February 15, 2008 -
Anti-video game violence activist Jack Thompson appeared on (where else?) Fox News this morning and once again tried to draw a link between violent video games and a deadly school shooting. In this case, Thompson related games to yesterday's rampage at Northern Illinois University.Although we didn't catch the segment, Thompson e-mailed his comments to GamePolitics, attaching a screen shot from the Fox interview:
I was on the Fox News Channel this morning because of the possible violent video game connection to this latest massacre at Northern Illinois University.
In the e-mail, the embattled attorney related his violent video game crusade to his ongoing struggle with the Florida Bar:
I am certain that the past and future survivors of these incidents will not fully understand why The Florida Bar is seeking to destroy a latter-day Paul Revere... for his telling the truth about companies and lawyers that are spawning, for money, these types of events.
GP: The facts are not yet in on the NIU rampage, of course, but that has never stopped Thompson from rushing to blame video games in the past. GamePolitics readers will certainly recall Thompson blaming the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre on games even while police were still securing the campus.
Among the few details known so far is that the shooter, Stephen Kazmierczak, had a stellar academic record. Press reports describe him as a 27-year-old graduate student, so he was well past the age where any type of video game content restriction would come into play.
UPDATE: Fox is now reporting that Kazmierczak was not taking his medication for an unspecified condition and acting erratically in recent weeks. So, once again, a disturbed person goes on a rampage with a gun, not a video game.
UPDATE 2: GamePolitics Correspondent Andrew Eisen has pointed us to a video of Thompson's Fox appearance (below). Thompson rambles a bit, loses his train of thought midway through and even makes reference to a chapter that didn't make it into his not so highly-regarded 2005 book, as if to say, "look, I predicted this!"
Comments
The shooter in this case was 27.
Andrew Eisen
How dare you Mr. Thompson.
OMFG he said “possible” this time! Could he it be that he doesn’t want to be made to look like an idiot the same way as during VTech?
Obviously not, because he's still claiming that VTech was caused by video games. Curse you, Sonic the Hedgehog!
What I am certain is that past and future survivors of these incidents will not fully understand why Jack Thompson lied and scapegoated something that a little if anything at all to do with those events.
If videogames was the answer to "why did this happen?" it would be pretty simple but it doesn't. It doesn't explain why these events happen every few months in the U.S. and why it doesn't happen in Canada (with the exception of the Dawson college incident) while the youth of each countries play the same videogames.
I do not or ever will understand why someone would chase these massacres and place blame on videogames instead of looking for answers.
@treydawg
Did I miss something? Since when is Microsoft the parent company of Facebook?
So the real wankers are FOX. Jack is the fuckwad in this example.
And @JT
So is what your telling me was that before Vidja Games, that were no such things as shooting in places of learnings, or war, or violence. Wow, I think we need to stop spreading those lies! The children think of the children!
/sarcasm.
I know right I hope someone takes the first few sentences from this video and makes a montage of "Jack Thompson Greatest Moments".
This was such a horrible occurrance and the reason jack went for it so quickly is to get his face back out there before a verdict is given. Jack I agree that violent video games shouldn't be sold to children and a lot of other people do to. So stop blaming people and try to spread knowledge of the rating system around to do some help.
We all need to make Jack see that he is creating a lot more harm than good.
Jazz
Might have been a troll(which I frequently assume such posts are until confirmed), but it is right in the sense Jack "Massacre Chaser" Thompson has been making such hypocritical "I'm not for censorship/I WANT IT ALL CENSORED!" comments for a while....
Look at his history, attacking music industry, attacking the TV/movie industry, radio shock jocks, and it is the same old thing with video games.
He wants actually censorship, wants all games he doesn't like banned for EVERYONE, and he tries to fool people by throwing out a "I'm not for censorship, I'm doing this to protecting the children" excuse from time to time.
And we all know how he loves to avoid or ignore the other, more likely, factors into such horrific events....
Yes you have a very good point. Although my point was I would not say he caused it. He contributes to it because of what he does. But he did not cause it. Thats all I'm saying. Cause is a very strong word here.
I'm a Christian, and I think Jack is full of it. In fact, I really wonder if Jack really even is a Christian. Sort of hard to tell from what he says and does. But as for you, your an idiot for saying that. But you wont listen because your not a Christian. *rolls eyes*
That said, Jack continues to wield (PROVEN) false information with all the grace of an oaken club. Good lucke with that Jackie.
P.S.
