Fox News vs. Modern Warfare 2

According to our friends at Game Politics and the Entertainment Software Association, Fox News will be taking on the contrived controversies of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 this morning on the Fox & Friends morning show.

The ECA, which owns and operates the Game Politics blog, received an email from FOX News at around 11 a.m. EST on Tuesday asking to speak to an “expert gamer” about the controversies surrounding the game. Here’s a quote from that email:

“I write to inquire about a possible interview tomorrow on Fox & Friends. We’re the morning show of the Fox News Channel, and are planning on doing a segment on the new Xbox game, Modern Warfare 2. We’re hoping to have a debate on the game, and would love to speak to an expert gamer on the controversies surrounding the game. The debate is for 6:50am tomorrow morning, on camera.”

The email was sent to the ECA’s Jason Andersen, director of PR. The ECA declined to take part in the discussion, because according to GP, Fox News would not offer any details on the discussion planned for the segment. We all know how their last major segment on Mass Effect with psychologist Cooper Lawrence, so sending someone in there blind seemed like a bad idea, no doubt.

The segment will run on the morning show at 6:50 a.m. EDT, according to GP.

The Top 21 News Stories of 2008: 14 - 8

(Contributors: Tom Ohle - CD Projekt RED, Rich Carlson - Digital Eel, Eric Holmes - Radical Entertainment, and Game Trust members Evan Narcisse, Gus Mastrapa, David Chapman and James Fudge)

We continue our countdown of the Top 21 News Stories of 2008, with #14 - #7, starting now. If you missed the first part of our countdown featuring David Chapman, James Fudge and ECA President Hal Halpin, you can check it out right here.

Next: #14 –>

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

ECA to FNN: Correct the Record on Mass Effect

The Fox News pile-on continues as gamers, organizations and companies tied to the industry continue to demand a correction from the cable news network for its mischaracterization of Mass Effect.

Hal Halprin of the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) is the latest to issue a letter to the producer (Teri Van Horn) of last week’’s Live Desk segment in which several misstatements about the sexual content in Mass Effect were tossed around as fact. On Friday, Paige Lawrence, self-help author and a participant in the segment, admitted to the New York Times that she misspoke. Last week EA VP of Communications Jeff Brown sent a letter to Fox News asking them to correct the record on Mass Effect and gamers sent a message to Lawrence using Amazon.com’’s review system to give her latest book a negative rating. Below is the bulk of what Hal Halprin sent to Fox News:

On behalf of the [ECA], the national non-profit organization representing American video game consumers, I urge you to correct and repudiate the misstatements leveled by Fox News’ Live Desk regarding the story and character interactions in Mass Effect.

Your show’s reporting was irresponsible and incorrect. Your own expert Cooper Lawrence has subsequently disclaimed her misstatements… In the future, we ask that you book real gamer and industry experts on your show…

ECA’s members are disturbed by your news organization’s apparent disregard of the truth in this instance. We represent a diverse group that cuts across all ages, with the weightiest portion in the coveted 18 - 45 age group, and with women accounting for 38% of gamers. Over the past week, our members have mobilized to speak out and set the record straight on Mass Effect, and we ask the same of you.

While Fox News is certainly used to public ire over its programming, this is the first time that game companies, gamers and trade organizations have attempted to flex their collective muscle on an issue. Perhaps this unification is due to the fact that Mass Effect is in fact a pretty tame game despite its Mature rating — something Fox News could have figured out on their own just by doing a tiny bit of research beyond clips found on YouTube. Go figure.

Jack Thompson Defends Mass Effect?!?

I often lament how every time Jack Thompson (full time anti-game activist and part-time attorney) sends out an email someone has to write a story about it — and yet here I am compelled to go against my own gut instincts because this is actually newsworthy. Brian Crecente over at Kotaku solicited Jack’’s opinion on the whole Mass Effect controversy that has been in the news over the last week and his response was rather…shocking: Jack says that it’’s a bunch of nonsense. What?

In talking to Jack about his recent e-mail related to GTA IV‘’s release, Brian asked Thompson for his opinion on the whole Mass Effect controversy that continues to unfold:

I don”t see any problem with it. The guy who shot his mouth off about it had no idea what the Hell he was talking about, Thompson said in a follow-up email. Thompson added in another email: This contrived controversy is absolutely ridiculous.

One point of clarification — I assume when Thompson says the guy, he is referring to the Townhall.com blogger and not self-help author Paige Lawrence. If he is referring to Paige, then it might be time for Thompson to get a new pair of spectacles, or for Lawrence to get an extreme make-over.

Fox News Gives EA Letter Little Acknowledgment

In a follow-up to an earlier story (insert link here please from previous story) about Electronic Arts” Vice President of Communications Jeff Brown sending a letter to Fox News about a segment mischaracterizing the sexual content in Mass Effect, it turns out that the cable news network has basically given EA the old brush-off, according to a report in GameDaily today.

Brown says that Fox News has told them to contact its PR department. EA is undeterred by Fox news” apparent muted response, as it is one of the very first companies to figure out that the industry as a whole has a big red target on its back.

We”re not giving up, Brown told GameDaily. EA is under new management now and [EA CEO] Riccitiello’’s made it clear that we”re going to stand up for our creative teams and the games they make. We”re going to fight back. There’’s a lot of nonsense about gaming coming out of politics, government and media — John wants us to start calling them out on it.

It will be interesting to see how EA fights back and whether or not other pundits and personalities on Fox News and other networks decide to jump into the fray.