April 21, 2008 -
As police and city officials in Chicago deal with a rash of recent shooting incidents, the local Fox News affiliate has questioned the posting of ads for Grand Theft Auto IV on buses and buildings of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).And, just like that, CTA president Ron Huberman folded on the issue, telling Fox News through a representative that the ads would be removed.
It's not the first time that Chicago's buses have provided the setting for a GTA controversy. In 2004 Gov. Rod Blagojevich railed against transit ads for GTA San Andreas.
Over the years, GTA transit ads have come under fire in other cities as well. In 2006 Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and others forced the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) to pull ads for GTA Vice City Stories. The transit chief there justified his decision by issuing a policy which equates M-rated games with X-rated movies.
In the past, GTA bus ads have also come under fire in Portland, Oregon and Denver.
GamePolitics is awaiting comment from GTA IV publisher Take Two Interactive. We also sought comment from the ESA, which referred us back to T2.
GP: The GTA IV transit ads shown by Fox News depict neither violence nor sex. Does the CTA reject ads for R-rated movies? Suggestive or violent television programs?
As I've written before, the video game industry needs to assert its First Amendment rights in these cases, which essentially come down to selective censorship by quasi-governmental entities.
UPDATE: I should add that in 2003 a group called Change the Climate successfully sued the MBTA when it refused to run ads calling for a debate on marijuana laws. In that case, the U.S. First Circuit Court held that:
There is direct evidence through statements made by MBTA officials that the reason for rejecting the advertisements was actually a distaste for Change the Climate's viewpoint.
This suspicion of viewpoint discrimination is deepened by the fact that the MBTA has run a number of ads promoting alcohol that are clearly more appealing to juveniles than the ads here.
Comments
Probably. That was the thing about Boston; they took down the GTA ads, but left the Sopranos ads up. This is probably no different.
The first lady interviewed blamed the ads for violence?
Im sorry but if your child is dumb and retarded enough to be persuaded by and ad of a few guys in a lineup, you are a terrible parent.
The second lady with sunglasses was probably the smartest one there and even the FOX decided to bash her comment..
I hope the CTA pays back the money to Rockstar, if you cave in to the retards at FOX you got to pay back the guys who spent over 90 grand on their ads which under my assumption had a contract...
Plus that news anchor is a fool...period...what happened to unbiased reporting?
Sorry, aside from the lying fest that was Mass Effect,what else has FOX NEWS said that was false and misleading?I don't watch much(I may occasionally watch with My Dad)but I keep hearing stories about ho they mislead viewers.
Would you give me some examples?
News Affiliates are pretty much independent. It just seems to me, that people want any excuse to bash Fox News, when they didn't really have anything to do with this story.
As for flat out lying, the Mass Effect thing's the only one I'm aware of. Mostly it's how they birddog their guests whenever they dissagree with the reporters. Oh, and how they fired a lady for not lying on air, and when she sued them, they won. That upset many people.
Not to mention the slanted reporting on the game Mass Effect. I just find it very courious that Fox News or as I like to call them the "Cartoon Network" would rail against so called mature material considering the content that Fox has put on the "Public Airwaves over the years, and the tabloids owned by News Corp and the R movies made and distributed by 20th Century Fox and other studios owned by News Corp. I guess they can only rail against their competitor's smut not their own.
Well for me I need the facts not to told what to think I am more than able to do that for myself.
@ The Edge well you should watch it for a week and see for yourself. Well a major one "The War" but to be fair many lap dogs in the media took part in that one. The echo chamber they call fair and balanced. Isn't there a law regarding truth in advertising. Well I can suggest watch O'Reilly then watch Countdown on MSNBC I think you will get a clear picture on the bias.
You are free to do as we tell you!
You are free to do as we tell you!"
- We Want Your Soul, Adam Freeland
This reminds me of that trainstation in... Boston I beleave that was forced to take down GTA: Vice City ads but was plastered with ads for some brand of hard liqour
I never said it wouldn't I just meant that if GP started to report on more than just games I would trust it as unbiased... although if he did start to become biased I'm sure we would all crucify him... figurativly speaking.
figuratively,
My keyboard for an edit button
So why the buses? It's complete BS if you ask me. I see R rated movies with a lot of violence on bus ads all the time, what makes video games different?
