Jack Attack on GamePolitics, Part 3: Raising the Bar

Jack Attack on GamePolitics, Part 3: Raising the Bar

July 22, 2007

 (Part 3 of 4)


Game-hatin’ attorney Jack Thompson went verbally medieval on GamePolitics in an interview with the obscure PopZart site during the week of E3. 

In my third year of running GamePolitics, I’ve grown accustomed to Thompson’s criticism, but this attack was remarkably personal in nature, so I feel called upon to respond. Part one of my riposte may be found here. Part two here. Part three follows:
JT: McCauley filed a Bar complaint against me over a year ago, claiming that my tactics were "unethical."  He's entitled to his opinion, and he can even file a baseless Bar complaint.  It was baseless, because The Florida Bar... looked at his ridiculous Bar complaint and threw it into the wastebasket.

GP: Thompson has been the subject of a number of Bar complaints in recent times, filed by judges, lawyers, and yes, GP. In fact, based upon the Florida Bar's investigation of other complaints, Thompson faces a pending disciplinary trial before the Florida Supreme Court.


In regard to GamePolitics, Thompson has posted about my Bar complaint before, and I've made no effort to block his postings.


The fact is that filing the complaint was never something I wanted to do, but under the circumstances in early 2006 (veteran readers may recall those turbulent times) I felt I had no recourse.  A cease-and-desist letter sent to Thompson on April 3rd, 2006 had been ignored. It read in part:




As a public figure, you can expect to be commented on, and not always to your liking... for a long time I resisted calls from readers to ban you from GamePolitics... I thought that you had something to add to the dialogue and that there was benefit in hearing diverse views. 



When the C&D was ignored, the 9-page Bar complaint was filed on April 19th. Thompson's characterization of the complaint as "baseless" is simply his spin. The Florida Bar took four months to investigate and ultimately chose not to proceed. They didn't explain why. The fact that I was neither Thompson's client nor involved in any legal cases with him seems a likely factor. The Bar certainly didn't say my complaint was baseless.




JT: When McCauley filed it, I told him that he had a journalist [sic] obligation... to disclose to his readers that he had filed the complaint.  Why?  Because it's called full disclosure.  It gives all a heads-up that you, a reputed "news" site, have a vested interest in harming someone about whom you are "fairly" reporting.  Any real journalist knows you can't report on a story and at the same time make yourself a player in the story.  



GP: Disclosure was definitely an issue I considered. In the end I decided not to write about the Bar complaint for several reasons. First, I did not file it for the purpose of creating a news item, although it would have been a big story. To do so would have been exploitative of the Bar process and just plain wrong. Next, the complaint was against a man's profession and I had to respect the privacy issues involved. Finally, I was much concerned about legal exposure if I publicized the complaint. From the very beginning of the process I was aware of this warning from the Florida Bar:


Disclosure of the existence of an inquiry or complaint and the contents thereof outside of the disciplinary system may provide a basis for legal action. 


Thompson has chosen to make to my Bar complaint public. If he wants to talk about it, fine. But beyond confirming its existence, I won't discuss specifics, for the reasons listed above.

Comments

@Keith

Agreed.

@Father Time

Well considering all his other lunacy, i suppose keeping a low profile is completely out of reach for him. :/
Jack Thompson, asshole, said
"The reason Dennis McCauley never disclosed the existence of his Bar complaint to you readers here is because he’s not a real journalist. Any real journalist, with any semblance of journalistic ethics, would have disclosed the pendency of the complaint so that readers could consider how “balanced” McCauley’s “news” coverage of me here was."

Um... no. I'm going to have to go with the "I can't talk about it because I'll be in legal trouble if I do" explanation. It makes more sense, especially when it's explained in such a reasonable manner instead of the raving, outraged, half-coherent ramblings of a lunatic. If you're such a great lawyer (failed the bar exam HOW MANY TIMES?) why don't you understand basic law? His confirmation was enough.

"Further, no real journalist would have made himself “part of the story” by seeking a regulatory sanction against someone in the news about whom he was reporting. No one else would have done such a thing and claimed to be objective."

He felt he had no choice. Given your behavior at the time, if someone had been that rude to you and people you were having a conversation with, threatening them with legal action, 'Godwinning' them, etc... can you honestly expect anything less? You're asking him to be a punching bag for your abuse. If I were in Dennis's shoes at the time, my responses to you would have been much less of the "legal action" type of response and much more of the "lighting metric tons of dog shit on fire on your front step" type of response. In short, Dennis was REASONABLE, and did what any reasonable person could expect.

"Additionally, Dennis has not told you all that the St. Paul Pioneer Press told him to stop referring to himself as a columnist for that paper when in fact he was not. "

Yes he did. He explained that in full, quite a while back. Got some selective memory there, Jacky boy? He told us that AGES ago.

