ECA's Hal Halpin Calls on Fox News to Retract Mass Effect Story
ECA's Hal Halpin Calls on Fox News to Retract Mass Effect Story
January 28, 2008
Hal Halpin, president of the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA), has weighed in on the Mass Effect episode, calling on Fox News to correct its smear of the popular Xbox 360 game.In a letter issued this afternoon to Fox News' Teri Van Horn, producer of last Monday's offensive Live Desk segment, Halpin wrote:
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.
Full Disclosure Dept: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.
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Posted 09/05/08 at 10:14pm
ZippyDSMlee: BlackIce: its funny it dose not mind zippy speak tho :P
ZippyDSMlee: BlackIce: its funny it dose not mind zippy speak tho :P
Posted 09/05/08 at 08:40pm
BlackIce: @Zippy: Yeah, it does. Fucking thing..
BlackIce: @Zippy: Yeah, it does. Fucking thing..
Posted 09/05/08 at 07:31pm
MaskedPixelante: This new Jack picture should be the official picture whenever there's an article about Jack.
MaskedPixelante: This new Jack picture should be the official picture whenever there's an article about Jack.
Posted 09/05/08 at 07:19pm
ZippyDSMlee: Tyler Baumbarger: Iuse <br/> withno troubl, it dose like catching links as spam tho.
ZippyDSMlee: Tyler Baumbarger: Iuse <br/> withno troubl, it dose like catching links as spam tho.
Posted 09/05/08 at 07:11pm
BunchaKneejerks: Couldn't sleep 'till I got this one last idea for a 'shop out my head.
BunchaKneejerks: Couldn't sleep 'till I got this one last idea for a 'shop out my head.
Posted 09/05/08 at 06:35pm
Tyler Baumbarger: Hmm, maybe I should take the <hr/> off of my sig. Keeps being flagged as spam.
Tyler Baumbarger: Hmm, maybe I should take the <hr/> off of my sig. Keeps being flagged as spam.
Posted 09/05/08 at 06:12pm
Freyar: I do love Italian foods..
Freyar: I do love Italian foods..
Posted 09/05/08 at 06:10pm
ZippyDSMlee: Freyar: Then you must agree I iz not quit "humanz" either :P I dunno what worse thinking your "Garfield " or thinking your odie trying to be as smart as Garfield. =0-o= UHg I fail ! but then the joy of life is trying not to. ^_~
ZippyDSMlee: Freyar: Then you must agree I iz not quit "humanz" either :P I dunno what worse thinking your "Garfield " or thinking your odie trying to be as smart as Garfield. =0-o= UHg I fail ! but then the joy of life is trying not to. ^_~
Posted 09/05/08 at 06:05pm
Freyar: I recognized the Garfield joke. *grin*
Freyar: I recognized the Garfield joke. *grin*
Posted 09/05/08 at 06:04pm
ZippyDSMlee: Freyar: No but I could probably mail self to you in lil pieces :P last time I went brown box I wound up in Abudobie... (Garfield joke BTW). Sadly I am in the US =0_o=
ZippyDSMlee: Freyar: No but I could probably mail self to you in lil pieces :P last time I went brown box I wound up in Abudobie... (Garfield joke BTW). Sadly I am in the US =0_o=
Posted 09/05/08 at 05:56pm
Freyar: Are you British? Otherwise you won't have a hope in hell of queing me.
Freyar: Are you British? Otherwise you won't have a hope in hell of queing me.
Posted 09/05/08 at 05:51pm
ZippyDSMlee: Freyar:*chases you with my battered tung* I'll que uuuu!!!!! :P
ZippyDSMlee: Freyar:*chases you with my battered tung* I'll que uuuu!!!!! :P
Posted 09/05/08 at 05:32pm
Freyar: We won't blame you for an outage. :P Maybe you should get someone to help you that's more land-locked? Just kidding.
Freyar: We won't blame you for an outage. :P Maybe you should get someone to help you that's more land-locked? Just kidding.
Posted 09/05/08 at 05:27pm
HarmlessBunny: Eeep sorry to hear that.
HarmlessBunny: Eeep sorry to hear that.