Take a wild guest
"If this were Grand Theft Auto, you'd be home by now."
Sorry.
:-)
It's also nice to know that you won't mention the political affliation of the Governor and the Anti-Gun loser Mayor, because both of them are LIBERAL DEMOCRATS! Just maybe if Mayor Daley let law bidding citizen to own a gun since it's stated in the Consitution your city wouldn't be infested with gangs.
Did I just hear those words coming from a FOX news report...
err rapture watch guys you may want to take a look at this.
Apparently you weren't here when they called Mass Effect pronographic or when they won the right to lie and perhaps you haven't noticed their clear as day bias (oh and the reason we aren't bashing the other news networks is because this story comes from fox not the other networks)
And apparently you also weren't here for the HUGE gun-control debates we've had here. Not all of us are anti-gun (like me for example).
But please ranting nonsensical conspiracy theories are great to listen to especially since Jack has apparently left us.
Oh and neither the governor nor the mayor demanded the ads be taken down so bringing them up would also be off-topic.
you heard it here first.
I'd recommend finding a copy of the Al Franken book "Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair And Balanced Look At The Right", it's a pretty comprehensive accounting of the bollocks in the media. Even if you take the not-unreasonable position of assuming he's hyping it up (Even though he actually cites sources & explains them), there's still a LOT of substantiated stuff.
Right on. At a time where our fare rates are almost increasing again, and a lot of maintenance work is to be done on the rail system, cutting back a few controversial ads doesn't sound like high priority. I haven't even seen one of those ads in the CTA buses so far. I still see a few on giant billboards, though, while riding on one of their trains.
Also, GTA is the only game where I see is aggressively marketed everywhere. No other popular mainstream games come close to it.
You are right Fox News don't express thier left wing views on air, they express their right wing views on air.
*****Off Topic Soap Box Moment*******
So Chicago is the only city with a gang problem and its down to the Mayor's political views; and more guns is going to solve gun crime? And before you decide I am anti-gun I am not, I disagree that more guns is going to make it better, That's like saying to someone with a drug problem take more drugs, or to solve the drug problem legalize drugs, you shifted the problem not solved it; but thats off topic about slanted news coverage and how video games is the cause of society's problems, before that it was TV and movies, Rock music, and way back when in Salem it was witches; but not to mention the problems, of poverty, poor education and lack of economic opportunity as causes .
http://cathodetan.blogspot.com/2008/04/cta-versus-gta-chicago-taxpayers-...
Just to clarify the pro-gun position is (summed up) that bad guys will always get their guns due to the black market so let regular citizens have concealed carry so they can defend themselves they figure if more citizens (who live in those areas) carry concealed guns muggings and whatnot will decrease since the criminals will now fear the armed victim even more (since there are more of them). It's not the same thing as saying drugs can solve a drug problem, since you can't use illegal drugs to cure addiction.
I just pointed of just a few situations where good intentions can lead to adverse out comes; so more guns don't make you safer the same as saying citizens can't get guns in of itself won't fix either. But the US has more gun death and violence than all of the other western contries combined yet something else to ponder.
But I do think gun traing and gun safety would help after all you have to get a license and past a test to drive a car why not something simular for having a gun?? Even law enforcement have to get gun certified and recertified?
The point I was trying to make that just the mere fact of more guns won't make you safer, and keeping guns out of the hands of citizens will solve it either. One approach mayne very harsh sentences for criminals even caught with a gun.
If at some point some game developer tries to run an ad and really needs the ad space and not the controversy-generator, then that's another fish to fry.
I'm not naive enough to imagine the cable network has no effect on the local stations, but there's definitely a difference in content and tone, particularly given how liberal Chicago is in general. I don't think you can apply the Mass Effect issues and so forth directly to this affiliate.