Jack Thompson on NPR: If You Blinked, You Missed It
Jack Thompson on NPR: If You Blinked, You Missed It
May 1, 2008
Neil Conan, host of NPR's Talk of the Nation gave Jack Thompson the bum's rush during a three-minute appearance that also featured G4TV's Adam Sessler and a guy named Jim from BushLeague.TV.Highlights of Thompson's brief appearance include:
Conan: I understand that you think one of the characters in Grand Theft Auto IV is based on you
Thompson: Well, they go into a lawyer's office and they kill him. I had my house vandalized, by the way, today by gamers. I get calls, death threats all the time by gamers... The real issue here is, though, that there is so much sex and so much graphic sex... I'm working with various law enforcement agencies,hopefully with the result that Take Two corporately and the chairman Strauss Zelnick will be indicted for that because this is way, way over the line...
Sessler: I hope you don't mind if I step in there, Neil. Having played the game I have yet to discover the graphic sex Mr. Thompson is identifying...
Conan: John Thompson... Have you played the game?
Thompson: It just came out and I have a life...
Conan: And which law enforcement agencies are you working with?
Thompson: I'm not gonna tell you.
(GP: this answer seemed to convince Conan to terminate the interview... it's also a question that I have asked Thompson without receiving a satisfactory answer...)
Conan: Alright, well, thanks very much for speaking with us.
Thompson: (chuckle) I'm done?
Conan: You're done.
Thompson: Oh, great. I'll go play the game now.
Conan: Good luck... (click)
UPDATE: To listen to an mp3 of Thompson's 3-minute segment, click here... Or, get the full 16 minutes from NPR's website.
UPDATE 2: Thompson found a more sympathetic ear on Glenn Beck's CNNHL program, which I just caught. Can someone YouTube that? Of course, that nonsense about the military desentizing recruits with video games has been debunked before, but now Beck is parroting it.
Thompson also (again) linked the Red Lake school shooting to GTA and Virginia Tech to Counter-strike.
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The stream of curses at my incredulity would melt the polar ice caps.
Sigh, the predictability of stupidity never ceases to amaze me.
Still... "I'm not gonna tell you? I'm not gonna tell you?! I'M NOT GONNA TELL YOU?!" I give up. Someone hand me an aspirin and an antacid.
"it just came out, and I have a life"
RE-E-E-EALY? Never would have guessed, but I doubt he has any time to leave whatever volcano he rented from Faux news to actually buy and play the game before he says ANYTHING!
I know, I know!
The Taliban.
Great line.
I wonder if Thompson's story about being vandalized by gamers and receiving death threats got any truth in it. I know that Thompson is known for making up facts to attract sympathy, but I also know that there are many gamers who'd go that far.
My god, how many people would LOVE to say that to him!
with all due respect to the upstanding members of the legal community
you dont have to be a gamer to find thompson shameful and disgusting,while i dont approve of commiting crimes jack has screwed up the defence of a few people in criminal court, how do we know it might not be relatives of those people?
on one hand i agree on the other hand i think that conan had never heard of thompson and once thompson got started conan saw the trainwreck coming and just stomped on the brakes so to speak
That's what you get for being a Jackass, Jack...
...
...
...ass.
Oh Thompson, when are you going to base your facts on, oh I don't know, facts?
I know that you're don't have to be a gamer to hate Jack Thompson. I was just wondering if his story has any merit (no matter if it was a gamer, a lawyer, a land mower, or whatever).
He's known to make up facts, but it's still possible.
Like you even need to ask... There is precious little that could convince me that anyone has vandalized his property, even though the concept doesn't sound that outlandish...
But at this point, Jack Thompson is the boy who cried wolf... so if he says it's true, you know it aint.
I'm wondering if the vandalism tale is even true. I'm not understanding what would make Thompson think that (specifically) gamers vandalized his place - what, did they break the window with a copy of GTA4?!
Jack's law enforcements = sock puppet on his hand with a plastic sheriff's badge. Maybe a Hot Wheels police car, too.
The vandalism, well, I have the strangest feeling that it was something along the lines of his house being TP'd or putting up signs or lawn flamingos on his lawn. Though it's possible that some moron actually did damage his house, in which case, I hope they catch the kid.
Also, go for it, Jack. I can't wait to see how you plan to prosecute the publishing of a video game with the equivalent of an R rating, especially when there are (much more explicit) R-rated films on DVD available from the same retailers.
I find he won't answer the tough questions - like Conan's about which law enforcement agencies. I believe that if there was a PD buying his theories he'd be only to glad to announce it.
