As well he should.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Turner Broadcasting has agreed to pay all costs of a security scare triggered by a marketing campaign that disrupted travel in the city for nearly a full day, a spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas Menino said on Friday.

Travel on major roadways and rail lines was suspended as police responded in large numbers on Wednesday after discovering 38 battery-powered devices, which were intended to promote a television cartoon, around Boston and surrounding cities. Authorities blew up one of them.

“They have agreed to pay all costs,” said Megan Maher, a spokeswoman for Menino. She declined to say how much it cost the city to respond to the incident. . . .

In a full-page ad run in the city’s major daily newspapers on Friday, Kent said Turner Broadcasting had talked with city authorities and “pledged to them our full cooperation as we work to understand what happened and why, and then to act responsibly on that information.”

“We did not intend to perpetrate a hoax,” Kent said.

No, they didn’t mean to, but they did because they didn’t think to notify the proper city authorities of their little marketing gimmick.  This whole thing could have been avoided with one phone call to city authorities before the devices were placed.

As I pointed out yesterday, it’s very easy to get all self-righteous and anti-establishment over the City of Boston’s reaction to this when a) you have 20/20 hindsight in knowing what the devices were and b) you aren’t responsible for protecting a city from attacks.

Before anyone accuses the city of overreacting, I think they need to take a moment and consider what it would be like to be the person who has to make public safety decisions about unusual, unknown blinking devices scattered throughout a city.  It’s not an easy task, and the folks in Boston should be given the benefit of the doubt.