Panic In Boston

by John Stossel - February 7th, 2007 - Townhall.com

A few weeks ago, men working for an advertising agency installed light screens in cities to promote a Cartoon Network program.

No one seemed alarmed by the signs featuring cartoon characters flipping the bird -- until suddenly, weeks after the promotion began, the Boston police decided the city might be under a terrorist attack. They rushed to collect the devices -- bringing parts of the city to a standstill.

[snip]

After the "perpetrators," two young men who'd been paid to promote the cartoon show, were arrested, the TV stations aired comments like, "I can't believe someone would be so stupid as to do that." And, "They shouldn't lock them up forever, but they should lock them up for a long time!"

The TV anchors nodded gravely in response.

Hello?

Why are the "perpetrators" the stupid ones? Why don't the media rant about how stupid Boston's authorities were to shut down the city because they thought light screens were a terrorist plot?

This is the first sane article I have seen on this topic. While this was a hot issue, not a single TV reporter that I saw commented on the fact that NINE other cities besides Boston had the screens for THREE WEEKS and no panic ensued.

Boston panics and no one asks, why didn't the other cities panic if it was such a bad idea? Is it perhaps because only in Boston are the officials left wing socialist idiots?