I don't doubt at all that he gets death threats. Nor do I doubt that he harshly insults gamers, many of whom are adolescent males who can be given to act rashly.
And of course Thompson won't tell anyone which law enforcement agencies he's talking about ,most of them likely have him blocked, or he doesn't want anyone telling them who they might be dealing with.
Conan: John Thompson… Have you played the game?
Thompson: It just came out and I have a life…
No further comments.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90041702
Amusing stuff.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90041944
Also, has anyone been able to find a chainsaw yet? Cause I haven't and Beck claims you can, and if there is one, I want it. If there isn't, then I'm going to laugh some more.
Yeah, probably. Just another fact they got wrong.
"I'm not gonna tell you." God, he sounds like a five year old, doesn't he?
that's a half-truth: he may have not played the game, but harassing gamers and spreading lies does not qualify for "having a life"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzr138ijmaQ
CNN Headline News - Grand Theft Morality Pt.2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqSCLrtioEI
Oh geez, here's a crazy conservative on TV screaming about the dangers of video games.
speaking about something that he is clueless
about. CNN needs to fire him.
parents who become misguided by this
bulls**t. Who was the kid who's parents
prevented him from openly enjoying
popular entertainment? The kid later
went on a shooting spree in a church,
I think. I know that the kid did view
pop entertainment, in secret, and was
punished when they, his parents,
found out about it.
Who wants to flood Cnn forums? or do something.. I feel compelled to do something lol.
their kids away from "evil media"
remind me of the parents who
don't get their kids vaccinated.
Neither group have evidence
supporting their views, and there
is evidence in support of the view
that they oppose.
Well, I guess that if a teen isn't
psychologically mature enough
to play a M+ game, then they shouldn't,
but if they are, then let them. If they
are or aren't should be determined
by the parent, or perhaps a trained
psychologist. But, of coarse, that would
require the parents to actually take part
in their child's development.
Note to parents: there's a whole sh!t lot
more to parenting then getting knocked up,
feeding the little monster, and dragging them
to school. Don't agree, then you can give your
kid up to your local foster community.
ORLY? For a guy who has not played much of the game (he has a life- sending endless emails and faxes is serious business), he has found a lot more than most people.
His claim of working with law enforcement is especially bullshit- just like how his wife is supposedly sick...only when convienient for him.
I said it before, the hookers say stuff like 'I'll suck yer #*&$' and stuff, but... innuendo =/= the actual act.
If innuendo = porn, than anything that airs on TV 7:00 and later is grounds to be banned in JT's eyes.
lol yeah. Thats why its rated M. There are obveously gonna be swears and violence in an M rated game...
but never do you see a girl completely undressed or doing any sexual acts.... this is just stupid how people scapegoat great games like this..
I've said it before and I'll say it again. If people can train to kill and operate expertly, the first time with no prior experience, a gun on GTA then why don't NFL teams save probably thousands of dollars on training camps/equipment and such and just have their players go at it in the latest version of Madden? After all, Madden is far more lifelike than GTA ever could be and if you can train off a game like GTA logically the more real it is the better the training.
It might be a gamer(assuming what he says is the truth, and isn't something overly exaggerated....), but he has lots of people other then gamers that he has ticked off over all these years who could have done it.
For all we know, "vandalized" might have just been some dog or the wind knocking over a trashcan...
@ GP
I find he won’t answer the tough questions - like Conan’s about which law enforcement agencies. I believe that if there was a PD buying his theories he’d be only to glad to announce it.
Obviously, anything that would discredit him he avoids. There have been quite a few times where he avoided some poster's main point, but felt the need to reply and go after them.
Also explains the other "interview" he had, haven't seen it yet, but based on the comments I guess there are a lot of holes and lies Rockstar can hit them back for.
http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/2466/motivatorjtgtaivmn9.jpg
You're all welcome!
:D
That said, it was a solid interview overall, though its shortness (twenty minutes or so in total) didn't allow everything to be explored or discussed. In particular, I was disappointed that Conan seemed to find some merit (however little) in MADD's condemnation of drunken driving in the game. He didn't seem to thoroughly understand the view that the difficulty served as a kind of penalty. I was relieved, though, to hear him admit upfront to not having played the game while still having an open mind to discuss its merits, story, characters, etc.
I've said it before Jack and I'll say it again: Back up your shit or go home.
The vandalism, well, I have the strangest feeling that it was something along the lines of his house being TP’d or putting up signs or lawn flamingos on his lawn..."
That's my thought as well. After Thompson claimed that kissing constituted "gay sex" in Bully, it became all too clear that he's willing to exaggerate, to absurd levels, the degree of any given subject.
