A Fox News spokesperson, who declined to be named, stated, in full: “Fox News Channel has extended several invitations to EA through a company representative to appear on ‘Live Desk With Martha MacCallum’ to discuss ‘Mass Effect’ and the segment which aired on Monday. We have received no response.”

Playing the poor news channel who just wants to be fair will get you nowhere. EA doesn't want to "discuss" Mass Effect, they want your apology for lying through your teeth about it's contents. There's nothing TO discuss.

Fox will play up the refusal to appear on the show as EA being "unreasonable". EA should call them on it. Very publicly.

Heck, do it on another network's show. ;)

Rupert Murdoch made Fox News and other channels to entertain people. That was done so that viewers wouldn't care about politics as much as something crazy shit; And if they do, they slander anyone who disagrees with their Nazi agendas in a romantic black-and-white fashion, oy. Without the political dedication of citizens, "people have the power" could sure as hell become an oxymoron. It's real convincing when you think about News Corp. and the stuff they own the rights to; Fox channel: Known for their mega-hit comedies, etc. FX: Showing the best in risque entertainment. MySpace: Place where people may spend hours updating their profile and contacting their friends. Remember the words which I have spoken, oy. And FIGHT DA POWA!

Party On, Dudes
Tye The Czar

Go EA!

Well they certainly have their response now. It's too bad EA couldn't have a rep there too, then both that person and Keighly could have been talked over and laughed at by Cooper Lawrence.

Faux News, "We Distort, You Follow Blindly"

Can't we just march on Fox's studio?

Oh, wait, I'd imagine they're pretty used to angry protesters this time around given all the people getting fed up with their rubbish.

@MaskedPixelante

Standard Fox News SoP for diverging views.

Sounds like come on the show we'll let you say your piece.
But all this is about is getting bigger name and bigger views for them.
Besides they're still just going to lie their asses off and not let E.A. get a word in edge wise, After that accusing they'll say they gave Ea a chance to defend its product and they didn't so either way their screwed because its not like fox is comming to them.

so i beg you video gamers, if Fox puts E.A. on, dont watch it! just wait for the video to be added here, or to youtube because giving fox free ratings is the last thing we want.

I hope EA refuses. "Freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns the press," I believe Hearst said. EA can come on, but they'll just be mistreated and distorted, same as everything else.

There are two things I'd like to see here. First, some kind of ECA action. Media distortion of fact (and complete misrepresentation, as often as not) is rapidly becoming as immediate a threat as politicians, and worse, politicians have been found in the past to parrot what they hear about games on the news, as if it were fact. This isn't just insulting to us; it's dangerous.

Second, I'd love to see EA go on one of Fox's competitors, and participate in some kind of story on media sensationalism and yellow journalism. While I can't see that happening, because the networks don't typically jab at each other, there's nothing I'd like better than just a 30 second segment with someone from BioWare or EA pointing out the complete misrepresentations of fact, on another channel.

Well, actually that's not quite true. I'd /like/ to see News Corp. (Fox's parent) go out of business.

I will not be surprised if Fox just asks questions so fast that EA doesn't have a chance to reply, then they'll just end the segment.

There's no way Faux News will let someone on to prove them wrong, they're going to have a very "well it's your fault" attitude in this.

The 4chan brigade is soooooo not the way to handle ANYTHING guys.

Besides, they already got on Fox News once, and they weren't even trying then. So I don't think they really care anymore.

LOL invited EA onto the show! Need I point out the fact they invited Keighley on to defend the game and cut him off at every opportunity. Why should anyone from EA give them the chance to do it again?

A respectable news organisation would apologise not offer the chance for more of the same.

Gift.

to put -> to be put

public void FoxNews(expert DrK)
{
System.out.println("Fact: " DrK.getBullShit());
if(DrK.getBullShit() != true)
{
//System.out.println(JournalisticIntegrity().toString());
}
}

/* I hope this isn't too nerdy for most of you to understand. Try putting it through your java compiler to get a quantitative value of how many errors FoxNews returns!!! */

So how does EA not appearing on the Fox report give them permission to lie?

Perfect example of a "media" source who is making the news, rather than reporting on it. What scares me about that clip on Kotaku is the sheer (assumed) ignorance by those people at the end of the clip. Talk about appealing to the lowest common denominator...

