$2m settlement over scare
In accord, Turner backs local response
Turner Broadcasting System agreed yesterday to pay local governments and agencies $2 million as compensation for the guerrilla marketing epsiode that caused confusion throughout the Boston region last week.
Half the money covers police and other costs of responding to reports of possible bombs, but the other $1 million, wrested from the company by incensed mayors, is "goodwill" money for unspecified security and emergency preparedness programs and is to be shared by the affected cities and agencies.
The mayors also pushed for an admission from Turner Broadcasting that the region's high-intensity police response, now comedic fodder at Boston's expense, was warranted.
"We understand now that in today's post-Sept. 11 environment, it was reasonable and appropriate for citizens and law enforcement officials to take any perceived threat posed by our light boards very seriously and to respond as they did," Turner Broadcasting said in a statement yesterday on the cities' response to signs posted throughout the Boston area for the "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" show.
The company also said it is reviewing its policies on local marketing to ensure that future efforts are not perceived as threatening.
The settlement yesterday absolves Turner Broadcasting and Interference Inc., the New York guerrilla marketing company it hired to promote the Cartoon Network show, of any criminal or civil liability. The settlement negotiations went beyond Turner Broadcasting, drawing in Richard D. Parsons, chairman and chief executive officer of the
Attorney General Martha Coakley, the lead negotiator in the settlement, said yesterday she was also negotiating to settle criminal cases against Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28, who were hired by Interference to place 38 electronic signs around the area.
The two men, who have become the public face of the bizarre episode, face felony hoax charges, punishable by up to five years in prison.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston and Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone of Somerville played key roles in pressing for the additional concessions. Menino was pushing for money beyond the direct costs with Turner chief executive Philip Kent within hours of the episode last Wednesday.
Curtatone threatened an independent lawsuit -- the city's lawyers were prepared to file it yesterday -- if his demands were not satisfied.
Menino and Curtatone were adamant that after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a marketing campaign that could be misconstrued as a bomb plot was irresponsible. And both have bristled at critics who have said the signs drew little attention in other cities that were also part of the ad campaign and suggested that Boston-area police overreacted by shutting down highways, subway lines, and the Charles River.
"The folks who second-guessed us because we did go out there and do our work, shame on them, because it's important that we did it," Menino said at a press conference yesterday.
Curtatone said from the outset that he demanded compensation above and beyond police costs, likening them to punitive damages that would discourage future publicity stunts.
"I strongly advocated [to Coakley] that we need to establish the deterrent," he said in an interview yesterday.
Of the $2 million settlement, Boston will get about $485,000, while Somerville will get about $69,000. State Police, the MBTA, the Massachusetts Port Authority, the state Highway Department, the US Coast Guard, and the city of Cambridge will also share in the settlement. Besides the costs of police response, each agency submitted other expenses, including lost fares for the T while trains were not running and the cost of the buses and drivers to ferry stranded passengers.
"I think we got what we were looking for, as far as we could go on this issue," Menino said in an interview. "I think the attorney general did a good job negotiating this agreement."
Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves of Cambridge said that reserving the city's $12,397 share of the $1 million in goodwill money for public safety programs would avoid potential political tussles over how to spend the windfall.
"Public safety looks good to the [political] left, right, and center," Reeves said in an interview.
Coakley said the settlement was the most authorities could have hoped to get from Turner Broadcasting.
"We figured that there's a limit to what we can do," Coakley said. "We can try to get compensation. They agreed to pay more than we would have been able, I believe, to get through a criminal or civil action."
Though the Cartoon Network received considerable attention after the scare, there appears to have been no short-term payoff. Viewership for the first "Aqua Teen" episode to air after the incident was down 100,000 viewers, compared to the night before, then only rebounded to its average rating the following night, according to Nielsen Media Research, which monitors television viewership.
With the corporate part of the case settled, Coakley has only the charges against Berdovsky and Stevens to resolve. After a court appearance last week, the two appeared to ridicule the case in a disjointed press conference, in which they would only talk about hair and which drew considerable public outrage. Lawyers for both declined comment yesterday.
Coakley, handling her first high-profile case as attorney general, said her office was working to resolve the cases.
"I can tell you that as soon as we have reached an agreement or a resolution of these charges," she said, "I will make those available to the public, because I know they are of great concern and I appreciate that."
Donovan Slack of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Janice O'Leary contributed to this report. Mishra can be reached at rmishra@globe.com; Daniel at mdaniel@globe.com. 