Sadly, I have to agree with the issue of death threats as well. I'm sure that he's received very few, but it's asinine, dangerous, and damaging to the view of gamers all the same. Fortunately, the only prosecuted case of such an act toward Thompson involved (if I recall) an underage boy who probably didn't have the nerve to harm a fly.
Could've fooled me!
A basket of muffins to anyone who suggests that to the honorable Judge Tunis for use in JT's lawyerectomy... :P
Jack rolls in the mud and slings it at anyone who happens to come by, hoping that they too, will come and roll in the mud in which he dwells.
That said, the 'discussion' was worth listening to simply to hear joke say 'cunnilingus' and 'fellatio'.
I would like to see joke thompson try and play GTA. Put him in front of the game and say 'ok johnny boy, show me the graphic sex'. He would have no fucking idea what to do. It doesn't matter that the game teaches you how to play. jack has no concept of what playing a video game involves. He thinks it is a simulator. The guy is borderline retarded.
"Ugh, I.. have a life".
Poor excuse since we all know he sits at home visiting all our favorite websites, firing one line email responses to gamers, and googling his own name all day.
Don't you mean just *over* the line? (sorry, couldn't resist. :P)
Ok I am done. ;)
So GTA is over the line, but the constant stream of lies and intimidation by thompson isn't? Does he get a special line or something? My god how much more moronic can he get?
Jack actually has an answer to that question. It was posed to him when he said he was disappointed about the Left Behind game, "Have you ever played it?" His answer was something along the lines of, "No, but I don't have to meet Abraham Lincoln to know that he was the sixteenth President of the United States."
GTA IV IS NOT MARKETED TO KIDS !
That is all I have to say on that.
I was glad to hear NPR kick John Bruce off the show early. I love NPR.
"I don't have to meet Abraham Lincoln to know that he was the sixteenth president." You do however have to read a US history book. :)
Thanks.
Fuckin' douchebag! :P
HUh? Well? Wheres the lawsuits, wheres the Slander suits, the threats, the demands for retraction!!?
Lets see someone stand the fuck up for this industry. I'm getting sick of this crap!
He is knowingly creating hysteria over virtually nothing, harassing people in writing, disrupting the work environment for quite a few people, openly lying on nationally televised media . . . thats all I can think of at the moment, but I know the list is much larger than that.
Can't someone, who has had to suffer his crap, press charges for at least one of the things he has done?
I know he . . . ummmm . . . went to law school (I am not going to say he is an attorney, since he made a mockery of the courts and is soon to be disbarred) and knows the loopholes, but he must have crossed the line at least once, somewhere.
I'm about sick of it too. The industry really needs to drop it's balls with the defense thing.
@BB
It all falls on the industry to take action. In all of JT's attacks on games he has to have crossed the line at least like, three times the way he carries on, you're dead center on that observation, so all that remains is for the industry to pony up with the legal papers.
I think they're waiting to see if he gets disbarred. I'm guessing they figure if/when that happens, he'll be easier to sue successfully.
Just watch. I'll bet anything if that happens, they'll descend on him like a pack of ravenous wolves! :D
Oh, I just listened to a podcast of him over on Destructoid. Seems Jack's been a busy little beaver today. The host tried to get him to stay on topic, but Jack kept accusing him of cutting him off until he finally got tired of it and left. As always, trying to dominate the discourse and forcing his own brand of morality and warped truth on everyone. I love how he thinks that if the industry and its "apologists" don't listen to him, then the government will step in and that video games really will be banned, which is complete and utter hogwash. While the government has been known to take a "one size fits all" mentality, I seriously doubt they would take that approach to games. There's that pesky little First Amendment he keeps conveniently ignoring as he continues to equate games with tobacco, alcohol and regular porn (which he also has skewed view of).
He says he won't be happy when they come to him and cry "Why didn't we listen to you?" But past words and deeds say otherwise. I just know there's a part of him that would just love to be the one to save us from ourselves.
He also briefly mentioned how he considers games to be a "waste of time." To which I say, "So says you." They said the same thing about comic books too, yet he doesn't bash them, and many people consider reading comic books today to be one of many good reading choices. Proof positive that Jack's a useless old fart.
I just sent an email to Take-Two about my genuine concerns about his mental health. I really am very worried that he may hurt himself and/or others in the near future, and I would not like to wait for that to happen.
I am not saying that I want him arrested, but I would like something to be done before he decides to do something that would cause bodily harm and/or death.
