FOX NEWS: MASS EFFECT IS PORNOGRAPHIC

I was surprised that nobody else has posted a topic about this, so I thought I would take the initiative. I'm sure we've all heard of this, but in case you haven't, I'll briefly summarize.

Sometime last week, the Fox News primetime news television show aired a story about the video game Mass Effect. Their panel of experts claimed that the videogame was an interactive pornography experience marketed towards young children. They referred to the XBox360 platform as the "Sex Box". They also claimed that the video game featured "full frontal digital nudity and sex", which, among several of their other claims, is completely factually incorrect. Videogame journalist Geoff Keighley was brought on with Fox's panel of "experts" to discuss the game, and upon asking the panel whether or not they had played the game, was laughed at and derisively called "darling" and eventually removed from the show. Fox guest commentator Cooper Lawrence cited studies at universities that had no actually taken place and in general showed a complete and total lack of journalistic integrity and education about the topic.

Kotaku offers a better summary and also covers EA's response here:

http://kotaku.com/348187/ea-calls-fox-out-on-insulting-mass-effect-inaccuracies



I'm really pissed off that a major broadcaster like Fox News can get away with sensationalist, imflammatory garbage like this. While I understand that Fox is not really a news program and is more of a news-related entertainment program, lying and misreporting like this is completely unacceptable. The station has refused to air an apology or even deliver private remorse to the publisher or the staff that created the game. Fox executives have dismissed EA's demands for an apology and I would not be surprised to see some sort of massive lawsuit come out of this (EA has been extremely graceful in only demanding apology and not suing for slander/defamation of character/etc already). It is one thing to air segments on things like GTA's Hot Coffee scene or Manhunt's outright and uncompromising brutality, which represent content that actually does exist and might rightly be considered trashy by some conservative standards. Calling Mass Effect pornographic or "an interactive cross between Debby Does Dallas and Luke Skywalker" is a disgrace to journalism.

Incidentally, Cooper Lawrence herself *has* apologized for misspeaking and being generally uninformed. This makes me even more upset with Fox, who is willing to stand by embarassing half-assed reporting without so much as an apology.

There is an online petition for anyone interested: http://www.petitiononline.com/foxnews9/ These sorts of petitions don't always really achieve anything, but it's worth five minutes of your time if you care!

So, what do you guys think?

author=Ciel link=topic=625.msg9089#msg9089 date=1203063015
Full frontal nudity in a video game? Old, old fucking news Fox:

Well what's funny about this game is that there is no frontal *or* full nudity. You see the profile of a butt and a bit of side-boob but it's pretty mcuh PG-13.