"Dennis McCauley has thus become nothing more than a shill for the video game industry, as his apparatchik status with ECA indicates. Real journalists cover an industry without becoming part of the industry they are covering.

How sad. How dishonorable. How typical of the video game industry."

The ECA is a consumer group, and does NOT work for the video game industry. Are you truely so paranoid that you can't tell the difference? He's not part of the industry, he's part of the consuming group of the industry - in short, he's little different from a book critic discussing the goings on in the literary world! It's a very simple concept, and I don't see what's so hard to understand about that. Really - just try. You've evidently got a FEW brain cells left to rub together, or else you couldn't breath without mechanical aid. Try using that thing in your head for more than keeping your ears apart, and you may just realize how inane your comments really are. Your lies aren't even believable anymore, they're just pathetic.

"Jack Thompson"

Mnementh2230 - a.k.a. Steven Landes
yup, its me again, jack-ass. I've whupped you here before, and I'll do it again. Long live LOGIC.
To Murry,

"Jack sure likes to make sure everyone knows what he does for a living. I wonder what he’ll do if he gets disbarred. Start posting as Ex-Attorney, or will the reality of it all be to hard for him to grasp and he’ll keep parading around in denial and claiming that the flordia bar cant change what he is with a unjust ruling."

I will answer that, Murry. After Jack loses his job, maybe he will realize that all his life being spent on victimizing us gamers, game retailers and makers are all futile and wasted. Or the worse case scenario for him could be that when he shows his face outside the public, I am pretty much sure that people will bring justice by beating the daylights out of him.

That said, not even his personal savior Jesus Christ can save him and not to mention, us too. If his God were to be real then why are there devils and demons? Oh, I get it... Maybe this "righteous" God created Satan too. See, there is a irony hidden in this fact, why can't Jesus destroy Satan earlier so that the world can live in peace? And that the world can be a safe place to live in? So that this world won't be a battlegrounds of good and evil?
Jack sure likes to make sure everyone knows what he does for a living. I wonder what he'll do if he gets disbarred. Start posting as Ex-Attorney, or will the reality of it all be to hard for him to grasp and he'll keep parading around in denial and claiming that the flordia bar cant change what he is with a unjust ruling.
I'd just like to say that I'm from the department of redundancy department, and it's just that I felt it important to say that.
Jeez what the hell man


Jack get a life and stay the hell out of here
@Archgabe -- Jack *is* banned. But he keeps getting unbanned IP addresses at his disposal. So, he makes a single post, that IP is logged with the post, and it gets banned. Unfortunately, this is a somewhat inefficient system & method, but there is always a way to get around bans by the determined, which Jack has proven he is very, very determined to post on this site, even though he claims that people who post here need to each "get a life". There are multiple methods to enact a ban possible given enough knowhow: IP Address, MAC, IP address, etc. Each can be overcome, however.
@ Dennis (or anyone who can answer this question)
I thought Jack was banned from commenting here. Did you let him back in?

@ Jack Thompson
You have a lot of gall bringing honor into this. I hold nothing in this world more sacred than honor, and you sir, have none. If you want to bring honor into this than I challenge you. Yes, I challenge you to prove your honor and right here, defend yourself. I challenge your honor. Prove to me you have honor and I will concide my point for all time. In a crearly truthfull, non-insulting post, I want you to proove your point. I have all the proofreaders I could ever want here. I want you to proove beyond a reasonable doubt that Dennis and the ECA work for the industry.
It's hilarious how some people can be so oblivious to the world around them, and yet try and make it seem as though they have the clue that will solve the world's violence problems...

Jack Thompson, you are pathetic, and you're very fortunate to have a family that can stand the sight of you.
I remember those wonderful days of April here at GP.
Good times.
@Tim The Slipperman

In fact, the whole 'Explicit Lyrics' sticker thing actually produced not only a very profitable line of shirts, hats and other paraphenalia for a while, but for a long time, it was treated as an actual target to achieve, bands that had the label sold more records. If anything 'explicit lyrics' served as nothing more than a guideline of what to buy, not what to avoid. Basically, the Rap industry in general made an absolute mint out of 'Explicit Lyrics'.
See, Jack. Why can't you be rational like your opponents. You're as much a hot air blower as Fox News anchors and writers, oy. DON'T JUDGE LEST YOU NOT BE JUDGED.
Did I tell you guys Jacko reminds me of Cartman?
And just to clear something up, regarding the context of the word 'pundit' in my previous post: What I meant by being a 'pundit' of rap music was being a *critic* of it. Just as I would consider JT a 'pundit' of video games.

Thought I'd made myself clear to those who don't understand or are looking up the meaning of the word 'pundit' after reading my last statement.