If Fox disagrees with you, don't even bother going on their debate panels. They'll set you up with the most moronic, ill-informed racist Christian that they have, feed her a load of lies (e.g. THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SAID THAT OVER 10 BILLION CHILDREN HAVE BEEN RAPED AND MURDERED BY VIDEO GAMES!), have him/her keep interrupting you whenever you try to make a point with the host taking the side of that person, then before you get your turn to make a counter-point, they cut your mike and turn to two other panellists, who happen to be 'experts' in the field, who just prattle on about the liberal media and the destruction of American society and family ways.

Then they all have a communal jerk-off over Bill O'Reilly and George W. Bush, then a segment giving 10 reasons why voting for Hillary Clinton makes you a Communist.

Obviously a little fabrication that Fox won the right to make up. I don't believe any sort of invitation was given.

Remember the JT interviews and the one person they would slam over and over again that took the stance against whatever BS Fox and JT was spewing? EA would go on, try to set the record straight, every time making a very valid point they'd fabricate some study made and constantly interrupt them and when they ran out of excuses they would end the segment. Fox just isn't worth it and most people who have any sort of common sense will avoid that company as a 'news' outlet.

The voice in the back of my head that sounds like Admiral Ackbar is saying something...

LOL, page doesn't convert spaces for you, my bad. I can fix that for a small fee :)

@Steve

Are you trying to convert GP to Slashdot like format? =)

Hopefully, the reason EA hasn't responded yet is because they're trying to find the polite, lawyerly, corporate way of saying "we've seen how you treat guests on your bullshit sham interviews, you assholes; there's a reason we asked for an apology."

@AM - I was thinking the same thing.

I'm also surprised none of the Democratic Presidential candidates like Obama have jump on this yet. Maybe it is too early for them to do so yet but you know they want a reason to hammer Fox for its reporting on them. Now here is one being served up on a silver platter. If I was EA I would pick up the phone and make a call.

Regarding the invitation if I don’t see any independently verifiable evidence it did not happen. Moreover even if it did why would they have agreed to such a situation in the first place?

Anyway I never thought I would say this but "Go EA!" Someone need to Legion Faux News and Ms Lawrence.

So when is MSNBC going to cover this topic? I'm giddy with anticipation to say the least.

Regarding Jeff's comment on Amazon the thread is still there but it appears not to be listed anymore. People should still post their support for EA & Bioware in it as he can still see it. The link is:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2CKKAYWUS6A7M/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

So Fox are just playing victims, putting up the Alfonso Gagliano card. I'm not very surprised.

Needless to say, these so-called "facts" can easily be discredited.

We all agree on this: we need Fox news as we need a diarrhea.

I'm not worried about EA. There was a similar case in Québec (albeit on a different subject) and the insulted party won. I'm not familiar with the American media rules, but it is stated clearly in the Canadian ones that any attempt to discredit someone (or something) for a personal agenda is illegal.

@Spartan

I’m also surprised none of the Democratic Presidential candidates like Obama have jump on this yet. Maybe it is too early for them to do so yet but you know they want a reason to hammer Fox for its reporting on them. Now here is one being served up on a silver platter. If I was EA I would pick up the phone and make a call.

They probably won't. Sure it's bad reporting. However they don't want to be supporting what in far too many people's minds is going to be "porn in videogames."

Sex scene = porn in most people first reaction to the term. Explaining that it's essentially a PG-13 scene comes secondary to that first impression. That it's a fractionally small percentage of the game is going to fall even further below the radar than "It's got sex in it!"

Pushing for good journalism comes second to not pissing off the vocal moralists. They don't want to people shrieking "FOR THE CHILDREN!" against them (we all know how much of a headache that is).

Faux News is nothing but Government propaganda anyway.

EA shouldn't go on Fox News anyway. It's like being the center act in the circus.

Look - only idiots believe the garbage Fox, CNN, and others hand down. I hear the right wing go on about CNN, CBS, MSNBC all the time.. and the Left goes on about Fox News and a few others.

Thing is - they are all serving us the same big steaming batch of shit to take in - so how do they differ? You watch any one of them and it's like watching all of them - same talking points, same stories, same spin...

They just wrap the shit differently.

I hope EA doesn't accept their invitation.

It is the job and responsibility of the journalist to get the facts right.

If the journalist should somehow get the facts wrong, it is then up to the journalist to correct these facts.

This is what we used to call "journalistic integrity."

EA is not beholden to come on Fox News and fight for the truth. It is up to Fox News to present the truth.

ITS A TRAP

I just have this image dancing in the back of my mind that involves Admiral Ackbar. I’m in complete agreement that Fox isn’t trying to set the record straight, but rather is more interested in making it look like they tried to get the facts straight the first time around.

