1/31/07. Never Forget.

Remember it. That’s the day the the idiocy of paranoia hit a new high.

Before I comment on these events, I’ll lay out the information. These facts are simply those; facts. There is absolutely no personal opinion interjected whatsoever. Boston police suspected advertising materials of being bombs. They were not. There were in fact, mistaken. Boston government and the BPD continually refer to these advertising materials as “hoaxes”. They are not. There was never any intent whatsoever of these devices to be given the appearance of dangerous devices. Boston leadership continually refers to it as so.

Let’s look at the definition of hoax.

Something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage .

Let’s look at the facts again. There was never any intent to deceive. Only to advertise and promote awareness. Nor was there any “trickery”. It was simply an underground marketing campaign. The only advantage it sought was to give Cartoon Network / Adult Swim advantage in television ratings. Any level headed look at the situation would look at this construction of the word “hoax” as used by the BPD and the mayor of that city as misused. In effect, the definition of “hoax” as applied to these advertisements is debunked.

Let’s look at one more fact. The official charge against Sean Stevens and Peter Berdovsky of Adult Swim is that of “placing a hoax device that causes panic”. We’ve already thrown out the fact that this is a hoax. Let’s now look at this supposed “caused panic”. It’s been well documented that these advertisements were in place in multiple cities for over three weeks. Up until yesterday, there was no panic. Only at the point did the BPD publicly and dramatically detonate the advertising materials, to the delight of the media, was a panic created. You can also credit the media in general for overblowing the event, given the overly dramatic definitions given to them from Boston officials. In this light, Sean Stevens and Peter Berdovsky created no panic. Boston officials and the media did. If you are of similar mind, and agree to this point, that’s yet another accusation debunked.

Now here comes my opinion. It’s truly sad that in this day and age, someone with “power” can construct and redefine things to match their agenda as closely as possible. It’s obvious that these advertising materials didn’t intend to, nor did they cause any harm. Irrational paranioa on the part of Boston officials and the media did just that, not any employee of Turner Broadcasting. If it takes the equivilant of a Lite Brite to cause national hysteria, we’ve truly dug ourselves into a deep psychological hole.

One last note. Today, Adult Swim offered an apology via their splash page on adultswim.com. It my opinion that this should be retracted as quickly as possible and never should have been offered in the first place. They are not in the wrong in this matter whatsoever. Fearmongering on the part of our national players are. But as long as Boston officials and the media hold the power to redefine and reconstruct events in the light that works best for them, Adult Swim will see no real justice and the big bosses at Turner Broadcasting will continually allow the definitions of Big Brother at CNN to trump Adult Swim.

How truly sad.