-sounding words thus causing the mass hysteria we saw yesterday.

[info]rpkrajewski

February 1 2007, 15:08:34 UTC 5 years ago

I think the word we're looking for here is....

STUPID

[info]sparkin

February 1 2007, 15:47:01 UTC 5 years ago

Agreed completely.
Artist installations are not terrorism.
The fact that these guys are being charged with FELONIES is completely ludicrous.
Of course you know, I understand. If you throw away $500,000 of the public's funds because well, you have to have someone to blame.
Those guys shouldn't have to take the blow for it. Turner should.
At least they can AFFORD lawyers.
*fuming*

[info]bostonista

February 1 2007, 15:56:05 UTC 5 years ago

It's a charge that doesn't make any sense. There was no intent to cause panic. It was an accident.

If it had been an LED URL advertising the movie, all would have become clear, and there would have been approximately one "bomb scare." The campaign was simply too obscure, which was the mistake of the agency and by extension Turner Broadcasting.

It's idiotic that these people are being charged with felonies.

[info]catullus_5

February 1 2007, 16:42:55 UTC 5 years ago

I'll be shocked if they don't drop the charges. The stuffed shirts are still in posturing mode. After working up such a sweat of indignation, they'll look like dumbasses if they stop harrumphing too soon.

[info]catullus_5

February 1 2007, 16:40:17 UTC 5 years ago

Re: I read your comment

I agree except: It's not an art installation. It's advertising. It's promo work. It's "street team" stuff. It's distributing flyers - expensive magnetic flyers that come with instructions to place them on other people's property. Just because someone is an artist as his day job, that doesn't mean every little thing he does, every temp job or odd job, is automatically an artistic statement. Nothing changes just because his resume says "artist" instead of "burger flipper."

And even if it were "art," that has no relevance toward whether it's legal or harmful or not.

[info]sparkin

February 1 2007, 16:43:14 UTC 5 years ago

Re: I read your comment

Yes. but it could have just as easily been a side project for some independent artist with no contract. And the reaction would have been exactly the same. Except because there IS a larger company whose ass is also on the line, tis bigger news. Ironic huh.

[info]l_o_v_e

February 1 2007, 16:01:56 UTC 5 years ago

Seriously. Maybe they should look into the fact that no police noticed them for 2 weeks.

[info]kpht

February 1 2007, 16:08:18 UTC 5 years ago

Re: I read your comment

Are they really relying on the idiots in this state to be their eyes and ears? Good god.

[info]playertwo

February 1 2007, 21:50:41 UTC 5 years ago

Re: I read your comment

What--you think there is actually another viable option like creating enough police so that everywhere and at all times there is one present to see anything that might happen?

[info]a_godlike_virus

February 1 2007, 16:06:08 UTC 5 years ago

i think calling it a prank was worse. the Herald printed it on it's front page. i understand the Herald is ridiculous but it wasn't even close to a prank

[info]sparkin

February 1 2007, 16:43:58 UTC 5 years ago

no one should ever pay attention to the Herald. Seriously. they're a waste of paper and ink. :(

[info]sparkgrrl658

February 1 2007, 17:14:15 UTC 5 years ago

yeah, the wording in all of this has just been plain stupid.

it's one thing to say it's a hoax before all the reports are in, for all they knew it was. but it's totally another [really annoying] thing to continue to basically lie about what happened when you have all the facts more or less.

[info]x_bluerose_x

February 1 2007, 17:24:09 UTC 5 years ago

The media and police are just embarrassed that they mistook a litebrite for a sign and now they're taking it out on innocent people--and it's a shame.

[info]j3ss

February 1 2007, 19:37:55 UTC 5 years ago

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