Tim
I've taken time out to read the Thompson interview at PopZart. While I do admit it is one of the rare times I've seen Thompson actually sound remotely rational, I'd also have to agree with GP that some of JT's statements in the interview are filled with inconsistencies as well.

I do agree that adult-themed and/or ultraviolent video games shouldn't be sold to minors without on-site parental consent, but it still seems to me like Jack does want strict government regulation on games, despite his insisting to PopZart that he doesn't. (As far as I know, game stores -- at least those in SW Ohio where I live -- do enforce the 'no M or AO games to minors' policy.)

The main thing that has always bugged *me* about Jack was that he was quick to attack games as innocuous as The Sims 2 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (two of my favorite games, by the way) simply because he didn't like how mod-friendly they were, that such mod-friendliness could be used to create 'adult' mods.

Also I'd like to direct this to Jack himself: How come you're not on the warpath against explicit urban music anymore? Modern hip-hop and rap has a far greater influence on our youth than video games do, since hip-hop and rap -- including such that would be branded with 'Parental Advisory' stickers ever since the whole 2 Live Crew debacle that you yourself had been involved with nearly two decades ago -- are pretty much forced down our throats daily (i.e. it's on Top 40 radio and MTV all the time these days), whilst video games are not (you'd have to buy them and play them first!). Are you afraid of being called a 'racist' if you criticize modern-day urban music, and/or do you feel that pundits of urban music such as myself should be called 'racist'?? (If you're wondering about what I *do* listen to, I mainly like 70s progressive rock, such as the bands Yes, Jethro Tull and Genesis...feel free to pick out what moral flaws you happen to find in those groups and their music in comparison to the likes of 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Nelly, etc.)

Just thought I'd share my own views on this whole matter regarding JT.

Tim (aka the Slipperman)
@ Jack Thompson:
Please understand that it is a commonly accepted rule on the internet to read an article before replying to it.
(part of what)
Erik says:

"..you are a driving force keeping people from understanding the real motivations behind the school shootings. While you are using an easy target scapegoat primed and ready for knee jerk behavior more and more children who feel lost and angry and in need of psychiatric care are slipping through the cracks."

Well put Erik, I thought jack should read that part twice.

and if you didn't get it the second time Mr. Thompson, try to understand that the result of your actions have the opposite affect of your stated intentions.

That is what failure is, and that is something you should think about.
@Dais

Jack doesn't "expose" anything. All he wants is someone to stroke his ego. He believes in fear tactics to invoke emotional responses from whatever crowd he is trying to talk to, and he is rather good at invoking responses from people -- negative or positive, depending on the situation. However, he has no evidence of his claims, no proof, nothing at all to verify what he says other than his own word (and he has, in the past, tried to use himself as a reference to back up his claims).

@GP

I am very impressed with how you are handling this, my hats off to you.

@Jack

Some day, you just might get a clue, wake up, and see the real world. But until then, you will remain in this fantasy world yo have devised.
You know what amuses me about Jackie, his total and complete inability to debate. I mean you think a lawyer of all people would be a master debater. But Dennis clearly spells out in the article how the ECA is not a part of the Gaming Industry. Then Jack comes into the comments section, doesn't make any counter-point to that statement and just continues on with the tired old drivel about Dennis being a monkey for the Gaming Industry.

I've always heard that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, but not in Jack's case. Somehow he just doesn't interact with the world on any real level, and is just spinning off somewhere in his own galaxy.
It should also be remembered that the main reason Dennis changed the wording was NOT because he was yelled at by his boss, he was ASKED to by his boss, and do you know why?

Yep, because some nutcase lawyer was phoning him repeatedly complaining about it.

There was no bad feeling whatsoever between Dennis and his publisher, but Jack tried everything in his little box of dirty tricks to try and create something.
The funniest part of all this is how JT honestly thinks he could "win us over." We readers visit this site because it reports on news and events that concerns us as gamers with the occasional column-style musings. What do you expect of us? Do you expect us to see the light and realise that we're actually brainwashed psycho killers and that you were right all along? Are you asking us to choose sides, Mr. Thompson? Because that's not our job - we're not the jury in Thompson vs. McCauley. Even if we were, whose side do you really think we would be on? An argumentative would-be lawyer with a rocky history with the Bar, who seeks out grieving families and tells them that Eidos's disc press is responsible for the death of their children, and who openly insults us and has in the past wished individuals death; or someone who considers us capable of intelligent debate but once referred to themselves as a columnist when they technically weren't?

Mr. Thompson, you have failed multiple times with multiple people in multiple states when arguing about the issues at hand. Your only recourse is to make this a character debate, and given your history and attitude you really do not want to do that.
I figured Massacre Chaser, Jack Thompson would have found his way around the filters before now. The man's credibility is absolutely zero in this matter. I love how he still tries to spin when quotes above have already countered his flaccid arguments.
@ John

Hey, for a (wannabe) lawyer, you aren't half bad. Well, you said a career in law, so there are quite a few positions you could pursue, but I'm assuming you mean you want to be a lawyer.