I have taken a fair amount of college psychology courses, and his behavior is making me very uneasy. I really don't like to see people get hurt, even if they bring it upon themselves.
Has anyone else tried voicing this concern to someone of high authority?
Many times he has openly insulted the intelligence and demeanor of our (gaming) community. It may do wonders to have us show genuine compassion, even for those that hate us.
It would be great to demonstrate to the rest of the world the amount of kindness we are capable of showing, especially since jack is constantly trying to tell everyone that we are all "training" (and supposedly have been training for some time now) to be a bunch of blood-mongerers.
Just a thought, and it definately wouldn't hurt.
Shows you that we need more news stations that have gamers ready to rebut JT's comments allot more these days.
Jt brings up 'that there are dozens of cases where GTA and other shooting games have trained kids to kill", and yet how many more hundred and thousands of killers are there who have never seen or touched a video game? I grew up playing Wolfenstein and Oregon Trail (I kicked butt hunting) and I haven't killed anyone. His logic also fails, in that if 9 million GTA4 are sold, he is saying that all 9 million will be killers and yet we all know that is false. If JT wants to be the next Hitler and go and have mass game burnings, where will it stop? Will once all the "violent games" are destroyed, will they move to movies next? How about books? Is the reason there is more crime really because there is more "Violent media" or is it more likely reason, there is just more people on this ever crowding planet and more people that are just "evil" or mentally disturbed.
Overall, that was some very sloppy reporting with logic holes big enough for the Death Star to go in and out of.
Though isn't GTA4 more a reflection of houw society is, specifically organized crime. I'm only at the beginning so far, but I feel like I am watching the Soprannos.
It's remarkably hard to have someone commited involuntarily for any length of time. If your under 18 your parents can force you but Jack has obviously passed that stage. I also imagine that jack doesn't have a current therapist or psychiatrist so the courts would have to get involved. Then there is the fact that the doc a while back gave him a clean bill of mental health, so I really doubt there's anything anyone can do.
Its not due to morals.
Nor to voilence.
Not Sex.
Not even how to treat women.
Its all about money. They are complaining they are not getting their take of the profits. It seems so easy. If any of these idiots REALLY wanted to curb violence, they report on the White House's failure to curb violence in America. Or Congress.
Frankly, there's 100 fold, more sex in most evening programs on ABC, CBS, and NBC....and most ironically, Fox, then all the GTA's combined.
Yep. I'm tempted to wonder if he gave the doctor a BJ.
If it did thats harsh....
actually a slander suit would be near impossible to win right now, for the taketwo to win a slander suit they have to prove that these lies have hurt their profits, and with the amount that GTA4 is selling, that would be near impossible to do, and in the long run probably cost them more money than the small amounts that jack is costing them with his lies, making it poor bussiness sense to take him to court
in the end the suit would actually do more to bolster Jack as when it's thrown out he would make claims that he was "obviously" telling the truth and the judge saw right through take twos slap lawsuit
if i WANT to , i can drive a cop car in GTA and arrest criminals all day
if i WANT to , i can drive an ambulance and heal people all day.
if i WANT to , i can have sex with a hooker.
etc
its all about providing a world with rules. its up to you what you do in it. No1 is MAKING you have sex with hookers n then kill them, thats your choice. and it CERTAINLY isnt the point of the game.
DO u really think it would have broken all sales records and sold Almost 600,000 copies on its first day, if the whole game was 'have sex with a hooker and kill her?' Gamers really couldnt be kept intersted by that for more than 2 minutes.
I agree with the earlier poster who says that they are disturbed by his strange behaviour, myself equally so.
Surely we can call/email somebody in authority to make aware of this. perhaps he can be arrested under mental health laws, for everyones safety.
'my house was vandalised, by gamers' ... um how on EARTH would you know they were gamers? and,... what does that have to do with anything. im sorry thats just as bad as saying 'my house was vandalised by black people'. Hes pointing out things that arent important whatsoever
As for the NPR interview, I find it amusing that Thompson seems to take pride in the fact that he came into the segment completely unprepared and uninformed (ie, when he says the game just came out and he 'has a life,' unlike anyone who has played it, apparently). So here he is, calling for Take-Two's chairman to be arrested (while of course making no such demands for movie executives who approve far more graphic violence and sex in dozens of R-rated movies every year), and then just seconds later proudly proclaiming that he hasn't actually played the game because he has a life. It seems that his life is chasing down ambulances and making fraudulent claims about Take-Two's products.
No... But I know I am not the only one here posting under the Anon/Anonymous/etc type marker, so they could be lurking and posting here...
