After a Bomb Scare, Boston Looks to Blame Network

On January 31, 2007, the city of Boston panicked due to a promotional stunt that was being confused as being a terrorist incident. It seems that in an effort to promote their new movie, Adult Swim (Cartoon Network's mature entertainment) put up what appears to be banners with lights of certain characters from the show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force". They were hidden around the city in peculiar areas, such as on lamp posts and by bridges. They were reported to the Boston police, who immediately took action. The question surrounding this controversy is: "Should Adult Swim be held accountable for this mess, or was it just blown out of proportion?" Well, the answer is not as easy as we'd like it to be.

Adult Swim should cover the $500,000 cost of bringing out emergency services to an extraordinary degree. The city of Boston should have been informed that these items would be placed throughout the city so that there would not be this mass panic and hysteria. They dropped the ball by placing these items without permission. In these times, the American public is on the edge with the thought of being attacked through a terrorist plot, especially in larger cities. So to answer the question "Who will pick up the cost?", it should most certainly be the network.