I think you summed Jack up nicely. He may have a license to practice law, but that might not last long. The Florida State Bar is supposed to be reviewing him at present. I believe they have until September to resolve it. Here's hoping.

@ Jack Thompson

I'm not a generally violent person. Yet, you make me want to be. Not because of what you say, but how you say it.

I find it ironic that you tried to prevent the sell of Bully a while back. I guess you would know a bully when you see it, as you are one. You probably didn't want the competition.
@Jack Thompson

Just so you have your facts straight, Dennis being part of the ECA is no Different than you being a member of any family group you choose to champion. Both are autonomous organizations and being a member is irrelevant.

I have read most of your letters to courts, and as someone interested in a career in law, I am surprised you keep your job. There exists no professionalism or tact in any endeavor you undertake, so you have no basis to comment on the workings of another industry, before you become more than a talking head in yours.

You welch on bets, lie and spin information to get your way, and you try and make a quick buck off of the feelings of concerned baby-boomer parents who don't know any better. Nothing but a scum ambulance chaser who won't let go of his 15 minutes.
John Bruce doesn't try to get a blog of his own.
He believes that everyone else's blogs are his and if they don't post what he says as news articles, if they ban him because he violates the policies of the blog, or if they counter his arguments, then the blog heads aren't real journalists, are out to get him, are threatening him, are violating his Rights to Free Speech (despite his implied arguments that if the blogs don't post only what he says that the blogs should be shut down or silenced), etc etc etc.

The evidence is overwhelming by his own blog posts/Press Releases/lawsuits.

Nightwng2000
NW2K software
To Juggernautz,

"Does anyone know if JT has a blog that I could peruse?"

Me wonders too... Originally Jack Thompson said that he will create a anti-game blog of his own but up till now, he hasn't keep to his promise yet. This can be a good evidence to people that he is a lying shitbag.

Anyways, here is a homework for some Jack Thompson lovers or supporters who are or may now reading GamePolitics, you can try abiding Jack Thompson's so-called "righteous" rules for a day! Say for example, restrict yourself from playing video games, watching TV, reading book or anything that Jack Thompson deems as "corrupt" and see how long you can last! You can see how impossible life can become if anything that is controversial (e.g. violence) has to be suppressed.
"Jack -if you’re reading this, please keep posting to this site! Some of us welcome the fact that there’s people out there willing to expose what it is going on."


Doesn't expose generally mean bringing up valid points and facts? Yeah Jack rarely does that.
@christian

People get to act insane on the internet all they want, don't try to take that away from us (wait did I say us i meant them). Although most people choose to use an alias when doing so (thompson is not one of them)
I hope this nutjob gets locked up in prison. We have been victimized, verbally abused and falsely accused by this jackass.

Let us stand up against censorship groups like the Nazis, Jack Thompson, LaRouche, NIMF and mostly the Parents Television Council and it's hypocritical leader Brent Bozell for we do not wish or intend to be victims of these censorcrats.
Besides, it's always good for a giggle....
Jack -if you're reading this, please keep posting to this site! Some of us welcome the fact that there's people out there willing to expose what it is going on.
Highly entertaining. Does anyone know if JT has a blog that I could peruse? Anything he writes/speaks/linguistically excretes is childishly amusing, purely for that "I can't believe he's this close minded" factor.
I think that filtered out the word rap*es in "Jack Thompson rap*es little children". Either that or I forgot to type it... it's not a word I write alot ;)
@GamePolitics
Please don't think that I'm criticizing the way you're doing things. I love this site. I believe that everything you report is fair and informative. AND TRUE.

However, the point I'm trying to make is that you are defending yourself against arguments that you don't need to. JT doesn't go on his media outlets to defend against accusations that you make against him (even though they are true). He just continues to make unfounded accusations all the time whether they are true or not. I understand that we are logical people, but he does not make logical arguments. He says stuff that pulls at heartstrings to vilify people who speak the truth.

If I were to make an analogy... if would be if Gamepolitics said that "Jack Thompson little children" and his defense was "The relationship that Jack had with a 9 year old boy was misconstrued in that...". Do you see how what comes after the "..." doesn't really matter? Especially to those who don't know anything about the subject matter?

Unfortunately, what I propose means that we sink down to his level, but I think it's important to understand HOW JT is fighting.
"Real journalists cover an industry without becoming part of the industry they are covering."

Real lawyers might interpret the law without becoming opinionated pundits that use litigation as a means to impose their self-serving ideologies on consumers.

