January 29, 2008 -
We didn't catch yesterday's Live Desk program on Fox News, but a sharp-eyed GamePolitics reader wrote in to tell us that host Martha MacCallum made mention of the Mass Effect debacle. From the e-mail we received: Martha MacCallum just wrapped up today's Live Desk with Cooper Lawrence's quote from the New York Times.
GP: That would be Ms. Lawrence's admission to the NYT's Seth Schiesel that she was totally winging it with her inaccurate remarks about Mass Effect...
Martha also reiterated that they had invited "Microsoft, BioWare, and EA" to appear on the show.
Still no apology [from Fox News]... I thought it was pretty dirty that they're letting Cooper take the fall. Personally, I feel that Martha's comments on the game BEFORE the debate/interviews were trend-setting, and Cooper was brought on with a pre-existing mindset that Fox planted.
GP: Agreed - and thanks for sending that in!
UPDATE: G4 has a transcript of Martha MacCallum's comments:
Last week we aired a segment about a video game called Mass Effect. There has been some criticism from the gaming community about the segment – on Friday, Cooper Lawrence who was the guest who spoke-out against the game, had this to say in an interview with the New York Times:
(MacCallum reading Lawrence’s comments from Jan. 26th NYT article): “I recognize that I misspoke. I really regret saying that, and now that I have seen the game and seen the sex scenes, its kind of a joke. Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had had heard, and they had said its like pornography. But its not like pornography. I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit.”
MacCallum: That from Cooper Lawrence in the New York Times.
MacCallum: Again, we are inviting a representative from Microsoft, or BioWare or EA, the creators and distributors of this game for an interview with me, on this show to give their perspective of this story...
Comments
Your statement brings nothing of use to the discussion. Either explain how you mean, or be quiet.
Some feel bad for her, I say keep the online assault on her comming for another 6 to 8 months...
We must make it painfully obvious that becoming a lying 'expert' that blames everything on games... is a bad career move...
Know if only Hillary Clinton would say how she really feels about games soon and got a similar reaction before election time and Barack beat her... It would be good for the country and no politician would ever blame anything on games ever again...
I think the Amazon bomb was an appropriate response to her statements at the time, however, now that she has rescinded them and been smeared by Fox I really think any further attacks are just plain stupid and would make us look less like an outspoken (so to speak) demographic and more like a bunch of childish assholes.
She's learnt her lesson. Even if her apology was only to protect her bank balance she still got the message: do some fucking research!
We should be focusing our rage on Fox.
of ethics
seek the truthe and report it....hmmmm, minimise harm (journalists treat sources, subjects and colleagues has human beings deserving of respect)...what they did to BioWare was not respect, BE ACCOUNTABLE (journalists are accountable to their readers, listeners, viewers, and each other......being a lyer is not being accountable
yes there is a code we must follow created by the Society of Profesional Journalists
they are NOT professional
"Theres been some criticism from the gaming community about this segment"; there been "SOME CRITICISM FROM THE GAMING COMMUNITY"? Theres been a whole hell of ALOT of criticism from the gaming community to be accurate (unlike Fox News)! Underestamating us will be something they will regret.
Amen :D
UNITY THROUGH PLAYSTATION NETWORK AND XBOX LIVE
Damn, you had me, right up until you said Playstation Network... :)
Fox "News" is at fault. It's their responsibility to choose their sources and validate the information that is reported on their network.
What they do isn't journalism, it's bullshit. A real journalist or a real news network would ensure that the person acting as an "expert" has verifiable credentials. Fox "News" doesn't do that, they just find someone who's looking for publicity and who's charismatic.
They're basically saying that rather then do any of the real work that is a journalist's trade they will instead just present sources to the audience. That's crap and they need to be taken to task for what they're doing.
@ go fish
Welcome to the field! I hate to be the one to break this to you but it's all corrupt. The trick is to find the least corrupt organization possible and try to do something positive when you can.
Thanks for the positive remark. You said something interesting a few posts back. "We should be focusing our rage on Fox." You made a pretty good point. The real question is how are gamers attack Fox like they attacked Cooper Lawrence? I might have figured it out.
I remember a few months back ago that American Idol's ratings keep droping due to the continued sucess of contestant "Sanjaya Malikar" (and boy did the ratings droped). Everyone was talking about how such a crappy singer stayed on the show. Even judge Simon Cowell was threating how he was going to leave the show if Sanjaya won. There was many theories on why he remained on the show.
The most credible theory was that there is a online movement centered around geting the show canceled by constantly getting the worst singer to win American Idol. The main website behind this was http://votefortheworst.com/
Now you are wondering, "What this has to do with your idea?".
The main reason I metioned American Idol is that Fox News does not have a book of it's own on Amazon. What if we can harness that same energy that was used in attacking Cooper Lawence's book ratings and use it to torpedo American Idol's ratings by having the worst singer win American Idol? It all depends on how many people can we get to "vote for the worst". It could work, the gamers are still VERY pissed off at Fox. The "vote for the worst" message would have to go viral in order to work. But that in its self could be very easy to do seeing how many people posted one star reviews of Cooper's book after hearing it online.
The show is going to begin the main singing contest soon, so that leaves some time to organize. If this works, the gamers can really hurt News Corp. in the wallet. News Corp. is heavily relying on the show to generate money during these rough times (slowdown in the economy, the WGA writers strike). Numbers are one of the gamers' main strengh :)
I said it before and I'll say it again the industry needs to man-up and step-up and do the right thing on behalf of its consumers.
You made a good point. It's just one of the many options that I'm considering. But there needs to be a way to channel that energy used in those one star reviews.
I do agree with you that the game companys need to step up to the chalenge. I think EA should sue News Corp.
Yeah, I agree with Spartan on this. We need an easier way to voice our anger at fox.
I just looked at their "Community" something tells me that it only exists as Fox's fan service to themselves.
Playstation is chatching up and real gamers have all systems
*brushes dust off shoulder*
Haha, no hard feelings aye? I was just being a Dick. I might get a PS3 when they get more games I want and when they come down in price a bit (I'm not going to get a crappy nerfed one).
Give Cooper Lawrence her due, at least she admitted to making a mistake. I guess Fox values the illusion of fidelity over actually being honest... Ah well I don't watch it, or any other Murdoch channelsfor that matter, no skin off my nose.
Gift.
I would like to hope that we gamers are a little more astute than what the non-gaming community gives us credit for.
We do attack them.
But false reporting to get a rise out of your viewership, is just as evil. These are the kinds of actions that lead to further attempts at legislation.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
I so want Ms. Lawrence to do the victim spin against Fox News. She could get so much PR mileage out of this situation it is not even funny. Just imagine her book reviews after a few news cycles.
I'm telling you it will work wonders for her. Shoot she would get asked on all the talk shows because of the cool factor due to the tech aspect of video games, the filth that is Fox, the twists & lies, her sexy looks, and most importantly the payback.
And EA, Bioware, Microsoft, and everyone else shouldn't dignify Fox News with any response.
I agree with you on this, She can just play the victim in this for a while and appear on another news station and attack Fox news for using so-called experts who know nothing on the material. Boom, instant PR.
Also agreeing with you that she is quite attractive.