January 28, 2008 -
Hal Halpin, president of the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA), has weighed in on the Mass Effect episode, calling on Fox News to correct its smear of the popular Xbox 360 game.In a letter issued this afternoon to Fox News' Teri Van Horn, producer of last Monday's offensive Live Desk segment, Halpin wrote:
On behalf of the [ECA], the national non-profit organization representing American video game consumers, I urge you to correct and repudiate the misstatements leveled by Fox News’ Live Desk regarding the story and character interactions in Mass Effect.
Your show’s reporting was irresponsible and incorrect. Your own “expert” Cooper Lawrence has subsequently disclaimed her misstatements... In the future, we ask that you book real gamer and industry experts on your show...
ECA’s members are disturbed by your news organization’s apparent disregard of the truth in this instance. We represent a diverse group that cuts across all ages, with the weightiest portion in the coveted 18 - 45 age group, and with women accounting for 38% of gamers. Over the past week, our members have mobilized to speak out and set the record straight on Mass Effect, and we ask the same of you.
Full Disclosure Dept: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.
Comments
Zachary, unless some of these companies threaten to pull their ads off of Fox channels, Fox News will not retract anything. They live for this shit.
Anyway, it's good to see so many people finally coming together and standing up against these sorts of bald face lies. It's actually shocking that even Jack Thompson stood up for Mass Effect in a way.
Apparently Jack Thompson belives Cooper Lawrence is a guy, but in some emails to someone at Kotaku, he said that "The guy who shot his mouth off about it had no idea what the Hell he was talking about." (referring to Lawrence), and that "This contrived controversy is absolutely ridiculous."
http://kotaku.com/349423/jack-thompson-defends-mass-effect
Then I quit reading cause clearly this guy knows nothing!
J/K Great post, and it's like Colonel Finn has said, this even has come and gone now.
Of course. It's not Take Two, Counter Strike, The Sims, or Halo. He has no beef against Mass Effect yet.
@ Mad_Scientist
To Thompson's quote: “The guy who shot his mouth off about it had no idea what the Hell he was talking about.” (referring to Lawrence). Man, there are so many ironic points that can be made about this I don't even know where to start...
I think it's time the ESA stands up and defends the industry that they're supposed to represent.
~~All Knowledge is Worth Having~~
Good Luck!
or maybe my nostrils have finally gotten rid of thomspon's stink after all the months of silence.
It takes some time for these things to be written. you don't want to be too hasty, as that can cloud your judgement. But there is also the idea that he had to wait for a certain level of outrage from the organization members.
Regardless I am glad to see the ECA standing up on this issue.
I do wonder how many high profile companies and organizations it will take to get Fox News to retract their segment. So far, we have a multitude of gamers, EA, Bioware and the ECA. Cooper has retracted her statements. So we are waiting for ESA and Microsoft.
Any others I am forgetting?
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
That said, I have my doubts that this will even be acknowledged by Fox.
So, should we sing the International or the Super Mario Brothers Theme?
I suppose the EMA might shuffle over to our side of the line, though I doubt it. Also, I'd maybe put the New York Times under "our" column, at least tentatively, since they posted the correction.
Hmmmm.... maybe their should be a Goodwin's for JT. What to call it? Jack's Law? Jack-ass's Law? Jack Vader's Law? Any ideas?
not a good ide.a They control the studio, so accidentally cutting his mic would be an issue.
I'd put the chances of a correction somewhere between slim and none. I wouldn't mind being made a fool of on that, though.
Because if he did, he would be arguing under Fox's terms. He would not get as much time to make his case and set the record straight as other "experts" would to bash Mass Effect, it's developers, and the videogame industry and community. How about Teri Van Horn, Geoff Keighley, ande Hal Halpin go on G4's Attack of the Show where everyone might actually get a fair chance to make their arguments.
EA called. They said the bandwagon for their well timed retraction call just left the station, but another should be along soon.
Of all the things I don't like about G4, their debates are one thing I do like, among others.
Check Kotaku.com. You can find a post in there about how one of the admins was in touch with JT and he actually had no particular objection with Mass Effect. I'll try to find the exact link at some point.
The "band wagon" is still very much waiting for occupants. This is not one of those fly by night operations. This is something that must be battled for years ahead.
So don't diss Hal.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
I know they do get a lot of complaints. Even sadder, if you wander around the political blogosphere, is that people aren't really mad about inaccuracies. They are mad that they aren't innacurately skewed to a given ideology.
Fox News' premise was to make a right wing news channel because others were left wing. Thier whole purpose wasn't to be more accurate than those they thought had it wrong, they just want to be inaccurate the other way.
News has become a niche business. They all "fit" the news to target their target demographic. Things like accuracy, credibility, and integrity have been long lost.
It's disgusting, and it's great to see any of them slapped around a bit. This is a particularly good one to do it with, because it is rare that they are demonstratively wrong and oblivious to reality.
There is no case to be made that the game is pron, that it exploits women, that it is marketed to 15 year olds, or that there is anything explicit in it. Those aren't opinions, those are simply easily verified as false statements.
Since the smear on Mass Effect, or offense to it, doesn't fall strictly along ideological lines, those that would normally offer knee-jerk defense of Fox News don't feel as compelled to. They have made themselves a soft target for criticism with this story.
There would have to be some horrible backlash against their sponsers and advertisers in order for that to happen. Considering their viewer base, won't happen.
Personally I feel it doesn't matter. The real story was told in the New York Times which has much more clout and a larger reader base.
@ECA
Awesome response! It's nice to see such a well written response to Fox's dribble. Kudos!
To those who wish Fox to burn for this, just let it go. They'll simply blame Cooper Lawrence and say she's the one who misled them rather than the other way around.
For miss Lawrence she had learned a hard lesson about the cost of spouting lies and misinformation against a group that may not have a face, but definitely has a force and is intelligent enough to rally for a cause greater than their own individuality.
However, Fixed News will never retract falsehoods nor apologize for false reporting.
However, the question remains as to why the ESA is still silent on the whole thing- its their business and creative merit being dragged in the mud here.
It almost seems like the ESA is just as spineless as it was under Dough Lowenstein!
My best solution for this? The ECA and EA should make arrangements on a different station to bash Fox's coverage of Mass Effect. You hit them in both the wallet (viewership watching another channel) and the ego.
Surely another station would be willing to give them 'Fair and Balanced' coverage?
Fair enough.
@ The Ninth Doctor
What?!?
Please, shut the fuck up. Even an intelligent person who hates windows has to admit that bill gates has done a huge amount of good through charity. Only a stupid fucktard is able to blame every problem in the computer world on bill gates. Please, just shut the fuck up about a man you obviously can't be bothered to know anything about.
Back on topic
@vellocet
So all those videogame laws put themselves through the courts and had themselves over turned.
Has anyone considered that possibly that EA may have asked the ESA to not jump on this? You know maybe? Or is bashing the ESA without wondering why they might not do something the popular thing to do on gamepolitics?
As others have said, you have to be very careful when dealing with the news media. You have to word things carefully and not leave openings.
Its not surprising the ECA has a response sooner than the ESA. The ESA has a large number of members with a lot of money.
The ECA is a consumer group.
Oh, and I completely agree with Hal