May 2, 2008 -
Anti-game attorney Jack Thompson and Gavin McKiernan of the Parents Television Council appeared on the Glenn Beck program last night on CNN Headline News.
The first clip is Beck's opening. Thompson and McKiernan appear in the second clip.
GP: Big thanks to several GamePolitics readers who uploaded and/or pointed us to videos of the show...
The first clip is Beck's opening. Thompson and McKiernan appear in the second clip.
GP: Big thanks to several GamePolitics readers who uploaded and/or pointed us to videos of the show...
Comments
Anyways, there JT goes again, making up stuff thats not in the game, again.
This is the same guy who declared that Rev. Wright is the most dangerous man in America...
As far as I know a leader needs to be two things, an innovator and a communicator. And Glenn Beck sure doesn't sound like an innovator to me.
I sure wish big news networks would stop putting extreme left or extreme right views to the pulpit because at heart, most Americans are more Centrist than anything. You can't put a giants and a midgets in a room and call it a diverse group. What's missing is everyone in between.
I'm SOOOOOOOOOOO sick of Conservative bullsh*t!!!!!!
Why in same f*ck can't they keep their mouths shut about things they know nothing about?!
Way to buy into the anti GTA hype machine Glenn. Taking anything Jack Thompson says as fact makes you a fool. Perhaps you should read Grand Theft Childhood before you go on spouting off from your soapbox.
But what would I expect from anyone of you "journalists". You're all a bunch of manipulative liars with their own agendas. You don't report news, you shape it for how you want it to sound.
Here's your homework: go look into the career of Jack Thompson, his lies, his debarrment hearing going on in Florida, and his unprofessional conduct and report on that. Oh, right, that would involve doing some actual research. Something you haven't done probably since a 3rd grade science project that your parents probably had to do for you anyway.
but did you notice that they neglect to tell people that women play this game too?
And they neglected to have anyone to speak on the behalf of the videogames!
wow...just wow
Blah, it's like the Mass Effect Cooper crap all over again.
Also, what about female gamers?
Pardon my french, but that is the most fucked up display of journalism I have ever seen...
also, there is way more to the game than the whole hooker thing, yet they seem to be focusing on it as the main point of the game. Its stupid sensationalism. I played GTA3, (which was the first 3D one, not the first one) and didn't even know about the whole kill a hooker thing until the news told me.
Good work there protecting people.
I liked how they failed to include anyone in the discussion that might be able to provide counterpoint. Oh no, just Jack Thompson, consummate idiot, some douchebag from Pushing Toward Censorship, and Glenn Beck is no better. I'm fairly certain JAMA never said the advent of television was the cause of a doubling of the homicide rate, more likely that it was merely correlative.
I'm definitely contacting CNN and making my voice heard. We proved how effective a force we can be when we band together (Mass Effect and Cooper Lawrence), so I hope we can continue the trend.
i suggest everyone do the same.
"Killing each other is not a natural instinct" So all those wars that happened through out history (the Crusades, French Revolution) they were caused by what?
Good Old Jack. Notice how he doesn't mention the fact that Devin Moore was convicted of those murders despite his GTA made me do it defense. Plus he even slipped in the Virgina Tech shooting even though that had nothing to do with games.
My favorite was Jacks rant that GTA IV MA rating was a criminal conspiracy by the ESRB to sell this game to minors. I didn't think it was possible but I think old Jackie has finnally gone of the deep end. Why would the ESRB who has no financial stake in this game care about how well it sells?
um actually it really is...
have a look at nature dumbass. Territory is highly contested between members of the same species and nearly always results in violent displays and often death of one of the two.
And is there a chainsaw in GTA IV? I havn't got it yet.
Well GTA didnt really do all that much to our kids or our cops Soooo by those statistics kids SHOULD play the game, and adults shouldnt.
/sarcasm
I think everybody was thinking that before, when he
- Made light of a gamer that committed suicide
- Sent gay porn to a court docket
- His 'Picture Book for Adults'
- 'I'll depose President Bush'
- 'I'll depose the Department of Defense'
- Uses his son and wife as scapegoats for his infantile behavior
- Generally acts like he knows what being a lawyer is
He is just one man
I like how jack is like a robot, wind him up and point him at an interview and all you get is "60 Minutes, Counter-Strike, Murder Simulator" and so forth
"There's no doubt in my mind or in the mind of Ed Bradley" Yeah, but the police, the court system... they don't really believe you.
