January 31, 2008 -
Stephen Totilo at MTV News has new comments from self-help author Cooper Lawrence, who likely needs no introduction to gamers following 10 days of nonstop coverage of the Fox News / Mass Effect debacle.Lawrence's remarks, issued in a statement to MTV, were mostly conciliatory, although she dug her heels in on a couple of points:
In hindsight, I would have liked to have had the opportunity to play this game before appearing on the program. As a developmental-psychology expert, I was asked to appear on this particular show to discuss the broader issue of video games and their impact on developing adolescents, not as an expert on 'Mass Effect...'
I firmly stand by the research I cited that violence and sexual content in video games has a desensitizing effect on young developing minds.
Lawrence also criticized gamers' guerrilla use of Amazon.com's review feature to trash her book:
I believe that the customer-review feature on Amazon.com is not the appropriate forum to discuss an unrelated news segment. I appeared on a news program that provides an opportunity for debate on topics that have been previously covered by the media. Amazon's customer-reviews feature functions as a platform to review a product sold on their site, in this case my book, the topic of which does not relate to video games and/or 'Mass Effect.'
Previously, in an interview with Seth Schiesel of the New York Times, Lawrence said:
I recognize that I misspoke. I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke.
Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it’s like pornography. But it’s not like pornography. I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit.
GamePolitics Poll: While Fox News rides out the Mass Effect storm unapologetically, Cooper Lawrence has borne the brunt of gamers' wrath.
Given that she has owned up to making inaccurate comments about Mass Effect, our latest GamePolitics poll asks whether it is time for gamers to forgive Cooper Lawrence.
The poll is located atop the right sidebar.
Be sure to vote!
Comments
Not to mention, the most powerful/smart species of them all is the Asaris, which are all female.
I voted Not Sure, because this really is a complex issue. It's true that she spoke without knowing anything, but she did come out and apologize. On the other hand, she only apologized because of what we did to her book (what we did, in my eyes, is pay back for what she did)
my own father believed crap that he read about Mass Effect and told me not to play it, even though i've already beaten it. I tried to show him the sex scene, to show him that it's not bad at all, but he wouldn't sit down and let me prove the media wrong. Now he believes me, but not after the media already set his opinion about the game. I don't really know what to make of this, except that the media can no longer be trusted..
Someone once said that "Blame is for God and small children". Blame the news outlet all you care to. It doesn't change the FACT that she spoke the words. Had she been more thoughtful and concerned for her reputation, not to mention simply honest, she should have said the truth. That she had no first-hand knowledge of the game and that speaking of it wouldn't be fair.
If I hand you a loaded gun and tell you to shoot your mom, are you scott-free to do it simply because I gave you the means?
She used her own free-will and did something stupid. Willful ignornance should be painful and it seems that, in this case, it was.
IMO, YMMV
And I would ask Miss Cooper, if we did not vent our frustrations at you through Amazon, what forum would have been more acceptable? Since neither Fox news nor your own website has means of posting Comments, the best we could have hoped for was an email to both parties.
However, you attempted to publically humiliate gaming culture, and our response to your lies needed to be equally public.
As far as I am concerned, you have done nothing to deserve forgiveness.
However, it's more of an apology then Fox news which hasn't admitted it was wrong at all >_>.
Forgiveness requires that some actual remorse be shown. Now as of yet she has not gone back on a national TV "News" show to say she lied not "misspoke" and would like to set the record straight. When she makes some attempt at correcting or countering the damage she's done on a national scale by her blantant lies, then she'll deserve forgiveness. Until then she should be burned at the stake as an example for all other "Experts." The only proper response she could have given on the Fox broadcast is to say "I'm sorry, but I'm not an expert on this topic. I cannot comment to this example as I have not yet researched the content." That maintains journalistic and scientific credibility. What it doesn't do is get you a future paycheck from the news company.
The real need to come out of this entire issue, is for a cleansing to be done at Fox news. They need to be fined for slander on a national scale. And perhaps even for perpetuating fraud. But until a company (Bioware) steps up and sues them, it will not happen. And no company will do that because as the saying goes... any press is good press. In the end this will not hurt their game sales because we consumers know these people are full of it. And this game is not targeted towards kids. So who cares if they're parents don't go out and buy the game, they shouldn't be doing that anyway.
I really do think EA/Bioware/Microsoft would have a case and their combined resources are MUCH greater than Newscorp, let alone just Fox News.
She probably didn't get paid, but she did get publicity for her book. Fortunately, most of that seems to have been negative.
On the subject of forgiveness: No. She says she misspoke. Misspeaking is when you go on TV and say that candidate A wants to cut taxes by forty percent when he really only wants to cut them by twenty because you're stressed by being on TV and not thinking to clearly. That's a wee bit different from, say, slandering something as pornography without even having seen it.
