It's Not Rocket Surgery ([info]bostonista) wrote in [info]b0st0n,
@ 2007-02-01 09:30:00
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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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[info]littlestarletta
2007-02-01 02:43 pm UTC (link)
IAWTP. Everyone on the news has been annoying the shit out of me.

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[info]uandursister
2007-02-01 02:56 pm UTC (link)
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.

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[info]bostonista
2007-02-01 03:02 pm UTC (link)
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.

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[info]uandursister
2007-02-01 03:26 pm UTC (link)
Like I said: it was called in as a BOMB to police.

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[info]bostonista
2007-02-01 03:28 pm UTC (link)
Still not a hoax, but a mistake. Please re-read my comment.

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I read your comment
[info]uandursister
2007-02-01 03:36 pm UTC (link)
You said:

"or if someone reported it to be a bomb"

Dude, I'm done.

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Re: I read your comment
[info]bostonista
2007-02-01 03:38 pm UTC (link)
"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!

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Re: I read your comment
[info]uandursister
2007-02-01 04:09 pm UTC (link)
Did you take the 911 call?

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Re: I read your comment
[info]bostonista
2007-02-01 04:12 pm UTC (link)
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.

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Re: I read your comment
[info]uandursister
2007-02-01 06:22 pm UTC (link)
No, smart ass, I'm saying you don't know whether they did or didn't. I'm saying unless you work for the BPD or you made the call to 911 then you don't know what they were thinking and a rant about semantics is stupid.

Oh wait, you posted on bOstOn. Nevermind.

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Re: I read your comment
[info]bostonista
2007-02-01 06:26 pm UTC (link)
Look. I'm saying that it's highly unlikely that anyone called 911 as a joke. It's probable that whoever made the call legitimately thought it was a bomb.

Hence, NO HOAX. Hence no need to label it a hoax, implying that it was a deliberate, prosecutable, illegal act.

Hence my post. And I'm not talking semantics. Hoax is a serious charge in this instance, and it's important that it not be labeled as such.

Okay? Okay.

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Re: I read your comment
[info]playertwo
2007-02-01 09:48 pm UTC (link)
You're a legit moron aren't you?

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[info]sparkin
2007-02-01 03:47 pm UTC (link)
bullshit. sorry, but that's true.

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[info]shaxxon
2007-02-01 03:04 pm UTC (link)
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.

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I think the word we're looking for here is....
[info]rpkrajewski
2007-02-01 03:08 pm UTC (link)
STUPID

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[info]sparkin
2007-02-01 03:47 pm UTC (link)
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*

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[info]bostonista
2007-02-01 03:56 pm UTC (link)
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.

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[info]catullus_5
2007-02-01 04:42 pm UTC (link)
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.

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Re: I read your comment
[info]catullus_5
2007-02-01 04:40 pm UTC (link)
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.

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Re: I read your comment
[info]sparkin
2007-02-01 04:43 pm UTC (link)
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.

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[info]l_o_v_e
2007-02-01 04:01 pm UTC (link)
Seriously. Maybe they should look into the fact that no police noticed them for 2 weeks.

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Re: I read your comment
[info]kpht
2007-02-01 04:08 pm UTC (link)
Are they really relying on the idiots in this state to be their eyes and ears? Good god.

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Re: I read your comment
[info]playertwo
2007-02-01 09:50 pm UTC (link)
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?

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[info]a_godlike_virus
2007-02-01 04:06 pm UTC (link)
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

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[info]sparkin
2007-02-01 04:43 pm UTC (link)
no one should ever pay attention to the Herald. Seriously. they're a waste of paper and ink. :(

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[info]sparkgrrl658
2007-02-01 05:14 pm UTC (link)
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.

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[info]x_bluerose_x
2007-02-01 05:24 pm UTC (link)
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.

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[info]j3ss
2007-02-01 07:37 pm UTC (link)
A+

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