"You can have oral and anal sex" No I'm pretty sure you can't.
"Thousands of studies have shown the effect..." No. No it hasn't.
"This is the game your son, boyfriend or husband is playing" Ehm, girls don't play GTA?
Also, I haven't seen any school shootings in GTA IV, nor have I seen a rise of prostitute beatings, so I'm not sure what their point is.
~~All Knowledge is Worth Having~~
And people wonder why there's a growing drop in viewer-ship of the 24-hour cable news networks.
So the comment that the sex was taken out even for adults here is a total lie.
Get your facts straight Thompson.
And pretty poor there CNN taking the road of sensationalism rather then journalism.
I added the bold face in case the BlockQuote didn't work.
EDIT: The BlockQuote worked, but...
its just another news network now
im sure someone will volunteer to show up on there to refute his claims soon
Simple truth is, I used to have a friend who was a gun owner, pretty strong in his convictions. He once told me that he found it fairly hard to understand, that I could be so squeamish around his guns (I pretty much treated them like live serpents), and yet go completely postal on him in Unreal Tournament. I honestly didn't know how to respond to that, I would've thought the answer would be obvious.
As for the three words "Grand Theft Auto" sending chills down parents' spines, well, GTA IS NOT MEANT FOR KIDS. Actually, if I were a parent, I might allow my child to play GTA, but I would be certain he or she knew the difference between fantasy and reality.
So, after Mr. Beck makes his ridiculous rant about GTA IV, he then introduces Gavin McKiernan and Jack Thompson. Wait, this is journalism? "I hate GTA, and here to debate are two people who agree with me?" At least in my day, biased journalism was bringing someone of the opposing viewpoint and interrupting them every two seconds. This would be like having a Reagan vs. (GHW) Bush debate.
Oh well, it's things like this that make me glad I don't pay attention to TV.
----
Papa Midnight
I skipped it and I'm glad. I'm also glad that my work blocks those clips because I don't think I'd want to see them. This kind of mastabatory circle jerk disguised as news is one of the reasons I don't watch "news" anymore. News stations and interviewers are more about spreading their own personal truth then finding what the actual, or at least higher, truth really is.
This "interviewer" already had his own feelings on the subject, his own opinions, and so he sought out two people who share those opinions and pretends to interview them.
What were you expecting? Were you expecting them to be called out on any falsehoods, and wrong assumptions? Did you expect them to actually look at the game? Were you expecting them to say "the flying in the game is actually quite relaxing"?
No, they would feed on their own ignorance, like three snakes eating eachothers tails.
And i nearly burst out laughing at the psuedo monatage of the prostitute killing clips lol.
just remember kids... MURDER SIMIULATOR!!! hahahahahaha.... well gee jack, i'm 17 and have played every GTA out there and i haven't killed anyone yet! Whoops, the game industry must've slipped up there huh... i'm an anomaly i guess, because none of the results of your numerous medical studies seem to have been applied to me yet.
Another flaw in your plan, don't you think that most kids with the slightest bit of morality in them would see that it is in fact wrong to pick up a gun, steal a car and shoot 3 cops? Because i sure as hell would, y'know why? Because my parents saw fit to instill a sense of right and wrong in me from a young age.
One final thing, its hardly a simulator is it? If i could pick up an RPG7 and blow up a car in the middle of the street and get 1 police car turn up as a result, i think the pollice would have a lot to answer for!
1. I love how JT stated that he was suing Target, Walmart, Best Buy and GameStop for training Seung-Hui Cho and Steven Kazmierczak how to kill (never mind that the perpetrators were 23 and 27 respectively, well over the 17 year old minimum to purchase M rated games, but hey, who needs FACTS anyway...)
2. Not going to defend the show, or the idiot behind the desk, but Glen Beck is hardly what you would call "Journalism." His show is an opinion show and, unfortunate as it is, he is allowed to be as stupid as he wants on it.
I'm assuming the whole thing was dumb and incredibly one-sided.
I just lost a massive amount of respect for Glenn Beck.
Actually... Yes, that's exactly what I thought.