She hasn't apologized for anything. An apology would be saying, "I'm sorry for lying outright and demonizing something I knew nothing about." She didn't make a mistake, she made a conscious decision not to care and until she recognizes that, no forgiveness.
Second: The fact that she keeps citing "the research" (read: sticking to her guns) as her primary source on the supposed effects of youth psychology when exposed to interactive media, and the fact that she appears unable to examine the issue from any other perspective but her own narrow minded bias, leaves me to believe that she will commit the same mistakes again and again when interviewed. I am worried that she will continue to cite inaccurate sources, and continue to attack gamers rather than try to understand the issue from a objective, and skeptical, viewpoint.
I wrote my negative review of her book, and sent in my angry e-mails. The fact that she is responding to us says that the gaming community does have enough power to generate a response from the big Orwellian dogs at News Corp.
"Forgive." I do not forgive her or that sham of a news program. Will I continue to act? It all depends on who acts next, but we should remain ever vigilant when it comes to congressional legislation, network pundits, and anti-gamer neo-con programming.
I don't care that she is ignorant about videogames I care that she is getting by on the power of her assumed credentials and she doesn't exhibit a single sign of actually having any or at least any from a reputable institution.
Yes, she admitted that she "misspoke", but she has yet to apologize to Bioware for using false statements to smear their game, she has yet to apologize to Geoff Keighley for insulting him on national television when she was in no place to do so, and she has yet to apologize to the gaming community for painting us as sexist, porn crazed freaks.
She also has yet to admit that she should not have been on the show in the first place because she has no expertise what so ever in videogames. She has yet to admit that she did absolutely no research what so ever into Mass Effect, and only got second hand (at least) hearsay information. She has yet to admit that the Fox news story as a whole was wrong and should not have been aired.
THAT'S integrity. So far she has shown none of that.
As far as the book reviews go, she got exactly what she deserved.
Owning up to everything you did wrong, and apologizing to the people you've wronged in the process, THAT'S integrity.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=+%22Cooper+Lawrence%22+psychology+s...
http://www.google.com/search?q=+%22Cooper+Lawrence%22+site:.edu
Violence has existed since the beginning of civilization. And if I remember correctly developmental psychologist did'nt exist in the middle ages to mitigate all the psychos who indulged in bloodthirsty violence.
The repression of sexuality was the result of the Victorian age. In most cultures the level of hypocritical prudery that North America culture indulges in is completely alien to outside world.
In conclusion, Don't fuck with the gamer community.
The whole amazon thing was a good idea.Hopefully it showed others like her that we will not sit by anymore.
She can go to hell.
Thing is, she shouldn't have appered on this anyway even if she knew nothing about Mass Effect because she also doesn't know anything about the "broader issue of video games and their impact on developing adolescents". Simply put, she went there with barely any knowledge about the issue at hand just to have her face on tv.
"I firmly stand by the research I cited that violence and sexual content in video games has a desensitizing effect on young developing minds".
The research that said "male gamers more willing to accepting stereotypes in games than female gamers"? That's a stretch between being more willing to accept stereotypes than being desensitized to violence and sex. Desensitized to sex? Does that mean you're less moved by it after playing videogames? That argument just there, if it were true, would mean the end of the world, think of the drop in births throughout America!
'I appeared on a news program that provides an opportunity for debate on topics that have been previously covered by the media'.
Did she appear on another news program? I thought she only appeared on Fixed News, no opportunity for debate there.
In the end, engaging in the tactics of someone you find despicable makes you just as bad as them, right? We gamers need to find our voice so that we DO HAVE other ways of affecting the outcome of this kind of cultural battle than resorting to guerrilla tactics. EA did the right thing by using its status as a powerful company to demand that some account be made of why their game was slandered on national television. We need to use these kinds of powerful resources in the future, as well as developing new ones.
It's awfully tempting to fight dirty in these situations (lol at the "horse pr0n" comment from earlier) but we need to take the high road. It will make gamers, and our opinions, more effective in the end.
If Miss Lawrence wishes to be taken seriously as an author and a psychology expert then she needs to not let herself be roped into doing tv spots on subjects she is not expert in just so she can promote her book.
It may be time to move on from her, but it is not time to forgive her, nor should we forget her. She's only sorry because it may effect her book sales, not because she misrepresented herself on tv. She will do it again if given the chance.
I also think her Amazon reviews were the perfect place to give uneducated opinions on her book, as it's the only place where people who do not know enough to realize that many of the statements were untrue will be influenced in the same way many non-gamers could have been influenced by her Faux News appearance.
I disagree, I don't believe rating her book was "the low road. Aren't guerrilla tactics the weapon of the weaker force, in the arena of political and social "voice" are gamers not the weaker force?