And, yes, Thompson is also now a part of the video game industry. Indeed he's made a name for himself for no other reason than because he's the "anti-games" right-wing guy. ("Objectivity" is a moot point.*)

@jack:

1... I'll bet that you have GTA 4 pre-ordered.

and, 2... since looking at your career, i've noticed that you've used similar methods to stir up controversy and try to ban the release of music by Ice Cube, NWA and other West Coast rappers.

If mainstream media would have embraced rap music and listened to what Dr. Dre had to say in his songs instead of dismissing it as "inappropriate", then the music might have shed some light on the police brutality that was going on in LA and the West Coast in the early 90s. If someone might have listened to Cop Killer, and thought "Wow, are cops in LA that bad?" -a legal investigation into the practices of local precincts might have happened an uncovered some of the abuses... and the riots might not have happened. There is an expression, "history lies, art tells the truth" -and, whether you agree or not, there was some truth in the rap lyrics that you sought to ban in the 90s.

It is not a coincidence that the game GTA San Andreas takes place in on the West Coast in the 90s at about the time when this music was coming out and just before the LA riots and Rodney King. It serves as the moral rationale for why stealing cars and committing crimes is what you have to do in the game... because you're playing as a Black, African American male on the West Coast and you start the game by being victimized by a historically accurate racist and corrupt police department.

I don't think that it is also a coincidence that you were trying to stop the publication of both the rap music back then and these games from Rockstar in the present.

Your efforts in "abridging the freedom of speech" haven't served the law, they've served Jack Thompson.

- - -

*You've said that you met with Strauss Zelnick from Take Two. That's not "becoming part of" the video games industry?
In my eyes, imagine a radio news station. Say, channel 7. If one of the people on the radio had just complained to the state bar about some attorney pestering and being rather rude to the station (and what the station stands for) constantly, is the station REALLY obligated to tell their listeners about it?

@ Jack,
Grow up. Even little children can see that you are insane
"How sad. How dishonorable."

Well, Jack, that's a summary of your life so far.

But we don't expect you to change for the better.

Oh, wait, will I get sued for saying that?
@ dutch_gamer

IIRC, Jacky Boy's a medical malpractice attorney, so it's no surprise that he doesn't know squat about the Constitution.

So to Jacky Boy, as Walter from the Big Lebowski would say, "Shut the f*** up, you're out of your element!"

@ Jack Thompson, the Hearse Chasing, Necrophile Soon to be ex-Attorney

So I guess if in your opinion that Dennis isn't a "real journalist" just because his blog is a part of a consumer group, then you must also believe that Washington Post sportswriter Tony Kornheiser isn't a "real journalist" either because he's been an announcer on ESPN Monday Night Football since last year and co-host of the ESPN show Pardon The Interruption for the last several years.

Jack Thompson: making prostitution a more noble profession than his own since 1999.

Practice what you preach, Jacky Boy: Grow up and get a life.
Who left the door open? who let yack in.

I swear to the gods he never has anything to say thats worth reading/hearing.

yes jack we can be select in our hearing also.
@vellocet - I understand your frustration. However, I strongly believe that these things that were said about me have to be answered.
@bluewolf

Much as I love INS, all the publicity in the world won't get people past the initial confusion.
wait journalists never reported ethics violations lol quick jack look up the term "muckraker"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muckraker
John Bruce "Jack, liar, deceiver, fraud, worshiper of Demon pretender to the throne of Heaven" Thompson,

While Dennis DID point out in this article the reasons he chose not to report his Bar complaint against you on the website, it was also pointed out shortly after YOU told people about it that it was against Bar Rules for him to divulge any information about the complaint. You, on the other hand, attempted, and still do attempt, to entrap him into violating those rules (which probably don't apply now that the complaint is resolved). You have, of course, on numerous occasions, both directly and indirectly, stated that YOU are above the law of the judicial system but that everyone else must abide by existing and even non-existing laws.

It should also be noted that shortly after you reported on the original GP, while it was actively on LiveJournal, that you had complained to the aforementioned newspaper about his "status" with the newspaper, Dennis DID in fact clearly state the truth and facts of the situation as it was.

As to no journalist would file formal complaints against someone who was breaking what was preceived as ethics violations, that too, is false. Journalists have not only reported ethics violations all over the specturm, from business, to politics, to even social ethics violations in the medium for which they are journalists for, but they have also turned any evidence they have uncovered over to authorities, while protecting sources as well. Even if the ethics violations are being commited against him rather than someone else, does not mean he does not have the right to file a complaint. Just because you BELIEVE you are above the law, does not mean you ARE above the law.

Yes, I very much believe Dennis's theory that the complaint was dismissed because he is not an opposing attorney nor one of your prior clients. Based on what I've seen of the Bar's Rules, that is a very high probablity. Yet, even if he didn't believe the complaint would be successful, he DID have the Right to make it.

