Cable News obsesses over suspicious devices that turned out to be publicity stunt.
Cable news channels were all over the suspicious devices in Boston today. Only it turned out the devices were part of a publicity campaign that had been around for weeks. Lost Remote has more, including an interesting, albeit probably unfair, comment about CNN…
It’s enough to make you rethink the term “guerrilla marketing.” Police, bomb squads, the feds, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and more all converged on Boston Wednesday because of … a “mooninite.” Viewers of Cartoon Network’s “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” immediately recognized the “devices” as LEDs put on a circuit board and powered by some batteries. The police and the media, however, had the event play out as though there were 10 bombs (and then 10 “hoax bombs”) planted suddenly around Boston. Turns out the devices had been up for weeks. And not just in Boston, but in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, according to Turner Broadcasting, the parent of the Cartoon Network.
So how did the Boston police get so badly shaken? Pictures from the guerrilla marketing campaign are all over Flickr. I had two friends IM me as soon as the story broke: “Don’t they know it’s a Mooninite?” No, they didn’t. And while the police can certainly be forgiven for not recognizing a Turner cartoon character – how about CNN? Someone at Turner could have walked down the hall to CNN, right? The devices were made by a marketing company. They couldn’t tell anyone?
During the 7pm Situation Room, they did a piece about this. They acknowledged a bunch of times that the things were from Cartoon Network and showed the Turner statements, etc. But what I found really odd was that they blurred out the entire object on screen. I’m not sure what they did that for.
Comment by Coreyback — January 31, 2007 @ 9:47 pm
I’m confused… what is the cable news part of this story? Sure they covered it, but weren’t they supposed to?
They probably should have discovered what it was and broke that story earlier than they did… but who knows if they were able to get a clear enough view of the circuit board to tell what it was. Maybe nobody watches Aqua Teen… although it is a great show. And why didn’t Turner have to file the nature of their advertisement with the city?
Perhaps the bottom line for this story is that more people should be watching cartoons. That’s a lesson I can get behind.
Comment by ImNotBlue — January 31, 2007 @ 9:51 pm
Well it’s supposed to be giving the finger, I saw a few pics where foxnews.com blurred the finger out, but in others they left the picture undisturbed.
Comment by OverHere — January 31, 2007 @ 10:01 pm
Leno & Letterman will have a good time with this one.Right after thay tell some bad jokes about President Bush .
Comment by mike — January 31, 2007 @ 10:19 pm
God, the whole thing is hilarious. It’s time to seriously consider whether perhaps we as a national entity have gone totally insane.
Comment by Arthur — January 31, 2007 @ 10:30 pm
Personally, I am a fan of ATHF and found this hilarious since I didn’t see any of the coverage earlier in the day. Really, nothing is weirder than seeing Shepard Smith talk about the characters.
Comment by Chris — January 31, 2007 @ 11:26 pm
hey stop Bi*ching you get mad when things are not covered and now you Bi*ch when things are being over covered what do you want?
Comment by Bill — January 31, 2007 @ 11:48 pm
The overreaction is funny, but I would much rather have them overreact than underreact (if that’s even a word).
Not paying enough attention in the past led to 9/11.
Comment by bigred — February 1, 2007 @ 12:07 am
“Not paying enough attention in the past led to 9/11″
As did the Iraq War.
Comment by elmonica — February 1, 2007 @ 12:14 am
Pretty silly. I suppose they could of told someone but they probably wouldn’t of let them do it anyways. The Cartoon Network got what they wanted Publicity! If they are seriously going to charge someone for this its really silly! I can understand maybe a fine but arresting someone give me a break.
Comment by Chad — February 1, 2007 @ 1:18 am
Full disclosure:
I am an ATHF freak. That said, the Media ineptitude on this was hilarious. This reminded me of the OJ chase on AbC, where Al Michaels (of all people) had to inform Ted Koppel that they had been punked by one of Howard Stern’s guys.
