How pixelating may have made Boston problem worse
Steve Safran January 31st, 2007
By the noon news, stations were showing video of Boston police taking down what turned out to be the light-up signs for Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Because the “Mooninite” character is seen with his middle finger extended, channels pixelated the whole image. And that likely made things worse. By “protecting” us from the image of the character, TV missed the opportunity to show the audience exactly what it was. The police and the stations would have, doubtlessly, received tons of calls explaining the harmless nature of the character. Instead, we were protected from the damaging sight of a blocky character with three lights that indicate a middle finger. I’m sure the people stuck in traffic for three hours take comfort in that.
Photo as shown on WBZ. This guy found a Mooninite in Boston, thought it was cool and took it down for himself.
15 Comments Add your own
1. Uncle Rupert | January 31st, 2007 at 10:10 pm
The Boston and state of MA authorities will use their muscle to be vindicated from their sheer stupidity.
I saw the “bird” and everything else of the image.
The issue was probably exacerbated once the tv stations got wind, sending up helicopters, cutting in, rolling crawls, and adding to the hysteria.
TV News adds to the theatrics. The rush to be the “first” so they can run some flashing lights and loud music promo, “WE were the first on the scene………..”
The authorities are going after the wrong media outlet. Don’t go after Turner, go after the local media, likely the tv blowhards who were thinking and probably acting as if the sky was falling.
Doesn’t this also reflect bad, like real, real bad on Homeland Security? First, they can’t do anything right in New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina relief, and now this.
I’d like to know how the Fox affiliate handled this. After all, the Fox mothership has helped to push its Bush propaganda and scare tactics into everyone who views it.
2. thebaghdadchannel | January 31st, 2007 at 10:21 pm
and saddam is having a good chuckle with all this too.
3. laurie | February 1st, 2007 at 4:57 am
i didn’t hear anything about this until i got home last night, but i was laughing so hard. if they were showing pixelized images all afternoon, then obviously that impaired the public from calling in and informing the authorities what the objects were. i would say almost any 18-34 year old (mostly males…but i happen to own all of the ATHF dvds hehe) would have told you that it was a mooninite.
really…the Local TV people and the authorties should shoulder more of the blame than Turner and it’s marketing team.
4. Cranky Yankee | February 1st, 2007 at 6:17 am
It would be interesting to know if the stations or the authorities decided to pixellate the whole image. That said, even if people recognized the image, why exactly couldn’t someone build some explosive device using a cartoon character flipping the world the bird on it? We all know how easily cartoon characters explode (see: Wile E. Coyote). But seriously, recognizing “Err” wouldn’t necessarily have clarified things that much more quickly.
5. Rocker | February 1st, 2007 at 6:56 am
I don’t know if they would have received “tons of calls” from viewers about the character. One of the things this incident highlights is the extreme obscurity of a lot of the programming out there now in our fragmented TV environment. A few years ago, a network TV show marketer could count on some brand/image recognition…people would “get it”. Not anymore.
6. Jason | February 1st, 2007 at 7:00 am
Local TV stations are so afraid of the FCC slapping a huge indecency fine on them… you can understand why they would blur out the image.
And come on: What is local TV supposed to do when the police is shutting down things and removing “suspicious” packages all over town? Turner’s marketing team could have easily informed the police. Or at least CNN. Or maybe don’t put stuff on bridges.
7. Hussman | February 1st, 2007 at 7:01 am
Rocker is dead on. I’ve heard of ATHF, but have never watched it, so I wouldn’t have gotten the connection.
8. thedetroitchannel | February 1st, 2007 at 7:07 am
i never heard of this “ATHF” before yesterday and i have a teenage daughter who hangs around that end of the cable line-up.
had they NOT pixelated the damn thing i would have thought it was nothing but a picture of a po’d detroit driver… lost in boston.
9. Joe | February 1st, 2007 at 8:24 am
Who are we kidding, guys! Adult Swim fans - males age 18-35 - don’t watch local news. And certainly not at noon.
If anybody was to recognize the image and call off the panic dogs, it should have been the males age 18-35 who are no doubt employed by the local affiliates and probably had to create all the tacky “MYSTERIOUS PACKAGES / BOMB HOAX” graphics that coated the Team Coverage. I blame those guys for not speaking up.
The real question is: if you had walked by a Lite Brite shaped like an 80s video game character, would you have jumped to the conclusion that it’s a bomb? Crap no. All of those rush-to-air journos should be trying to find out who was the Boston-area Moroninite who first called the police. There’s your instigator.
10. Rico Suave | February 1st, 2007 at 8:36 am
To me, the word “hoax” implies that the Adult Swim people (or whomever) actually wanted the public to believe that there were bombs planted around town. I don’t know what a better term would be… maybe “mistake?” “Shenanigans?”
And along the same line as Uncle Rupert’s comment above: From a “Fatherland Security” (ahem) point of view, all this coverage and hysteria has proven that a dozen electronic devices can be simultaneously deployed around Boston. And placed in locations where they were MEANT to be seen!
11. baker | February 1st, 2007 at 8:41 am
my favorite coverage was a clip of a woman named April who’s been walking by the device on the Longfellow bridge for weeks, “i didn’t think it was such a big deal, i knew it was batteries, i shoulda just picked it up and put it in the gahhbage, i guess.”
12. Swift Loris | February 1st, 2007 at 9:03 am
ABC didn’t pixellate its image of the device Sawyer held up at the end of the segment, but the lights representing the extended finger had been darkened with Magic Marker or something in an attempt to make them less visible.
13. Jeff Bailey | February 1st, 2007 at 9:35 am
Maybe, maybe, if I try reeeeeeal hard, I can understand why the televised images may have been pixilated. OK, no I can’t, and if the FCC wanted to fine me for showing something on tv that’s been publicly visible for weeks I suppose I could simply show them the same extended finger.
But what about the Boston area web sites? What images, if any, did they show of the dangerous Light Brights? I haven’t seen any mention of this.
14. Cory Bergman | February 1st, 2007 at 9:39 am
My own station pixelated the finger, which is different from what Safran is talking about because we’re in Seattle, but I agree it’s a little silly.
I don’t think it has anything to do with the FCC. I think it’s a local news thing. You know, you put something like that on the air and you get a few emails from cranky parents who say you’ve ruined their kids. So you over-react and water down your coverage to try not to offend anyone, and as a result, you don’t appeal to anyone who’s 15-35 years old. Because people in that age group demand honesty and reality.
15. Jason | February 1st, 2007 at 9:59 am
I think Cory’s mostly right. But don’t underestimate the paranoia about getting fined. And more importantly, the paranoia about getting fired if you’re responsible for a fine.
Putting the middle finger on a cartoon character in a noon newscast is probably not a good idea, considering the audience at that hour. Not a lot of 15-35 year olds there.
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