Posted 09/05/08 at 05:25pm
gamepolitics: oops, up here it's actually hurricane hanna, which we are supposed to get a taste of tomorrow
gamepolitics: oops, up here it's actually hurricane hanna, which we are supposed to get a taste of tomorrow
Posted 09/05/08 at 05:25pm
HarmlessBunny: LOL
HarmlessBunny: LOL
Posted 09/05/08 at 05:25pm
gamepolitics: i gotta get it all done before hurricane ike hits, LOL
gamepolitics: i gotta get it all done before hurricane ike hits, LOL
Posted 09/05/08 at 05:15pm
HarmlessBunny: Yeeesh Dennis, just overworking it on a friday :P
HarmlessBunny: Yeeesh Dennis, just overworking it on a friday :P
Posted 09/05/08 at 04:45pm
ZippyDSMlee: gamepolitics:GO GP!!! =^^=
ZippyDSMlee: gamepolitics:GO GP!!! =^^=
Posted 09/05/08 at 04:31pm
gamepolitics: not a bad day's work, LOL
gamepolitics: not a bad day's work, LOL
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Comments
Zachary, unless some of these companies threaten to pull their ads off of Fox channels, Fox News will not retract anything. They live for this shit.
Anyway, it's good to see so many people finally coming together and standing up against these sorts of bald face lies. It's actually shocking that even Jack Thompson stood up for Mass Effect in a way.
Apparently Jack Thompson belives Cooper Lawrence is a guy, but in some emails to someone at Kotaku, he said that "The guy who shot his mouth off about it had no idea what the Hell he was talking about." (referring to Lawrence), and that "This contrived controversy is absolutely ridiculous."
http://kotaku.com/349423/jack-thompson-defends-mass-effect
Then I quit reading cause clearly this guy knows nothing!
J/K Great post, and it's like Colonel Finn has said, this even has come and gone now.
Of course. It's not Take Two, Counter Strike, The Sims, or Halo. He has no beef against Mass Effect yet.
@ Mad_Scientist
To Thompson's quote: “The guy who shot his mouth off about it had no idea what the Hell he was talking about.” (referring to Lawrence). Man, there are so many ironic points that can be made about this I don't even know where to start...
I think it's time the ESA stands up and defends the industry that they're supposed to represent.
Good Luck!
or maybe my nostrils have finally gotten rid of thomspon's stink after all the months of silence.
It takes some time for these things to be written. you don't want to be too hasty, as that can cloud your judgement. But there is also the idea that he had to wait for a certain level of outrage from the organization members.
Regardless I am glad to see the ECA standing up on this issue.
I do wonder how many high profile companies and organizations it will take to get Fox News to retract their segment. So far, we have a multitude of gamers, EA, Bioware and the ECA. Cooper has retracted her statements. So we are waiting for ESA and Microsoft.
Any others I am forgetting?
That said, I have my doubts that this will even be acknowledged by Fox.
So, should we sing the International or the Super Mario Brothers Theme?
I suppose the EMA might shuffle over to our side of the line, though I doubt it. Also, I'd maybe put the New York Times under "our" column, at least tentatively, since they posted the correction.
Hmmmm.... maybe their should be a Goodwin's for JT. What to call it? Jack's Law? Jack-ass's Law? Jack Vader's Law? Any ideas?
not a good ide.a They control the studio, so accidentally cutting his mic would be an issue.
I'd put the chances of a correction somewhere between slim and none. I wouldn't mind being made a fool of on that, though.
Because if he did, he would be arguing under Fox's terms. He would not get as much time to make his case and set the record straight as other "experts" would to bash Mass Effect, it's developers, and the videogame industry and community. How about Teri Van Horn, Geoff Keighley, ande Hal Halpin go on G4's Attack of the Show where everyone might actually get a fair chance to make their arguments.
EA called. They said the bandwagon for their well timed retraction call just left the station, but another should be along soon.
Of all the things I don't like about G4, their debates are one thing I do like, among others.
Check Kotaku.com. You can find a post in there about how one of the admins was in touch with JT and he actually had no particular objection with Mass Effect. I'll try to find the exact link at some point.
The "band wagon" is still very much waiting for occupants. This is not one of those fly by night operations. This is something that must be battled for years ahead.
So don't diss Hal.
I know they do get a lot of complaints. Even sadder, if you wander around the political blogosphere, is that people aren't really mad about inaccuracies. They are mad that they aren't innacurately skewed to a given ideology.
Fox News' premise was to make a right wing news channel because others were left wing. Thier whole purpose wasn't to be more accurate than those they thought had it wrong, they just want to be inaccurate the other way.