My brother, who is a Captain in the Army (ranger tab, no less), laughed is a$% off watching the coverage at his office. How clueless are most reporters? Do they need a 22 year old intern to tell them what’s going on?
Comment by eddiebear — February 1, 2007 @ 2:27 am
HLN’s Prime News had an actual “board” on set. So, I’m guessing this made its way down the hall from the Cartoon Network! But, I’m not really blaming CNN. Although I agree partly with Lost Remote. It seems someone could of put two and two together and ended this immediately.
Comment by Terance — February 1, 2007 @ 7:02 am
It turns out the ’suspicious devices’ had been in place for weeks. Why were they suddenly ’suspicious’ yesterday when they hadn’t been before? I’ll say it again - mass insanity. It’s the only explanation.
Comment by Arthur — February 1, 2007 @ 7:24 am
No Arthur, it’s the Administration’s way of trying to scare us.
Comment by Andy Marquis — February 1, 2007 @ 7:58 am
I see it doesn’t take long for Cartoon Network’s actions to be linked with CNN – This morning on Fox and Friends, Steve Doocy said “I bet this is one of those stories you won’t see on another cable news network”. Let’s just hope he isn’t talking about CNN – They were reporting the story and the whole Turner connection last night.
Comment by F101 — February 1, 2007 @ 8:30 am
..and take more of our rights away! But, lets not forget the dems are just as much to blame. See, the repubs take the “heat” from stealing all our rights. Then the dems come in and try to be the “good guy” meanwhile stealing (and not restoring) our pilfered liberties. The “jig” is up, I’m tired of this two party system of crooks and pedophiles!
Comment by Terance — February 1, 2007 @ 8:31 am
Hmm..last time I checked turner broadcasting is located about 2 miles from cnn center. so they couldnt just walk down the hall. AND on cnn wednesday night, they were all critical of turner broadcasting. and geez terrance, take some prozac and stop the whining.
Comment by Big Dave — February 1, 2007 @ 8:45 am
Big Dave, on one condition! If you get back to focusing on the WHAC blog, eh?
Comment by Terance — February 1, 2007 @ 9:00 am
Hahahaha… Ok!… No freedom here!…
Comment by Rodrigo — February 1, 2007 @ 10:55 am
Why is it “unfair” to suggest one part of Turner should have been talking to another part? Sure, big companies often have the “left hand - right hand” problem. But is it really unfair to suggest they shouldn’t?
Thanks for the shoutout.
Steve
Comment by Steve Safran — February 1, 2007 @ 4:34 pm
Well it just seemed a little rough to me the way it was written. For all we know the people responsible for the promotion were nowhere near Atlanta. I guess I’m just giving CNN the benefit of the doubt that the sort of information free flow you seem to be arguing Turner should have had, wasn’t necessarily a slam dunk. It would take some pretty forward thinking people on the Cartoon Network/Turner end to accomplish that and my guess the first people they would be talking to wouldn’t be their sister news network. It would be their legal counsel and exec staff.
Also when you wrote “And while the police can certainly be forgiven for not recognizing a Turner cartoon character – how about CNN?” you make it sound like CNN should have been clued in to what was going on by default because they’re a Turner company, as in everyone knows everyone elses shtick. I’d make the argument that Turner is too big a company for that to be realistically possible.
So that’s why I thought the CNN jab was a bit unfair. If you want to jab Turner for not responding faster or Cartoon Network for not responding faster, I have no problem with that. But you seemed to be arguing, at least in part, that CNN had some responsibility to know what was going on because they’re with Turner. That I don’t agree with.
Comment by Spud — February 1, 2007 @ 4:54 pm
“I see it doesn’t take long for Cartoon Network’s actions to be linked with CNN –”
F101: Much longer than it took for Fox News Channel to be linked to the ill-fated OJ Simpson special on Fox Broadcast.
Comment by Ira — February 1, 2007 @ 9:52 pm