Peter Berdovsky and Turner Broadcasting: Hoax, Lies, and Videotape

This is an interesting twist on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force hoax in Boston.

Peter Berdovsky, guy with the hair fetish, videotaped officials as they removed one of the "advertisements."

BOSTON -- One of the men criminally charged after placing blinking cartoon advertisements around the city videotaped a police bomb squad removing one of the electronic devices, but did not tell the officers the object was harmless.

Surveillance cameras caught 27-year-old Peter Berdovsky videotaping officers removing what they thought was a possible bomb.

His lawyer, Walter Prince, said Tuesday: "Mr. Berdovsky didn't do anything inappropriate."

Prince said Berdovsky had received a call that morning from a friend who told him there was a bomb threat at the Sullivan Square transit station in Boston. He said Berdovsky grabbed his camera and headed out to the scene, unaware it involved one of the electronic devices that he and Sean Stevens, 28, had hung as part of a guerrilla advertising campaign for Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner Inc.

"That's what he does. He videotapes things. He's a videotape freelance artist. He got a call that there was a bomb threat near his house and he went to tape it," Prince said. "When he got there, he realized what was going on, and he went back to his apartment and called his employer, and they told him they would take care of it. That's not an inappropriate response."

"Not an inappropriate response"?

I disagree.

Lawyer Prince says that Berdovsky "realized what was going on."

At that point, without question, the onus was on Berdovsky to inform the officials he was videotaping that the device was harmless.

Instead, he let his advertising stunt snowball into shutting down Boston.

INEXCUSABLE.

Clearly, he enjoyed causing the panic and so did Turner Broadcasting.

...Turner Broadcasting has agreed to pay $2 million to cover costs and restitution for the massive police response on Jan. 31 that shut down highways and bridges and snarled traffic.

So, Turner is forking over $2 million to make this go away.

Has justice been served? I don't know.

I don't really like out of court settlements.

Clearly, Turner felt it was in its best interests to throw a little chump change to the city of Boston rather than stage a legal battle.

Rather than the incident being seen as an advertising coup by Turner, the "underground" campaign should result in a backlash.

Employees of Turner let panic reign.

Not cool.