I always knew they were terrorists.

Submitted by wllm on February 1, 2007 - 12:54am.

I have to admit it. I read CNN daily. I can tell you that it's because I like to gauge public sentiment or that I'm fascinated by mainstream media phenomena, but I'd be lying. The fact is, I usually find it comic as hell, and occasionally tragic to the point of day-long depression. I'm in it for the drama of non-news. And if I'm not mistaken, so is the rest of its readership.
And boy, do they deliver. Take today, for example: a front page story about a terrorist plot that wasn't. I archived the front page as I originally saw it here (I love how they chose the photo that showed the Mooninite as prominently as Adult Swim could ever hope for. I don't suppose this has anything to do with the fact that CNN, Adult Swim, and Cartoon Network are all owned by Turner Broadcasting, Inc.) Here you can read all the fantastic overreactions. Some highlights:


"It had a very sinister appearance," Coakley told reporters. "It had a battery behind it, and wires."

Menino told reporters he received a call from a Turner spokesperson about 9 p.m. but had not yet returned it. "I think the city deserves a call, not from a press person, but from somebody in the corporate structure of Turner," he said. "I just think this is outrageous, what they've done ... It's all about corporate greed."

Some of the devices were placed on private property, she said, which "raises a lot of questions about, at the very least, the responsibility of anybody who would do this."

Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis called it "unconscionable" that the marketing campaign was executed in a post 9/11 era. "It's a foolish prank on the part of Turner Broadcasting," he said. "In the environment nowadays ... we really have to look at the motivation of the company here and why this happened."

Hilarious. Of course, it wouldn't be so funny if the two guys who were arrested had to do jailtime or faced huge fines. The traffic issues and amount of public funds spent on the scare isn't really funny. That's rather sad- sad that the people in charge have become so paranoid, no doubt because the general public has become so paranoid. Even though I have to smile every time I hear the phrase, I guess this is what a "post 9/11" world is all about. Sigh. Now I've gone and made myself sad.

BTW, I am cynical enough to find ATHF funny.

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