Shame on You, G4

Don't you know who Jack Thompson is? He's not someone to deal with. He's not someone to give any more publicity to. He's not anyone that ought to be taken seriously. He needs to be discredited as the fraud and sensationalistic self-aggrandizer that he is.

I'm really disappointed that you'd invite him as a guest on Attack of the Show to talk about violence in videogames. He will cheapen and distort an issue that ought to be taken seriously. He will twist words, he will insult gamers, he will use the platform to make ugly, untrue accusations as he always does.

There's no winning against some people, so putting him on the show to hope to argue against him is futile. He, like Bill O'Reilly and other pundits who make careers of shouting loudly at other people, will avoid reasonable argument because he knows it will defeat him. He seeks merely to inflame passions. He freely makes up facts and lies when he does not have the information - or when he does, he twists it to suit his agenda. He is, in the most classical sense, a troll.

I'm disappointed, because putting someone like him on the show reveals that you really have lost respect for gamers and their intelligence. That said, the issue of videogame violence and how it may affect both children and adults - and our larger society - is a crucial issue that can be addressed by many, many other people besides the self-inflated Jack Thompson, including Dr. Walsh, head of The National Institute for Media and the Family, who believes essentially in the same philosophy as Thompson but refuses to employ the same dirty tactics. Or anyone from Common Sense Media, or the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, or indeed any of the hundreds of media watchdog and consumer advocacy groups who are concerned with the impact videogames have on children.

Moreover, why are two journalists (Adam Sessler and Mark Friedler, president of GameDaily Biz) asked to defend videogame violence? That is not our job. Our job is to report. The job of defense clearly belongs to an industry lobby group like the ESA. Why aren't they represented? Because they know better. The ESA has a policy of not responding to anything Jack Thompson says or does.

By the way, editors at Ziff Davis were asked to appear on the show as well. We declined.

Comments

[Tallest]

Very smart of you to avoid that interview.

To be honest, if I hadn't known who JT was before hand, I'd say he presented himself very well on G4. Adam Sessler (i was directed to the video by a website claiming Sessler "owns Jack Thompson) comes across as being completely batty, shouting everything, making pointless statements and trying to bait JT into is typical anti-game rage. Friedler barely had anything to say except the most basic 'be careful' message.

I think that the only time you should allow Thompson to be on TV is if you do it in a vaccum. Give him an hour-long special where it's all Jack Thompson. No interviewer, no other human of any kind. Just the man and a camera and a TV, all the game consoles and a tape deck where he can load whatever VHS-recording he wants into. Let him debate a percieved audience as opposed to an interviewer. This will be comedy gold to gamers.

He'll run on and on trying to make points and counter-points to an invisible crowd. JT has always relied on discrediting or attacking other people or companies, and that's what he was educated for. Take away a rational element to the scene and let him debate his own perception of reality.

[Monkey-King]

I have to agree Jack was out of the news until some magazine (EGM, OPM?) and G4 dragged him back into the news again. You don't fight lawyers without lawyers...that is a very simple rule. And the biggest rule is you DON'T put Jack on TV even if it will only be seen by people who won't agree. That fact is ignoring Jack is how you talk with Jack!

My only thought is that that Jack offered to come on and it simply seemed like something that would boost rating on G4. Maybe they invited him before and he declined up until now…who knows. All I know is that G4 really brought its D-game to the interview. I like Adam, but his shtick is being 'erratic' for a reason, mainly because he is in fact erratic and clownish. Adam does that well, but his strengths are not arguing in front of a lawyer or making sense.

[jimi]

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