I especially been doing this due to a certain someone trying to get our personal info in order to harass us. I do find it funny how he complains about being harassed, but back on GP's LiveJournal he sure had no problem doing that to one poster who was NOT even harassing him(last I remember, Jack made frequent email spams expecting a IM response, called their cellphone, called their parent's house, not sure if they had to phone blocked him, etc).
And it is soooo obvious he puts out such info with the intent to bate people into doing something he can turn around and use as ammunition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqSCLrtioEI
Yeah, he has a life, all right. He has four months after his bar trial to spend with his ailing wife, but instead he decides to spend it staring at his computer screen sending Judge Tunis half a dozen hate mails a day. FROM HIS OWN HOME.
What a life he leads.
You gotta love how many intelligent gamers there are out there (and if I'm right, I think that's actually the MAJORITY of us), yet he only focuses on the idiots who send e-mails to him that are as equally ridiculous as all the replies he sent back to us back in ol' 2005 with Hot Coffee and his stupid vendetta against The Sims 2.
He acts childish, and whatever he's doing now is pointless seeing as IIRC, he can't file any cases now without going through another lawyer because he was filing so many pointless cases. I wish he hadn't passed that sanity test sometimes >__>!
Until I see a photo from JT of the house and the vandalism itself, I am calling B.S. on it and digging my feet into the ground. You have one hour, Mr. Thompson. ONE HOUR. It is 08:04 am EST.
Thompson: It just came out and I have a life…
Conan: And which law enforcement agencies are you working with?
Thompson: I’m not gonna tell you."
This says it all. No, Jack has not got time to play the game (but time to whine about it), and he is definetly involved with the National Security Agency equivalent but he cant tell us which. =P
I'm a psych major, and I gotta tell you, from what i've learned and read, either he's an ego-centrical, paranoid and delusional man who needs help and love, or he's an asshole. His psych reports have said he's sane, so that sadly rules out the former.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2100380
The more people tell him on national TV/Radio to put up or shut up the more he'll lose his captive audience of mouth breathing idiots.
If so, may want to call the cops with all the threats he has made before "training" on this game.
:P
Maybe he's like most of us and can tell the difference between reality and fantasy, and is therefore immune to the subliminal messages that try to tell people to shoot up their schools.
I'm not a psychologist, like Rauggo most likely is, but that is a safe assumption.
@Rauggo
Set up an appointment with JT and see if he is insane or not. Then again, $20.00 says he'll back out or threaten to sue for harassment or whatever the hell it is he's gonna think it is.
"It just came out and I have a life…"
Well gee, I play video games, and also have time to DJ, go out to eat with friends, attend work meetings and telecommute.
TIME MANAGEMENT FTMFTW!!!!
As GP said, a good portion of gamers are adolescent males. Gaming pretty much stretches across many other demographics.
It's like going on TV and making racial slurs about latinos or blacks. The more level-headed amongst them are not going to threaten you. But that does not mean that a gang isn't going to take action against you for dissing them.
That's one thing... being think gamer, they don't realize that it's not the pale, pasty white guy sitting in his basement staring at glowing screens. There's a lot more diversity to it than that, and the range of responses there-in... You're going to piss someone off and they're going to react badly to it... does not mean that their actions should apply to whole of gamers...
It'd be like taking Jack's actions and saying all lawyers are nothing but media whoring massacre chasers...
I find little sympathy in any action taken against Jack, and privately support it... A man should realize that if he slings around words as carelessly as he does, the likelihood of retaliation can range from litigation to a punch in the nose.
Props. to the Sess!
Thompson: It just came out and I have a life…
____________________________________________
I have a hunch that a lot of gamers have more successful careers than 'Hack Lawyer on the verge of getting their liscence revoked', Mr. Thompson.
''Which might alarm some parents. Grand Theft Auto is so associated with the perceived evils of video games that mental-health experts Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson named a book after it: Grand Theft Childhood. ''
ok.. didnt that book aim to completely debunk the myths...? that NPR article is is completely being used to implicitly support the idea it damages kids.....WTF??
can we email and complain about this???????????????
Ehhh, I was just being sarcastic mate :)
Did you even read the articles on the site? They're generally being very fair about the issue, and overall it seems more like they're favoring the pro-game side of the issue if anything.
Fucking A!
@Rauggo
"His psych reports have said he’s sane, so that sadly rules out the former."
His psych reports were made by a personal friend and a member of JT's church whom JT himself picked out, so no it doesn't rule it out, in fact it might very well support it
@anon
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in Sessler's name Amen
yes, I am a total heathen
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