Who Should Fall on the Sword for the ATHF Fiasco?

Just wondering. Someone had to fall on the sword, and Mayor Tom Menino sure did seem happy when the head of Cartoon Network, Jim Samples, took the plunge and resigned from his post after the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Incident.

Mayor Menino told the Globe, "Somebody had to pay…. He's the one who made all the decisions, and he didn't do anything to react to the concerns. The resignation should really serve as a message that these sorts of marketing tactics should not and will not be tolerated."

Bostonist has defended Berdovsky and Stevens, and maybe it's time to defend Samples. Maybe Samples did approve Interference Inc. to do the marketing for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theatres. But did Samples make "all the decisions"?

Seriously, is it possible for one guy to be responsible for the Mooninite Menace? Surely a whole bunch of "yes persons" - from Samples to Berdovsky and Stevens - helped make it happen without thinking "Uh, this might be a bad idea."

There's one player in the entire mess who's been suspiciously quiet - guerrilla marketing company Interference, Inc. Is anyone falling on the sword over there?

In what struck Bostonist as a remarkable act of cowardice, the company took down their web page on the day of the mess. (It's back up now.) But a few outlets reported that Interference told Berdovsky and Stevens to keep quiet, ostensibly to protect themselves and Turner Broadcasting. Even if they are as innocent as baby lambs, that kind of behavior has a whiff of guilt.

A few guerrilla marketers turned the blame back on the companies, saying companies play dumb to get the maximum amount of publicity. Others flat-out encourage guerrilla marketers to break the law. "One guerrilla agency exec told Brandweek that a client had asked him to deliberately break the law to get publicity."

From just a few paragraphs, it's clear that no one person is to blame. A few people say Boston is to blame, and they wouldn't be wrong about that, either. So why should one guy lose his job and two guys almost wind up in jail when Menino's got the money and all is hunky-dory?

Image of the legendary Mooninite off a T-shirt off eBay. Maybe T-shirt makers are the real winners in the Mooninite Menace.