I’m completely appalled with the treatment of Geoff Keighley in the segment in the first place and it is painfully clear that the only reason he was there was to take a beating from by this Lawrence woman. Her tactics on the show reminded me of a certain Florida attorney which many others seem to have picked up on as well. She got what she deserved with the Amazon spamming and hopefully learned a valuable lesson about not shooting your mouth off about something you CLEARLY know nothing about.

As for the current situation… I sincerely hope that EA completely blows off Fox and instead goes to any other news network that would be willing to be part of a verbal bashing of Fox under the pretense of setting the record straight.

I may have some mixed feelings about EA as a company, but NO company deserves to be misrepresented like this. I’m personally mad enough about the whole situation that I think EA SHOULD move forward with a lawsuit. Libel, defamation, slander, and (biggest of all) loss of potential income because of the filthy lies they spread.

It probably wouldn’t bother me that much if there weren’t so many people willing to accept these types of news segments at face value. This hurts the entire gaming industry and makes out gamers to be mindless, violent, sex-crazed zombies.

Soooo upset…….

I'd also wonder what the format of the show would be when an EA representative was on. No one had enough time to make any points. The segment was basically:
FOX: Games R Bad!
COOPER: Yep!
KEIGHLEY: Are not!
COOPER: Are too!
FOX: We're out of time!
Not enough for anyone to form an intelligent opinion. It's akin to letting two boxers each get one free blow on the other guy and using those two hits to decide the outcome of the match.

@ Benji

Actually it was more of this:

Fox: We are here to discuss why games are bad.
Cooper: Games are evil even though I have never played one.
Keighley: Games are not. I play them.
Cooper: They are bad.
Fox: We are out of time. Here are more people to tell us that games are bad.
Panelist in unison: Games are bad.

It really came out more like a school yard fight. The bully picks on another kid. The other kid actually starts to fight back. The bully gets his buddies to help him wail on the kid.

Not really fair.

@Gray17 - Hmmm... Without getting into the "truth, integrity and accountability" elements of the situation, given Obama has worked long and hard to be identified as the young people's choice and cultivated the new guy image and apparently likes to be considered the darling of the Internet generation with his progressive policy and promises -etc... The situation seems tailor made for him in my opinion. After all his core demographic is exactly the people that tend to be gamers. I can't see any downside for him on this issue with the voting public that would be most likely to support him anyway.

Additionally, I keep waiting for MSFT to respond as well as Bioware directly. I would love to see MSFT & EA as well as affiliate companies and all game industry publishers and developers publically announce they will immediately stop advertising on News Corp subsidiaries unless Fox News ponies up someone's head and delivers a full apology to the companies, the developers and most importantly the gamers on TV as well as a full page notice in each of News Corps print media resources.

Moreover for the Bioware response I so want to see the entire development studio outside the offices standing together as the backdrop.

On a side note I have an idea I want to do but I simply don’t have the time maybe someone here can do it or knows someone with the time, talent and desire to do so. I was thinking it would be good sport and poetic justice for someone to do a machinima based newscast with the characters from ME responding to questions about the situation as well as the game in general. I think it would quickly become the hottest thing on-line like the RvB stuff was a few years ago. Anyway takers?

Go, EA, GO!
I just hope Fox won't pull some stupid Donahue-esque bait and switch (http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2002/08/20/jenkins_on_donahue/) on EA if they show up.

"Tonight on FOXNews: Victims of video game rape. EA is here to defend the godless, immoral, puppy killing heathens. Your thoughts, EA?"

stupid noob mass effect ftw

"online response to his protest letter"

Which one? The book spamming?

@Duncan

I was kind of surprise Townhall.com didn't draw Anon's attention after their pinhead posted what is by far the most outrageous lies about Mass Effect to date.

I ment to say "Fox news studio" not "Fox news".

I hope they send someone mildly competent, if at all.

@ F**ked up

I like that idea. And Colbert and Stweart are both known to be gamers, so I bet they'd go for it.

@F**ked up

I love the way you think.

@F**ked up

Sorry, but it'll never work.

- This will give another (and better) argument for Fox to play victim
- This won't help EA's cause one bit.
- The topic obviously won't be actual facts (except if they try really hard)
- It will tarnish the video game image even more
- Viewers won't take it seriously if presented like that
- We need another Faux News as we need a diarrhea

Fighting libel with libel don't and will never work. It will only put up more tension between gamers and the other peoples. Isn't our goal to reduce this tension and educate?

i agree, don't go EA... It's a trap.
i'm not too big on EA, but their really not evil at all compared to FOX, the place for evil.