I can't condone people who wrote things that were obnoxious or untrue. However there is nothing to say that giving it one star and then speaking your mind about how you felt about the author isn't a valid reason to create a review. Not only that, but is is a very effective means to make her accountable... a word that seems a distant echo in our current society.
Debate? I thought she was on Fox?
Move on, sure - the gaming community made a pretty good example of her, after all, and I don't think she'll be back with that kind of misinformed, disingenuous hyperbole any time soon. But forgive her?
I don't think forgiveness is a reasonable request, when she's obviously not sorry about anything other than her potentially damaged book sales.
I'll apologize afterwards too.
I'm kinda tired of people pushing their 'agenda' and then once they get busted and their stupidity is glaring - then they apologize.
Tough, live with it.
I more or less agree with every other commenter here. Her behavior was unprofessional, and now she is only "pseudo-apologizing" because her credibility is suffering after this whole debacle. And I can't help but ponder how she is trying to repair it: shifting from Fox...*ahem*..."news" to MTV...*cough*..."news" - I'm not thinking that's a step in a credible direction.
The media, in general, is no longer credible, because it has not been about actual news in a long time - it's merely an extension of the entertainment business, which makes the hypocrisy all the more laughable. How many books, films, TV commercials, print ads, and so on commit far worse "offenses?" I'm surprised presidential candidates don't have sponsors or scantily clad models following them around...
Stereotypes, sadly, exist because they hold some semblance of truth way too often. But the graphic novel reading, zit popping, toy collecting social misfit image of the "typical gamer" needs to be put to bed where issues like this are concerned, because it no longer represents the median demographic when it comes to gamers. Entities like FOX would see this forest, if only there weren't so many trees in the way.
This whole fiasco is no different than when Camel cigarettes got attacked for using "cartoon characters" to market smoking to children - or when Judas Priest was sued for their complicity regarding a double suicide. The ultimate irony is that people who can't think for themselves are too busy attacking and insulting the ones who CAN...
...end rant.
conned Cooper Lawrence into believing that she was to talk about how video & computer games in general affect what she calls 'young developing minds', not as an expert on Mass Effect.
It is fine that she stands by her comments on how violence and sexual content in games desentized adolescents. I happen to agree with this in part, especially if the parents haven't time to parent their children or just don't care about parenting in general.
The big thing here is that everyone that did critisize Mass Effect, including Cooper and Fox news, seem to have forgotten that Mass Effect is marketed to a M(ature) audiende e.g. those over 17 years or older.
Their minds might be young, but their body may certainly be older than 17 when gamers buy and play this game, Mass Effect. I agree, however, that 11-14 year olds shouldn't be playing this game. Personally, I don't mind 15-17 year old playing this game, even if the Pan European Game Information (pegi) did rate this game 18+ (for reasons best known to themselves, I think).
/Karsten
The strength of her book sales depend on her credibility.
How can she reconcile her credibility as an expert in the field if she is spoon fed an opinion?
If I were a book buyer looking for a credibly written book on the subject, I would expect the 'Fox incident' information to be in the amazon reviews. I would then be able to make an informed decision as to whether I should buy her books or not.
I hope this invites further scrutiny over these television news 'experts'.
'developmental-psychology expert' LOL!
It's very unprofessional to not research the content of which you are about to criticize on national television. With regards to the Amazon.com book review thing, I would think that is something that Lawrence should have reasonably considered as a risk when she decided to lie to the gaming community. Again, if she had researched previous game critics who don't know what they are talking about, she would know that anything about her online is fair-game as far as gamers are concerned. I think this whole thing will blow over eventually, but I'm still upset and not willing to let it go just yet. Just my 2 cents.
She most likely probably would of never apologized if it wasn't for her book taking the brunt of our wrath.
I got a feeling though she probably didn't learn anything.
Why...WHY do all these "experts" all say the same thing and think that the violence in these games WILL IN FACT desensitize kids?....Sure most of these games are not for kids we know this. It'll be our job as parents and other parents to keep these games out of kids hands so they really then can't "desensitize"....also the fact that we know alot of kids out there are smarter then people take them for.
Remember that news report where they asked the kids themselfs as "experts"....
And again, she did not apologize. I don't know why so many people are thinking she did.
At least the poll results show a majority saying "yes". Holding a grudge against a scapegoat is a waste of time and energy anyway. Can we go fry the bigger fish, please?
I think we as a community are tired of the stigma associated with us of being nerdy little boys with potty mouths and are total social retards. The Mass Effect issue was nothing more than the straw the broke the camel's back with a lot of us saying "Enough is enough! You can't treat us like we are outcasts."