Once again, you've lied and attempted to deceive. Further evidence that the being you truly worship is the same Demon Pretender to the throne of Heaven that the like of Fred Phelps and Eric Rudolph worship. Only such a Demon would advocate lying, deceit, dishonor, and the lack of ethics you've shown all these years.

Nightwng2000
NW2K software
@JACK THOMPSON, ATTORNEY

Jack, if the article is no indication that you aren't wanted nor were ever wanted here, BEAT IT!!!
JT if your reading this... Please click my name look at the mod of a game we made. Rant about us we would love the PR!

Also JT: I dare you to be interviewed from a gamer or a gaming website with questions that will be answered by you. Stop hidding behind main stream media. They have no idea what to ask you to show who and what you are.

I honestly feel that if JT was sued or put in the corner of a gaming site like GP or Destructoid he would back track his answers.
@ jdecamp
JT's Regressing.
It doesn't surprise me.
what does that mean and who is it directed at?
oh i know jack thompson is the exception and definitely not the rule when it comes to attorneys but he pisses me off (and everyone else) when he act like a small child when he doesnt get his way
I get the feeling JACK THOMPSON, MASSACRE CHASER is not Jack, but is, indeed, an amusing screen-name ;)
yeah i figured that
I was actually replying to skeeblar, forgot to put the @ thing at the top :)
ah well i was a bit confused at first too =]
BTW where the HELL did this new pic of Jack come from? I'm used to seeing only two or three? Not to get sidetracked, but he lmost looks like he's constipated.
im sure jacky boy provided the media with new "headshots" its what any good ACTOR would have done
@ GoodRobotUs
I know it wasn't him.
I was reffering to jdecamp's first statement. The one before that comment.
Not to make things more confusing ;p
@AgnostoTheo

Oh good. I'm not the only one who thought that pic made Jack look afflicted from constipation.
I wonder why Jack Thompson has such a hard-on for Dennis? With due respect to Gamepolitics (and its staff), this isn't exactly mainstream media. Sure, it gets a lot of visitors, but nowhere near the level of IGN or Gamespot. Even so, Jack comes here often, bashes out a missive, and even sticks around to comment. To what end?
Just read parts of the interview. Jack truly doesn't seem to understand the definition of art. You can't compare Jack the Ripper with a game, you loony. Killing pixels isn't comparable with murder. Almost every single game, movie wouldn't be art under your bad understanding of the Ancient Greek definition of art. But I am not surprised. You also don't seem to understand the Constitution, which you, as an attorney should be able to grasp.
I can see how it was a tough call to not report about the complaint (Dennis, I assume you consulted a real lawyer here), but it seems to me Dennis did the right thing, or at least something very defensible here.

I also agree with Dennis on this series. Stupidity and malice to soem degree can eb ignored, but when a guy starts slinging accusations, you have to respond. Otherwise, it's like you're admitting it.
I applaud what you are doing here. It's time somebody stood up to Captain Crazypants once and for all.
grrr that should here not hear, dang it my mind is turning to mush engaging in conversation with this . . . lawyer, makes me wonder if shakespeare could see into the future
@ Erik
"You are responsible for Columbine and you are responsible for Virginia Tech"
Taking away from the victims. Is that what you mean?
Still full of lies Jack?

I remember the episode with the Newspaper Jack, I remember who was continually phoning his boss complaining, and I know how full of BS you are.

There's no point trying to throw out more accusations simply because you are being humiliated five ways from Sunday, it simply looks like the grasping at straws that it is.

Repeating your 'spun' version of the facts ad-hominum does not make them any the less spun, and does not make the evidence of your falsehoods any less real.

The reason for the regulatory sanction, as you are well aware, was because you were claiming that it was a legal requirement to state our full name, address and telephone number when we responded to you, your action may have put any minors on the site at extreme risk had they believed you. That is something I will never, ever forget.
@ Jack Thompson

All other arguments aside (I think we'll let Dennis defed himself, seeing how he has the facts in hand), I'd like to point out that the Entertainment CONSUMERS Association (ECA) is NOT funded by the industry. It's funded by people like the posters here, and 3rd parties that sympathize with our position. The buyers of videogames are sick and tired of these broad, demeaning, and grossly overpublicized generalizations about gaming and thegaming industry.

You yourself can dare not claim to be the innocent protector of virtue and constitutional right when you have the bare-faced audacity to claim that all the industry is a dishonorable establishment. If you knew the FIRST thing about honor, Mr. Thompson, you never would've had a judge recuse himself by threatening to run for his official position. That dirty, underhanded, and false trick makes you more a serpent than a knight in shining armor. Do us a favor and keep that forked tounge behind your teeth until you TRULY learn what honor is.

