Chicago Transit Authority Pulls GTA IV Ads Following Fox Affiliate Reporting

Fox News Headline - Video Gamers Leave Baby To Die

FOX News Mass Effect Spoof Parodies A Parody

Can parody be parodied? That's the question we ask ourselves after watching this spoof of Geoff Keighley's appearance on FOX News. While the skit itself is alright, it was the reporter's opening monologue that made the clip post-worthy. So without giving anything away, we'll just say that, damn, we really wish we'd played the publicized version of Mass Effect. Because it sounds really freakin' hot.

Max Effect [loadingreadyrun via Maxconsole]

Believe it or not Jack Thompson and I email sorta regularly. Granted he usually emails me bizarre, over-the-top press releases (which I often don't post) and I respond with disjointed quotes from movies, which I hope will one day remove that last wobbly hinge of his. (No luck yet).

Last week Jack emailed me a press release entitled "Grand Theft Auto IV to Be Released April 29; Culture War Begins Now" and after my typical poking, I got on to the topic of the Mass Effect controversy and was shocked, literally out of my socks, to find him defending the game... sort of. Apparently, even anti-gaming crusader Jack Thompson found self-help author Cooper Lawrence (who he refers to as a man), uninformed and the entire controversy contrived. Hellooooo kettle.

EA vs Fox: Adam Sessler Weighs in

Self help author Cooper Lawrence, along with Fox News came under heavy fire from gamers last week when they mindlessly branded Mass Effect as pornography. While Fox News hasn't come forth with an apology, Lawrence has admitted her mistakes in an interview with the New York Times yesterday after angry gaming fans trashed her book on Amazon.

...Ms. Lawrence said that since the controversy over her remarks erupted she had watched someone play the game for about two and a half hours. "I recognize that I misspoke," she said. "I really regret saying that, and now that I've seen the game and seen the sex scenes it's kind of a joke.

"Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it's like pornography," she added. "But it's not like pornography. I've seen episodes of 'Lost' that are more sexually explicit."

While I don't think situations like this will ever change the way Fox News handles its sensationalist stories, perhaps it will send a message to the so called "experts" they bring on the show to do their research before going on air. As vehemently protective as gamers are of their genre, it will only end up coming back to bite these allegedly knowledgeable people in the ass. Hell hath no fury like a gamer scorned.

Author Faults a Game, and Gamers Flame Back [New York Times]

EA Fighting Mad About Fox News, But Still No Correction

In a single line text message sent from her Blackberry, Teri VanHorn, producer of Fox News' Live Desk with Martha MacCallum, blew off Electronic Arts' detailed call for correction over the error strewn report the show did on Mass Effect earlier in the week.

Jeff Brown, Electronic Arts' vice president of communication, told Kotaku that the producer told him to contact Fox News' public relations department, which apparently now deals with factual errors in their stories.

Brown told me he wasn't surprised, but that EA will continue to "step up when someone maligns our creative teams.
"They need to understand there are 100 people in Edmonton, Alberta who dedicated years to making that game. They've got names, faces and reputations - and they've been slandered. We're angry about that."

He added that yesterday's reaction was not a one off, "it's a policy directive from Riccitiello. Anyone who tells lies about our creative teams is going to get a fight."

EA Calls Fox Out on Insulting Mass Effect Inaccuracies [Kotaku]

Study: Violent TV, Video Games Make Adults More Violent

Reggie-lution on Fox News

I've never watched the new Fox News Channel. But if this interview with Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime is any indication, I don't need to watch. The interviewer can hardly say Reggie's title (chief operating officer) and she talks about how it's exceeding "anticipation" (I think she meant expectation). My favorite part, though, is when they post the Super Mario Galaxy metacritic at the bottom of the screen (a 96).

Manhunt 2 + Fox News = Loud Noises

If you're looking for intelligent debate about the extreme levels of violence in the Mature rated Manhunt 2 and how its release should be handled at retail or cogent discussion on the ESRB's ratings policies, look somewhere other than this Fox News clip from a segment known as "Cashin' In." The news channel for simpletons brings us a moronic shouting match between some lawyer we've never heard of with a gift for hyperbole and crazy conspiracy theories and some libertarian yokel named Jonathan Hoenig.

To further enhance your enjoyment of the low brow antics of Fox News' reporting style, don't miss this earlier report on Manhunt 2, in which Dr. Ted Baehr of the Christian Film and Television Commission invokes Columbine and Seung-Hui Cho just before declaring that the video game ratings system "never works."

Over 150 Campers In Line At Rockville, MD Best Buy

Fox News Starts Covering Games