May 5, 2008 -
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle... Morons!N'Gai Croal, Brian Crecente, Stephen Totilo... Losers!
So sayeth Glenn Beck, anyway.
Beck exploited the popularity of the Grand Theft Auto IV phenomenon again this evening. It was Beck's second GTA IV-themed segment in the last few days.
GamePolitics readers will recall that Beck allowed Jack Thompson to smear the ESRB and several major retailers last week without once advising his CNN Headline News audience that they were listening to a lawyer facing possible disbarrment.
Dr. Cheryl Olson, co-author of Grand Theft Childhood was Beck's guest this time. She was quite reasonable, but Beck made faces during certain parts of her commentary.
The highlight of the segment came when Beck played the role of the martyr:
I will tell you that all these video gamers... they're bloggers, as well as video gamers - they're writing all kinds of stuff about me [that] I'm the enemy now of video gamers. I could care less about video games. Video game bloggers? They're losers...
UPDATE: Mark Methenitis, an attorney who pens the excellent Law of the Game blog, has written an open letter to Glenn Beck regarding Jack Thompson's appearance.
Comments
I know you are, but what am I?
Dear Mr. Beck.
I am a huge fan of your show and enjoyed An Inconvenient Book greatly; I'm a twenty year old Conservative college student living in Greeneville, Tennessee. And I am am glad to see someone championing conservative values on a network typically associated with the liberal media, especially with your sarcastic humor.
However, this is why it greatly concerns me that you've taken it upon yourself to target Grand Theft Auto 4 in your recent TV programs. GTA 4 certainly has no place in the hands of children, and retailers--and especially parents--should strive to keep it from their hands if possible. However, your calling for the game to have an AO rating was uncalled for and equivalent to censorship. You mentioned that it would keep the game off the store shelves of Wal-Mart and Target. This is true.
What you didn't say is that it would prevent the game from having any console release at all.
Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft all prohibit games rated Adults Only from appearing on their consoles; the only way it could be released for adults to play would be a PC release, which even then could only be downloaded or ordered off the internet (even GameStop does not currently stock AO-Rated games.) It would stifle sales and make it difficult for even mature players to play the game. (I know my computer could never run a game with graphics the caliber of GTA4, so a PC release would be out of the question for me.)
An AO rating is tantamount to censorship, and as a Conservative I am always against it. Censorship is the Left's turf, a strange and foreign ground that I dare not tread.
If the government forced the ESRB to change rating, it would violate the first ammendment, and if the ESRB did it voluntarily, Rockstar would simply cut out the most offensive elements and resubmit it for a second rating. The hookers and most of the violence would still be in the game, as they've been in every iteration of the series since 2001.
I've played every console GTA since Grand Theft Auto 3; I've played Mortal Kombat since I was ten years old, and other violent video games since I've been old enough to handle the controls. Yet in school the only fight I've ever been involved in was breaking up a throw-down between two girls as a high school Junior. I have maintained a 3.9 GPA at my college and hope to soon resume work on my first novel. The only trouble I've ever had with the law was a minor traffic violation. If anyone is a case study as to whether violent video games are signficatnly harmful to an otherwise well-raised individual, I think I qualify. Parents and peers, not media, are the primary factor in how an individual develops, and assuming that some violent fiction can undo that programming is an insult to the work so many parents put into raising their kids. (And the real troubles of the current generation are largely an indictment of parents who have failed to raise their children correctly, not of the trashy media that these teens revel in.)
By all means, remind parents to keep violent and sexually charged video games out of the hands of their children. But please don't call for what amounts to censorship; that's not the Conservative way, nor is it the American way.
A friend of mine made an observation the other day that I thought I'd share with you.
"In Grand Theft Auto 4, it is possible, but not necessary, to pick up a hooker, have sex with her, then kill her and take your money back. In that sense, it is exactly like real life."
Thanks
For every Rush(yes I like Rush,deal),you get a dozen O'Rileys'
____________________
Regarding the Glenn Beck show:
I was disappointed with the uneven coverage Mr. Beck has provided this past week regarding video games (in his two segments on Grand Theft Auto 4). First, his guest last week, Jack Thompson, has just been through a disbarment hearing with the Florida Bar for his abrasive tactics in his "anti-gaming crusade." To bring him on as an expert witness and not once mention this rather glaring fact is a failure to provide Beck's audience with the full truth of the matter.
Secondly, Beck brought Dr. Olsen (co-author of "Grand Theft Childhood") on as a counterpoint guest but seemed completely uninterested in letting her actually discuss the findings presented in her book. Especially paired with the UK's recent Byron Report, "Grand Theft Childhood" makes a lot of gamers - like me - hopeful that our society might finally have the chance to put the sensationalism aside and begin a constructive *dialogue* about children and video games. Beck seems far more interested in preserving the fear-driven status quo than in possibly hearing an opinion that runs counter to his own preconceptions.
Lastly, I feel the need to comment briefly about Beck's quip, "Rated 'M' for Money." The MPAA's movie rating system has at the top of its system an R rating - under 17 requires permission/accompaniment by an adult - and NC-17, which may not be viewed by someone 17 or younger. This system, which is entirely voluntary, is embraced by the vast majority of Americans as effective in helping guide their children's movie-watching choices. The ESRB's system includes T (Teen, ~13 and up), M (Mature, 17 and up), and AO (Adults Only, 18 and up). In fact, the advisories are identical, and their content thresholds for sex and violence are similar (if anything, M is slightly less forgiving than R). Grand Theft Auto 4 includes no more graphic depictions of sex and violence than an R-rated movie; to claim it deserves an AO rating is baseless. More, it is irresponsible of Mr. Beck to misrepresent the ESRB's rating scheme to his viewership, especially in light of everything that organization has done to *help* parents make educated choices about their children's gaming habit.