News has become a niche business. They all "fit" the news to target their target demographic. Things like accuracy, credibility, and integrity have been long lost.
It's disgusting, and it's great to see any of them slapped around a bit. This is a particularly good one to do it with, because it is rare that they are demonstratively wrong and oblivious to reality.
There is no case to be made that the game is pron, that it exploits women, that it is marketed to 15 year olds, or that there is anything explicit in it. Those aren't opinions, those are simply easily verified as false statements.
Since the smear on Mass Effect, or offense to it, doesn't fall strictly along ideological lines, those that would normally offer knee-jerk defense of Fox News don't feel as compelled to. They have made themselves a soft target for criticism with this story.
There would have to be some horrible backlash against their sponsers and advertisers in order for that to happen. Considering their viewer base, won't happen.
Personally I feel it doesn't matter. The real story was told in the New York Times which has much more clout and a larger reader base.
@ECA
Awesome response! It's nice to see such a well written response to Fox's dribble. Kudos!
To those who wish Fox to burn for this, just let it go. They'll simply blame Cooper Lawrence and say she's the one who misled them rather than the other way around.
For miss Lawrence she had learned a hard lesson about the cost of spouting lies and misinformation against a group that may not have a face, but definitely has a force and is intelligent enough to rally for a cause greater than their own individuality.
However, Fixed News will never retract falsehoods nor apologize for false reporting.
However, the question remains as to why the ESA is still silent on the whole thing- its their business and creative merit being dragged in the mud here.
It almost seems like the ESA is just as spineless as it was under Dough Lowenstein!
My best solution for this? The ECA and EA should make arrangements on a different station to bash Fox's coverage of Mass Effect. You hit them in both the wallet (viewership watching another channel) and the ego.
Surely another station would be willing to give them 'Fair and Balanced' coverage?
Fair enough.
@ The Ninth Doctor
What?!?
Please, shut the fuck up. Even an intelligent person who hates windows has to admit that bill gates has done a huge amount of good through charity. Only a stupid fucktard is able to blame every problem in the computer world on bill gates. Please, just shut the fuck up about a man you obviously can't be bothered to know anything about.
Back on topic
@vellocet
So all those videogame laws put themselves through the courts and had themselves over turned.
Has anyone considered that possibly that EA may have asked the ESA to not jump on this? You know maybe? Or is bashing the ESA without wondering why they might not do something the popular thing to do on gamepolitics?
As others have said, you have to be very careful when dealing with the news media. You have to word things carefully and not leave openings.
Its not surprising the ECA has a response sooner than the ESA. The ESA has a large number of members with a lot of money.
The ECA is a consumer group.
Oh, and I completely agree with Hal
Regarding Fox blaming Ms. Lawrence they could try but she did not make the graphics for the show and she was not the host either.
I am also wonder why ESA has not taken a position on this issue as well. Additionally, I would love to see Mr. Gates whip off a quip at a minimum at Fox. If that happened I think it would be "the shot heard around the world" so to speak.
If Jack Thompson's not bluffing, that should be worth a story of its own on GP!
Not really. Jack just doesn't want someone else stealing his limelight. He isnt defending anything at all, he just wants headlines to himself.
I don't think Jack Thompson is bluffing. He's not as much of a fool as some people think, and he picks his targets with some care most of the time. (I still don't understand his Sims 2 comments, but he never really followed up on them much.)
Even a T-rated game like Bully, with its name, setting, and developer, is easy to demonize, easy to portray as horrible. But Mass Effect is just a Sci-Fi RPG with a sex scene less graphic than some that have appeared in a few other games, and it's from a devoloper who's name doesn't inspire bad feelings from the general population. And with people in the industry actually making something of an effort to counteract the misinformation about the game this time, it wouldn't be wise for Jack Thompson to criticise it too much.
I don't think the opposing viewpoint absolutely HAS to be a gaming expert, just an expert who's actually DONE the research.
I mean, really, I can better understand a "oops, I didn't understand something and I misinterpreted some of the info I found in my research" far better than "the only thing I know about the game is that someone told me it had porn in it".
Now, where's Leland Yee or Hilary Clinton? Where's Senator Burrell? We know where you-know-who is (there's a Kotaku article about it).
You know, it just jumped in my mind that the best snippit comment regarding those politicians, organizations, and other individuals is made in the parody of the title of a famous movie:
Silence Of The Sheep
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
check this out: http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/28/jack-thompson-mass-effect-controversy-...