AgnostoTheo
jack you truly are the main reason people in your profession are dispised and disgusted
It's amazing that Jack still doesn't get that the ECA isn't an industry group. I think my toddler would have gotten this by now, and she's 16 months old.
@cullarn - My father-in-law is a retired telecommunications attorney. I assure you, he thinks Thompson is fucking nuts.
No, the reason he never disclosed is the reason posted on the main article; It opens up for legal action in which you, not surprisingly, would of exploited for the purpose of hassling Dennis through the courts.

Further, no real attorney would inject himself into cases in which he was never apart of by seeking bogus amicus briefs just so you could get your 15 minutes of fame on every case involving youth violence.

Additionally, Thompson has not told you all that due to so many bar complaints and questionable courtroom ethics his pro-hac vice license rejected in Alabama for turning a courtroom into a court of kangaroos.

Jack Thompson has thus become nothing more than a shill for fringe political groups such as the LaDouche movement and the Eagle Forum. Real attorneys speak on behalf of their plantiffs and not of themselves.

How typical. How amusing. How typical of one Johnathon Bruce "Batman" Thompson

PyroHazard. Professional asshole and you're not, Woo Woo!
@kurisu7885

Yes, but at least you've then put the truth out there so that the bile doesn't reign unchallenged. Plus most people begin to suspect BS when someone's response to a counter argument is "You're secretly on their payroll!"
so jack (i love how you use a false name by the way, nope nothing to hide hear) how long till your disbarred.
Also real attorneys can let the facts speak for themselves and don't have to resort to petty name calling when it comes to an argument Jack. Of course you couldn't come up with any facts to back up any of your claims thats why you had to pen the term pixelantes now isn't it?

You have no ground to stand on. And what makes me even more angry that you are trying to keep adult games out of adult hands (and don't even try to give me that trying to keep adult games out of children's hands because none of your actions have ever been anything but keeping them out of everyone's hands). What makes me even more angry then that is that you are a driving force keeping people from understanding the real motivations behind the school shootings. While you are using an easy target scapegoat primed and ready for knee jerk behavior more and more children who feel lost and angry and in need of psychiatric care are slipping through the cracks. While you rail away on games they are getting worse. And by preventing any real progress they come ever and ever closer to another Columbine or Virgina Tech. And you will have blood on your hands Jack. To make a quick buck you take people's attention away from these lost children. You are responsible for Columbine and you are responsible for Virginia Tech. You are a loathsome human being.
@ Erik
Caps lock is cruise control for cool. >.>
But even with cruise control you still have to steer :D

Reading this a second time made me giggle.
I laughed at "Dishonorable"
I believe he pointed it's a consumers association, yes?
First of all Jack, lay off the caps lock, we can tell who you are without it. Contrary to popular belief caps lock is not cruise control for the cool.

Secondly repeat after me "The ECA is not a part of the video game industry." Now say that a hundred times until it starts to sink in.

And finally he might not have reported on the bar complaint because frankly, its not all that big a deal. Honestly I didn't really care. I know you think the sun rises and sets at your feet and the news agencies should report every bowel movement you make. Unfortunately for you Jack Pride is a sin. You may repent now.
"The reason Dennis McCauley never disclosed the existence of his Bar complaint to you readers here is because he’s not a real journalist."

It's because the Bar said he would risk legal action if he did.

"Additionally, Dennis has not told you all that the St. Paul Pioneer Press told him to stop referring to himself as a columnist for that paper when in fact he was not."

Yes he did.

"Dennis McCauley has thus become nothing more than a shill for the video game industry, as his apparatchik status with ECA indicates."

The ECA is not part of the game industry. It's a consumer group.
So you people may think that JT is just a show up to enlarge the industry ??
Believe me, people get much more exited when they hear that some guy is about to ban a game, they are more entrapped.

When Manhunt 2 got banned, the Original Manhunt broke the records of sales in my country, non-Gamers bought it too (and some even purchased a PS2)
The reason Dennis McCauley never disclosed the existence of his Bar complaint to you readers here is because he's not a real journalist. Any real journalist, with any semblance of journalistic ethics, would have disclosed the pendency of the complaint so that readers could consider how "balanced" McCauley's "news" coverage of me here was.

Further, no real journalist would have made himself "part of the story" by seeking a regulatory sanction against someone in the news about whom he was reporting. No one else would have done such a thing and claimed to be objective.

Additionally, Dennis has not told you all that the St. Paul Pioneer Press told him to stop referring to himself as a columnist for that paper when in fact he was not.

Dennis McCauley has thus become nothing more than a shill for the video game industry, as his apparatchik status with ECA indicates. Real journalists cover an industry without becoming part of the industry they are covering.

How sad. How dishonorable. How typical of the video game industry.

Jack Thompson
I remember the livejournal days (i had different handle then i believe it was "Horadric" at that time)
*shudder* it was like a circus
@kurisu7885:

Careful what you're saying there. Combining the ideas of Thompson and /b/ could prove fatal for unprepared minds.