Hypocrites, I mean.

@ EZK

That comparison to that Lipstick Jungle Ad was made of win.

oops didnt word this part right

tarnish how? EA is playing a comical character of being the moral right, Like how Wayne Brady was feature on the Dave Chappelle show or Natalie Portman being portrayed as a gangsta rapper on SNL.

it should say

tarnish how? EA is playing a comical character of being the moral right. Similar to how Wayne Brady was feature on the Dave Chappelle show or Natalie Portman being portrayed as a gangsta rapper on SNL. It was all done in fun, and it didnt hurt them.

Who here plans to make an anti-Fox/NewsCorp(se)/Murdoch game, oy? We REALLY need something to provoke them like a Tasmanian Devil so that they would try to go on a gamer/liberal-killing spree, oy! It'll just make them look worse than they already are.

Test

Ah, got it, I just accidently put the "test" in my previous comment before the end tags, which is why it was still odd. Anways, apoliges for the 4 comments in a row.

Regarding the article, it is quite possible that fox is telling the absolute, 100% truth. I mean, all they said was that, as of the moment they made that comment, they had sent multiple invites to EA. Whether those invites had been made more than a couple minutes before, or even sent to the right part of EA, they never specified.

Plus, even if they did contact the proper people and give EA some time to respond, I can easily see EA not wanting to send a guy for another segment, considering it might just be run the exact same way the first one was, with the EA guy in place of Geoff.

If EA does decide to go on Fox, I can only imagine that it'll be like in the Simpsons episode 'Homer Bad Man'

"Somebody had to take the babysitter home. Then I noticed she was sitting on --her sweet --can. --o I grab her -- sweet can. Oh, just thinking about her swee --can. I just wish I had he -- sweet --sweet s-s-sw--swe-sweet can."

Unless it's a live show.

Then my reference goes to hell.

@ Mystik Tomato

If it is live, it will be more like the episode 'Bart Mangled Banner', with the host opening with the question, "So, which part of America do you hate most?"

Except it will probably be, "Why do you think children should be allowed to watch pornography?"

I...sense a trap. For some reason it's all too easy for me to picture Fox pulling the same stunt again.

But I guess that would only give EA solid grounds on which to sue if they did, so it's a lose/lose situation for Fox. Yet I'll remain cautiously optimistic until I see the end of the next battle.

Understand this.

EA puts alot of advertising for its products through Fox and its subsidaries. This could simply be a chance for Fox, to save face, towards its viewing audience (i.e., those who dont know how to use that lump, three feet above their butt)). So, EA explains the game, and answers its questions....'informing' Fox and Cooper of her mistake.

Frankly, if Cooper doesnt know she made many critical errors, she is full of herself to define herself as a journalist. Fox could simply fire her, as a scapegoat, to applease their audience (again, none of us thinkers).

If however, Fox and Cooper misbehave in any way, shape or form, to EA, they could be shotting themselves in the foot. As EA could go over to CNN, and express their 'case'. That story would be caught in a flash fire, if nothing more, then to show the uniformed audiences of Fox, just how unprofessional they are at work.

Frankly, I'd advise EA to expect to see a massive correction by Fox News to their satifcation, or sue on grounds of product slander.

Thankfully there's anti-Fox stuff out there on photobucket and urbandictionary.com, oy. And I'm

@Nitherean: Thats something that would me more satisfying than putting Murdoch as a corporate villan in a game, oy! I hope somebody gets the idea into action as fast as Haruhi Suzumiya can.

Oh, and I'm reposting this because of the urgency of it:


Rupert Murdoch made Fox News and other channels to entertain people. That was done so that viewers wouldn’t care about politics as much as something crazy shit; And if they do, they slander anyone who disagrees with their Nazi agendas in a romantic black-and-white fashion, oy. Without the political dedication of citizens, “people have the power” could sure as hell become an oxymoron. It’s real convincing when you think about News Corp. and the stuff they own the rights to; Fox channel: Known for their mega-hit comedies, etc. FX: Showing the best in risque entertainment. MySpace: Place where people may spend hours updating their profile and contacting their friends. Remember the words which I have spoken, oy. And FIGHT DA POWA!

Party On, Dudes
Tye The Czar

Hey, uh, Jingle Fett, the writer's strike doesn't affect new writers.
I LOVE FOX NEWS!

At least Bill Clinton had gotten Faux Noise by the balls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNoN403tXU4
Ben