Banned in Boston (was Turner Broadcasting:"Stunt Gone Wrong")

[Terry Wood]

Great comments.  I think that the new commish over reacted to this, when one 
look could have told him that it weren't a bomb.  Just a bomb of a 
promotion.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ric Werme" <ewerme@comcast.net>
To: <boston-Radio-Interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 10:42 AM
Subject: Banned in Boston (was Turner Broadcasting:"Stunt Gone Wrong")


> >From various notes on the topic
>
>> Of course, we now know it's a hoax.
>
>>No, we don't know it's a hoax;
>
>> but why haven't other cities found it necessary to react so violently
>
>> Absolutely not. If these devices had been written off as a prank, and
>> one of them blew up, we'd be ripping the Boston police department to
>> shreds.
>
>> ok, people, I gotta be at my worst level of sarcasm   re paranoia
>
> Personally, I think this was an ill-considered plan at best.  The person
> who reported the suspicious object did fine.  I was in London once and saw
> sign asking for such reports (back in IRA days).  The initial response
> may have been okay.  I do think bomb squad people are too quick to blast
> things with their water cannon, and this is one such case, but that
> action was defensible.  However, the actions and reactions since that
> first event have turned into the theatre of the absurd.  And why did the
> bomb squad think it was a bomb?  It could have been radiological or 
> biological
> device in which case blowing it up would be the _worst_ thing to do.
>
> By the way, I got a Po 210 refill for my Staticmaster dust brush a few
> days ago.  $14.50 plus shipping from New York City.  The instructions
> include "Keep away from children or persons who are unable to observe 
> these
> simple precautions."  I bought a 35 mm slide scanner and boy, can it image
> dust!  Umm, where was I?  Oh yeah,
>
> I drove my wife to the Manchester(/Boston) airport today and heard two
> separate cost estimates - $1,000,000 and $750,000.  These go along with
> yesterday's $500,000, $600,000, and $700,000.  I heard today's numbers on
> WBZ, making this post related to Boston radio.  So there!
>
> Turner may have gotten that much advertising, I suspect they should pay it
> and move on.
>
> The people who were arrested perhaps should be charged for littering and
> tried on Court TV.
>
> Had this been a Real Terrorst Attack, why oh why would these devices be 
> placed
> in plain view?  Unless the terrorist organization were all real idiots, 
> they'd
> be planted on the _other_ side of beams or tucked between things (which 
> would
> increase damage).
>
> These were not the size of car bombs, perhaps some high tech explosives
> would cause some injuries, but there's no chance they'd take a bridge
> down.  During a coal mining strike when at was in college in Pittsburgh,
> someone exploded a few sticks of dynamite at the base of a bridge.  The
> shockwave just reflected away from the concrete and nothing was damaged.
> The people who shot a truck carrying dynamite on the PA Turnpike did
> better, crater, killed truck driver and injured themselves.
>
> While I fully understand that the bomb squad is a bunch of trained 
> paranoiacs
> and have no sense of humor, that's no excuse to abandon common sense.  So
> many things about the objects were wrong, I think deserve any criticism
> they get for their reponse _after_ the first sign.
>
> Mayor Menino should be leaning on Turner Broadcasting for reimbursement,
> but he should be saying "We will be talking with Turner and expect that
> they will reimburse us for our costs" instead of taking the incensed
> play-acting politician route.  If he's not careful, someone might note
> the character on the sign was a Mooninite and suggest that future shows
> call their leader Mayor Moonino.  Of course, I would never mention that.
>
> I might mention that the Mayor et al learn about "LED throwies"
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throwies There's a good chance that
> inspired this advertising campaign.
>
> What else might the late-night comics say?  This all seems way too 
> easy....
>
> "What did Homeland Security know and when did they know it?"
> (Some enterprising reporter found a web page with a headline like
> "Who's putting signs on our Bridges," but Googling that didn't work.)
> Aren't these people suppose to be on top of what's happening here?
>
> "Homeland security announces new post of Guerilla Marketing Czar."
> That way, Turner and the marketing company could alert Homeland
> Security about such plans.
>
> "Indecency complaints filed about obscene gesture by Mooninite."
> I'm amazed at what the media has done with the middle finger "salute."
> Some media pixelated it, I saw one shot with the full display, a cut
> to a talking head, then a cut to a different scene with pixelation.
> Good Morning America has one of the signs, but they cut out the LEDs
> for the finger (assuming it really is a finger).  That probably will
> hurt resale value on Ebay....  The Union Leader, being a newspaper
> simply cropped their photo, see
> http://www.unionleader.com/uploads/media-items/2007/january/feb1boston_175px.jpg
> Turner sells bumper stickers of the image and "Mayor Menino."
> Turner could send him the proceeds as part of restitution.  I suspect 
> we'll
> be seeing a lot more of that LED image in the next few months.
>
> And, of course, "Banned in Boston"
>
>     -Ric Werme
>
>
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