Whatever happened with Jack promising to subpoena George Bush? Can we chalk that up as failure # 39162?
Nice idea, but totally unrealistic and highly unlikely to happen. Besides, why would they want to bring themselves down to Jack's level of ... I mean complete lack of ethics?
Like I said before, what they did was appropriate and reasonable given the circumstances. The media can get away with such things, and there isn't anything you can do about it.... But I wouldn't really worry about it because....
Yet along with a certain "person," these "news stations" are pretty much doing damage to themselves. Forgetting the source, this would be the second time such a station has just ran with whatever they could pull out of some orifice along with a so called expert to go with it.
I'm probably not the only one who watches such stuff, only to later wonder what happened to such claims by "experts" when actual information is officially revealed. And usually it is a much more realistic explanation for why such a thing had occurred....
And other traditional media outlets, like MSNBC, are starting to question such actions and claims of those like him.
Note that within the article has a link to the video.
The link's title?
"Shootings Expert Offers Insight".
More like "Self-Proclaimed Expert, who Mentally Molests Families, Individuals, and Communities, Uses Another Tragedy to Lie to and Deecive the General Public in the Name of the Demon-Pretender-To-The-Throne-Of-Heaven That He Worships For The Purpose of Forcing His Peransl, Religious, And/Or Political Beliefs Upon Others in an Effort To Create a Theocratic Dictatorship With Him as the Grand High Poobah".
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Not this again, how many times now?
Hello, it's FOX NEWS!! This accolade is as serious as saying "I was the director of Epic Movie and Meet The Spartans and you haven't filmed any movies. That makes me better than you!"
I agree. I felt that the interviewer has an obligation to keep his guests from veering too far from the questions. Jack Thompson didn't even touch upon the age factor with the case of the NIU shooter, something that his interviewer obviously wanted to talk about. When you consider his current age, the shooter was already over the age of 17 when Counter-Strike was launched, the first time he would've played it.
But instead, his response turned to the usual circular logic of using his past theories and conclusions with Cho Seung-Hui's actions, and projecting them onto this case. And then following a shameless plug for his book, and then more talk about some violent shooting scenes that are not about NIU. I don't think he ever talked about NIU in the video clip we saw.
Thompson was just giving him a slice of his career. I would be insulted if I interviewed someone and one of my questions was responded with "look at how cool I am, and all the stuff I did". I won't care, unless I specifically asked what kind of cool things you did.
Uwe Boll has done more to destroy video games than Jack could ever dream of doing. Look what he did to Far Cry.
Am I the only one that almost spewed a drink from the unintentional hilarity and sheer egotistical nature that it took to make that comment, especially considering he meant it seriously? I was taking a sip of my milk when I read that, and I almost ended up with milk on the screen.
Also, it's almost good to see Whacky Jacky in the news again. Ever since those possible disbarment proceedings started, it's been different not seeing him yelling every time I turn around.
These two combined leads to another question: If Jack is disbarred, but still shouts just as much about video games and such, will that drive the unintentional comedy scale even higher?
----
Papa Midnight
And of course, Faux noise is there to give him air.
Jack Thompson's career in a nutshell. And, bonus nerd points to whoever gets the reference.
Even if there was 100 school shootings happening and the excuse every time was video games it still does not mean anything when it comes to other situations that are way more effective than video games.
But my gut tells me that yes, he probably played video games. I am NOT saying it is a cause! Just good lucking finding somebody who doesn't play video games at all these days. So JT will make sure it will have a gaming connection.
My guess, he will blame the GTAIV posters for sending him over the edge.
I don't see much data on this one anywhere.
Prayers with the families and survivors.
this is what shakespeare was talking bout ( no im not advocating violence)
No mention was made of video games.
The truth will come out, and JT will end up appearing as inane as...well...JT. Nothing else even comes close to adequately describing it.
6 dead, plus the shooter. Several others wounded.
As for this...I'm not suprised, at least this time he waited until the bodies had time to cool before spewing his bullshit all over the place.
What was it?
If there is a god, JT's constant string of lying and using tragedies to boost his own ego is a sure fire way to get to hell. Just saying.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTu0X8TQ2i4
Some days, I hate how fast this crap spreads.
I hope he gets into trouble for the lies he makes so us gamers would not have to deal with him starting any more trouble about video games.
What was it? "
The Bar hasn't come to a decision yet, or else GP would have posted it by now.
As for the news, well, stuff like that is what caused the phrase "massacre chaser" to be coined almost a year ago.