Funny how you don't see any JT memes around.
Those times were kind of fun and were always entertaining.

I think I even got JT to insult me in an email once over video game legislation in my state, Louisiana...
@vellocet + Kyouryuu

The thing is, Jack's like conspiracy theorists; if you ignore him then you end up being a bunch of people believing lies, simply because no one took the time to refute said lies.
@Gray17

And if you try to refute such lies, you're in the pockets of the industry. he tries to make it so you can't win.

It's the same as arguing with a /b/tard.
Doesn't Jack Thompson seem as a guy who is against Rockstar rather than games?

I dont Recon him talking against Running with Scissors (Postal Game), THQ (Saints Row) or even SCEE - SOHO Studios (The Getaway series). Arent those games GTA replicas ?


Dont get me wrong I dont want him to continue attacking the gaming industry but he seems biased sometimes. (or else maybe he is just a Games pawn, made up to increase Games Sales... hmmmm)
I actually concur with what Vellocet says. Being greeted every morning by replies to a massacre chaser gets kind of irritating, if only because you are preaching to the choir.
[...] YouTube Link to Article supreme court Jack Attack on GamePolitics, We Counter, Part 3 » Posted at GamePolitics.com on Sunday, July 22, 2007  (Part 3 of 4) Game-hatin’ attorney Jack Thompson went verbally medieval on GamePolitics in an interview with the obscure PopZart site during ... disciplinary trial before the Florida Supreme Court. In regard to GamePolitics, Thompson has posted View Entire Article » [...]
"And I’m pretty sure since hes claiming victory over Manhunt 2 that he’s breaking the agreement he had with T2/R*"

It's possible, and he has alluded that he plans to make trouble for them over GTA4, it was and is only a matter of time before that settlement is shattered.
"We need to spin the stories… how about “Jack Thompson steals $10,000 from charity”? Which he did."


Not necessarily, however he did do the equivalent of the fishing wire prank, basically putting the check in their hands and whipping it away with his "satire" claims

And yes, JT kept trying to urge Dennis to release info about the BAR complaint many times in hopes that it could be rendered null and void.
Ah, those were the good ole' days of LJ madness. Not only did he fail to C&D, but he also broke the TOS that LJ had asked to agree to, and thus JT is immediately at fault again.

Another reason you disclosed this information was because it was a personal matter. You report news, not blog about your feelings (granted this is one, but this feels more as an editorial than anything, and since JT uses his media to rant, you can use yours).

JT is an unreasonable man, and even though this won't help anything for him, it might help us, in some way, break him.

And I'm pretty sure since hes claiming victory over Manhunt 2 that he's breaking the agreement he had with T2/R*

Can't wait for part 4.
Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but didn't JT make several attempts to cozx Dennis into revealing information about his Bar complaint? I don't know much about the legal system, so is something like that illegal?
Meh jack is old, not long now eh old fella?

Karma is a bitch and it'll catch up to him sooner or later. Im kinda suprised that he's been allowed to act like such a twat over there and still be a lawyer.

Oh and i got a real laugh over him claiming victory over manhunt 2 lol. like he did anything to stop it being released.
I'm just wondering something. I do understand your position on all of JT's attacks. But you'd think that GP would have learned something from all the years of reporting on Thompson. These accusations are not to be answered. These attacks have no basis, ever. JT only makes them in order to cause a stir and unfortunately - because his targets always move to the defensive - his credibility is never properly questioned.

I think that in order to properly put JT in his place, we must not answer any of this madman's ramblings. We must do as he does. Ad hominem attacks. In the end, regardless of how wrong JT is, the only real comment that has done any damage to him whatsoever was the "massacre chaser" comment.

JT doesn't make these accusations because they are true, he makes them because a) people will believe them b) to put his target on the defensive so they can't attack and c) just to say them.

We need to spin the stories... how about "Jack Thompson steals $10,000 from charity"? Which he did.
Dennis and GP crew,

I just wanted to pass along my thoughts that you truly are a exceptional journalist. The way you choose your topics and report on them is something every journalist should try to emulate. You've proven yourself to be intelligent, reasonable, and honest. And I'm glad you don't let people, and I'm refraining from using a derogatory term, like Jack Thompson push you around and change what you do. I'm always amazed that the journalists who are actually fair are attacked by people who claim to be. Keep up the good work.

-HR
@ GoodRobotUs

Not only that, but the only reason Jacky Boy wants Dennis to disclose the Bar complaint he filed is because Jacky Boy wants an excuse to file a libel suit against Dennis.

But if Jacky Boy were to file a libel suit against Dennis, Dennis could use that as an excuse not to post anymore news stories where Jacky Boy is an active participant in the story, thus taking attention away from Jacky Boy's activities.

That's called Mutually Assured Destruction.