I find it strange that gp hasn't covered this yet, concerning how it's normally THE place to go for JT news.
In the last 2 minutes of The Live Desk today, anchor Martha McCallum showed and paraphrased Cooper Lawrence's quotes from her NYTimes interview. However, she made no effort to apologize for the segment, instead it appeared to me as if she was putting the blame for the misguided attack squarely on Ms Lawrence's shoulders. She also parroted the fact that EA, BioWare & Microsoft representatives have been invited to share their viewpoint on the game on her show but have not responded.
You have to remember that GP and Jack don't talk to often since Jack was banned. Plus, to be considered real news, it would have to have some more guts to it.
Jack didn't actually defend Mass Effect, he just said that at the time he has no problem with it. Probably after seeing the way it played out, he for once decided to keep his mouth shut.
yes about every other publisher and developer. It should not matter who published/developed it. It should be a were are not gonna sit down and be beat anymore.
I can't believe it. Jack Thompson, of all people, is actually defending a video game. Hell has officially frozen over.
Ow... I think I just got a cerebral hemorrhage.
1. Attacking it, as we've already been witness too, is completely ineffective.
2. By defending it, he is seperating himself from the percieved idiots who were so easily shut down, making him appear more sane.
3. A lot less kids are going to get their hands on Mass Effect than GTA. Seriously, less kids are going to beg their ignorant parents for a game who's most interesting feature is talking.
I don't get why its not being covered, since it *seems* that almost his every move is covered, and this latest move seems to be (if only on the surface) a shocking development.
Im supprised they havent done a story on the general gaming populace yet
You know describing us as a bunch of foam at the mouth nutjobs and what not.
Seriously whats going on? a writers stri..oh yah
Gamers im putting this task on you come up with a snappy one liner demonizing gamers and then email it to fox with a brief summary on how they could incorporate it into a story.
Write in. Help make a difference.
I don't really know whether the latest Jack Thompson is worthy of a post or not, but Dennis may not find it such. I'm guessing part of the reason why he even bothered with the last Jack Thompson related story was because it also involved the finalized release date for GTAIV, which is by itself newsworthy given the controversy that game is sure to generate from more places than just Thompson.
Episode 3: A hint of kindness
End
He came back and then people wanted him gone again...lol
@ JustChris
LOL @ the reference :) and fits the character very well.
'Episode 3: A hint of kindness'
Never forget that this is the same man who pushed forward Flash-based games written by members of the public as the produce of the Game Industry whilst trying to get laws passed that restricted the sales of Video Games. Jack Thompson isn't above making completely false statements to back his opinion, he simply knows that to back this horse would be a loser.
Of course the whole article is unclear (maybe its JT's fault) on what exactly he was commenting about, so your guess is as good as mine.
Ou se trouve l'ESA?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-begala/fox-news-we-report-e_b_80698.h...
It's about how fox news will knowingly report false information as fact. If they're willing to do this there's little chance of them correcting themselves over this. Yeah it sucks, but really it's just another reason to never watch fox and spread the word about their misdeeds.
I was thinking of that same article over the whole debacle. Fox News Runs a story about someone. The subject of the story emails them telling them it is false. They say they have a very good source. The guy who they wrote about tells them that their source is wrong and they should take the word of the guy they are talking about. They say they will think about it.
Very damning if you ask me.
the ECA is a minor weight in the scheme of tings they must have backing from soemthign in order not to lose rep when they do a press release...think of it like zippy....because zippy rarely watches what he says he is a zippy, a thing to be ignored :P
Yup, though I'd use completely instead of very in your last line.
Any news company who has one of their top reporters writing/reporting news they know is wrong, and have been informed so by the person that's the main subject of their article multiple times, simply can not be trusted and should be publicly vilified if possible.
The question is how do we inform the people who trust fox of this information?
But you know who IS defending Mass Effect... JACK TOHMPSON!
As for the JT story, it might not be posted because it was four emails sent between the kotaku editor and JT, because it was not an official press release, and because he wasn't outright defending it.
Are you trying to insinuate that the "news" section of the ENTERTAINMENT division of a media company reported something that they did not bother to check out first?
Wow what next? Let me guess, you gonna tell me that George Bush lied about WMD's, right?
A news story should be the truth, regardless of its subject.
Aye. As a wise man once said, "The system is shit, truth is all that matters."
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