This country needs dialogue, not finger-pointing, if both sides of the argument are ever going to come to an understanding. I'm still waiting for a reporter brave enough to rise to that challenge. Beck, having already dismissed all online gaming journalism personalities as "losers," is clearly not that reporter.
-Dan J
All of those things are perfectly within the M rating.
It is how extreme these things are portrayed that determins the difference between a M rating and AO rating.
So therefore, this guy is only just exagerating if he has not even played GTA yet.
I was happy to know that at least the author of Grand Theft Childhood had a chance to tell the audience about her reaserch and her findings that was based on talking to kids who have played GTA and it was really positive how she pointed out that you don't need to access all the bad things like Prostitution in order to win the game.
She should also could have talked more about the general missconceptions of GTA, but by the way Glenn Beck was looking at her thinking that he did not believe what she was talking about, it looked like he would not chance his mind because he had been perswayded by Jack Thompson
Also calling Videogame Bloggers and generalising them as loosers and saying he could not care less about Videogames is just not really professional journalism.
M rating is for Money????
Another deeply negative generalisation... not all M rated games sell heaps of copies of games, or else Nintendo would have gone bust right now.
Nintendo has made heaps of money from their success and popularity of their Wii games and DS games, but have they made any M rated ones???
Thus, this is the reason why the Videogame Industry needs people within the industry to stand up and defend Videogames, because no one will listen to the game bloggers who are perhaps the most informed people because gamers are the people who do play the Videogames, but not many would listen.
So if you put all the things together, he is saying they are downgrading society in a way I guess. I don't see why thats unreasonable. I think he has a point. But I think most of the blame is with the doctors who put everyone on drugs.
Doesn't anybody else think it's funny that he makes a point about saying this when he says he doesn't care?
The only problem is I doubt Rush knows or cares much about the games debate since he usually spends his time on the broad strokes.
And I don't think anybody cashing in on the GTA scare should be throwing around the term "loser." Come on, at least come up with your own material and have the decency to listen to your guests without pulling childish faces. Most of us got over that phase when we were in kindergarten.
/GTA4 reference
----
Papa Midnight
"Gamers? Losers?! Inconcievable!" :D
I didn't watch the broadcast and I'm not going to watch the YouTube video. From what I've read here, Beck reacted exactly the way I expected him to. To actually see it played out would only serve to infuriate me.
I'd say spam, troll and otherwise Zerg rush the sucker to the point where we make his life miserable. But Nightwing is right; emailing him would be about as useful as emailing JT. You can lead a horse to water and all that. The guy's mind is already made up and if that's the case, all the emailing in the world won't change it. Sometimes it's best to let an ignorant jackass remain an ignorant jackass. He's in the minorty, and despite whatever he and JT may say, our side has been steadily gaining traction.
This is a war, and once in a while the enemy is bound to get a few hits in. That's a given. But slowly and surely, we are winning, and time is on our side.
Yep. All the old people are starting to die off. Time is definitely on our side.
Unfortunately it made us look like a bunch of psychos.
That was rabid and uncalled for. You're the kind of gamer moron that those like JT use to 'prove' their point. That sort of hate is exactly the same thing that motivates Thompson.
Glenn Beck is not an irrational jerk like Jacko, He's just got a strong and very misguided opinion. We may not be able to change his mind, but we can at least force him to rethink his viewpoints by throwing the facts at him.
The gaming world thinks you are a hack..just leave us alone..shoo shoo shoo!!
Wow, thats is a whole new kind of despicable
lol M for Money, its funny because its true
I think Jack Thompson said something similar to that.... didn't JT tell a kid to go get good at a suicide game?
Oh no... gnome, you're turning into a Wacko-Jacko!! Quick, go take 20 large doses of GTA and drink 3 cups of Mortal Kombat. That'll fix you up.
And on a side note I noticed that the Announcer in GTA IV's radio station WKTT sounds remarkably similar to Glenn, both in tone and speech, go figure.
I prefer Jon Stewart's old joke about the M rating
'Many people feel the M for mature rating is too vague and totally inaccurate in describing anyone who plays video games. Future rating suggestions include D for drop-out W for wastoid and CTMB for child trapped in man's body ... that would be me.'
Yes he said (possibly paraphrasing) "Go play a suicide game and get really good at it."
I'm just feel so bad I don't have a respectable job like you - I just keep multi-millions of dollars of production going each day, that your silly network would fall apart without. While you are a talk show host!!!
So perhaps I'm a loser - but I'm a happy loser, content with myself and life.
We already have seen the power of the blogger/VG voices. Instead of doing anything rash that reflects poorly on us, please send polite and civilized emails and comments to Glenn Beck.
He will probably just ignore it, but make sure that you don't make him out to be 'an enemy of the VG community'.
Because if he wasn't before, he certainly made it easier...
I'm just glad he didn't accidentally slip the word "whore" into her name when he announced it.
That is all.
"Glenn Beck Ratings" - it says about all that needs to be said.
*Tries SOOOO hard not to bomb...*
*Knows it will only hurt us in the end...*
*GRHHHSshhvhsvk*
1. Trash GTA
2. Bring on Thompson
3. Double Trash GTA
4. Insult video game fans and bloggers
5. ???
6. PROFIT!!!
Seriously, Beck is doing this for the instant extra few thousand viewers because almost no one bothers to watch Headline News let alone his show, because all he is trying to be is a slapstick version of Rush Limbaugh on a traditionally liberal network. He knows insulting popular culture will incite hundreds of people to come rushing in defense of it because this generation is protective of it's new culture and the prior generations don't understand it, and refuse to.
Beck will be old news soon enough. I prefer to be playing Mario Kart Wii.
I pointed that out in the last article that was posted about this moron. I guess my statement still stands, huh?