I doubt this incident will change the idea that 'they' have about us. At the very least it shows them that we aren't going to be pushed around and will fight back.
"In the end, engaging in the tactics of someone you find despicable makes you just as bad as them, right? "
I see a lot of people glossing over a very important point when bringing this up. There is a very, very important difference between the tactics gamers used in the Amazon Bomb, and the stunt Lawrence pulled on Live Desk.
The gamers admitted up front that they had not read her book, and DID NOT CLAIM any sort of expertise on the subject. I know there were some reviews that were really nothing more than sixth-grade name calling, but the one I left, and most of the others I read that were quite obviously from gamers, were very open, even going so far as to cite the issue with Mass Effect, and explicitly making the logical connection:
"she went on television and trashed this game with completely untrue facts, speaking on a topic she knew nothing about but claimed to be an expert on. As such, there's plenty of cause to believe she's just as full of it in her book as she was on television."
That is NOT the same as what she did; in fact, rather than spreading misinformation and slanderous falsehoods (what she did), the reviews were actually nothing but factual (yes, as I said, with some exceptions). They claimed, citing an example, that she has proven herself willing to claim herself to be and knowingly speak as an expert without the scientific backing required to do so.
Really, the issue is that people left reviews of the AUTHOR instead of reviews of her book. That's close enough for my mind to be at ease.
"Holding a grudge against a scapegoat is a waste of time and energy anyway."
Only if the scapegoat is innocent, which she is not in this case. Does Fox News deserve more of a beating than they're getting? Absolutely. Does she deserve what she's getting? I think that deserves a "yes" as well.
Also:
"I don’t get why people think she didn’t apologize. Just because she didn’t SAY “I’m sorry” doesn’t mean she didn’t MEAN it, and I believe she did."
I can understand the difference in interpretation going on here, but I simply don't agree. It was a very half-assed attempt to "make things right", and I don't feel she is really sorry about anything other than getting caught in her dishonesty.
'An "expert" is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of technique or skill whose faculty for judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely is accorded authority and status by their peers or the public. An expert, more generally, is a person with extensive knowledge or ability in a particular area of study. Experts are called in for advice on their respective subject, but they do not always agree on the particulars of a field of study. An expert can be, by virtue of training, education, profession, publication or experience, believed to have special knowledge of a subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially (and legally) rely upon the individual's opinion.'
In other words, we are all 'video game' experts.
She admitted what she did was wrong. I see more value in that than I do in the words "I'm sorry." Digging for those two insignificant little words at this point would turn this into a "dead horse" issue. After all, she's a "pop psychologist" who bit off more than she could chew when she decided to 1) take on the title (misnomer, rather) of gaming "expert" and 2) defame a game she had never played and knew nothing about. She pissed in the gaming community's eye, and guess what? We blinked. We've had our say, shown her the error of her ways a la poetic justice, and she's backed off and admitted that she screwed up. It's her first offense and, if this experience has taught her anything, it should hopefully be her last. That's why I feel she deserves forgiveness. That being said, this is still going on her permanent record and I doubt any of us will be forgetting this anytime soon.
It's not as easy as that. We have three options to go here on in.
1.) Do the same thing we been doing. Fight clean and let them attack us ten-on-one.
2.) Fight dirty and keep being attacked ten-on-one.
3.) Or the best option, swing the odds back into our favor. When they attack us ten-on-one, we retailate one hundred-on-ten. We can do this and continue to fight clean. Our main problem about going after our enemy is that we fight them on thier own terms and rules. We need to alter where our battles take place. If we can do that, we won't need to fight dirty to win.
To quote myself from one of the other threads on this topic,
"Does anyone else get the impression that Fox News is treating Ms. Lawrence like she is a five dollar back alley crack whore and Ms. MacCallum was just pimping her?
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."
Gamers have been defenceless for far too long. Needless to say, there should be a logical limit to how far we should go, but i'm tired of taking abuse and being penalized for self-defence.
She has still made no attempt to make any ammends for what she said other than saying that she was factually incorrect on a "few" things.
Forget? no.
No gamer should ever forget this event with Fox News or Cooper, regardless of how you feel about the issue, this is historicly important to ALL of us.
Time to move on because gamers made their point?
Probably yes, unless she takes a swipe at the gaming community at large again.
If I called your mum "A $2 crackheaded protitute" on national TV without ever having seen or met her, and then later said that I had 'mispoke' about your parentage, would anyone in their right mind accept that as an appology? NO. Then why on earth should we accept the "I mis-spoke" of someone calling themselves an "expert" that flat-out LIES on LIVE TV to MILLIONS of impressionable viewers and consumers, that Mass Effect contains pornographic content, has no redeeming qualities, and encourages misogyny in males??
So yeah, that's a vote in the NO category for me.