A few days back, Fox News hosted a show that gave Mass Effect, a highly-praised and rated game, a black eye. The show was rife with inaccuracies (I’m being polite here), in particular from author Cooper Lawrence, who admitted she hadn’t played the game. EA sent a letter to Fox demanding an apology and corrections.
Kotaku is now reporting that the person in charge of the News Dept. sent back a reply saying that corrections were handled by the PR department at Fox. Ah yes, we can see where this is going, eh?
After a few days (or maybe weeks) of merry-go-round, Fox will put up somewhere a small retraction that few will know about, while the majority will still remember what went on with Cooper Lawrence & Co.
It’s one thing to dislike a game. It’s another to rely on hearsay or (as it seems here) one’s own imaginings to bash a product one hasn’t even seen or researched in any way.
While EA and Fox dance their tango, furious gamers have taken matters into their own hands. They’ve been going in droves to Amazon, where Lawrence has several books listed.
And her most recent one, for some odd reason, suddenly has a score of 1.2. That’s from 400+ reviews. And yes, I’d say that a good chunk of that 400 is from gamers, who have also taken the time to comment. Oh yes, the comments. I read a few. That’s really all that were needed.
As an interesting aside, in the right-hand column of that page are several ads for - haha - Mass Effect. Who knows, they may even bring in some sales. That would be sweet irony.
I love the comments where they mimic her own regarding Mass Effect and end with the fact that they never read the book, just as she never played the game.
As you may have noticed from a previous topic, I am not a big fan of Faux News. Their reporting style makes it hard to differentiate news from commentary. Many times I have heard an opinion expressed as news.
My wife usually watches Fox News. When I asked her why one day she replied “Because they yell a lot”. A bit of background, English is not my wife’s native language and she still struggles with it. She watches Faux because it’s more theater than news.
Those spamazon reviews won’t last long. This woman may not be important enough for instant censorship, but spamazon is none too lenient about the acceptable ways to criticize one of its products. Admitting total ignorance of the product is not one of those ways.
Fox News seems to have a willing audience for its right-wing spin on the news just as the more typical leftist spin of the MSM has its willing, if dwindling, audience.
Oooh. When are you Americans gonna start suin’?
Well, most news media are going downhill, in my humble opinion. Many good news shows are just looking to become The Enquirer News Hour, full of spins, half-facts, and out-right fabrications. Anything to make $$$.
I am glad that the gamers and EA have called Fox News to the table and slammed them to the floor! I would love to see a gamer’s mash-up using WWF and/or Celebrity Deathmatch! -)
Amazon.com has rightly begun to remove childish comments for her books. The constructive reviews are being left alone. Of course, the authors of removed commets are, as expected, arguing their Freedom of Speech rights and attacking Amazon.com. Why can’t any demostration take place these days without the hoodlums showing up to trash the effort? -(
I would love to see a parody on Fox News mis-reporting on the ruckus created by the original report, including mistating with they said in the first place! LOL
Should I send some used gym shoes, a frying pan, and recipe for “Fillet of Sole - Eating One’s Own Words” to Fox News? -)
Toodles,
Dolnor Numbwit
Newbie Chef
It appears that the comments are going back as fast as they are being removed. I laughed out loud at the most helpful favorable review. They gave it 5 stars, but still managed to trash the book and assassinate her character.
The comments - and reviews - are hysterical.
“I agree about how offensive, and dangerous this book cover is, and how the research shows that adolescent males aren’t be able to tell the difference between the person on this cover (which is obviously aimed at minors, with how she is dressed, her suggestive look, and the use of colors–clearly aimed at children), and an attractive, intelligent woman. This cover is demeaning toward women. How come its being able to be sold to minors?”
Yeah. Leave it to gamers to game the system.
So most of the reviews have again vanished from good old reader-friendly spamazon, but the tags are back, 685 of them at the moment, and most are obviously defamatory. Ah, censors and their ever-shifting standards and rock-solid integrity. How could anyone fail to respect them?
Somehow I doubt Cooper Lawrence or her publisher appreciate (or even see) the not-so-subtle parallels between the comments / reviews and her own comments towards gaming in general.
Not that I condone that kind of sabotage and non-violent mob rule… but it is kinda funny. It’ll blow over soon, I’m sure. And maybe even Fox News will, a year from now, offer a written retraction buried on some web page somewhere.
According to gamedaily, Fox invited EA to appear on the same show to discuss the game.
EA is too smart for that, and has declined the offer. They want Fox to do a retraction/correction. I doubt we’ll be seeing anything like that soon.
EA Says No to Fox
Ummm… yeah. After they pulled that stunt on Geoff Keighley, asking him the “Have you quit beating your wife?” type line of questions and blindsided him with blatant lies and whatever crap they felt like making up?
Yeah. Right. I’d wait for them to do a very PUBLIC retraction of the story. Then, MAYBE, I’d entertain the offer. But I can imagine how that would go:
Let’s see, in Mass Effect, you can have a lesbian sexual encounter if you play a female character. And your character can also be killed. So… it’d probably go like this:
Martha MacCallum: Mr. Brown, how can you possibly support a game that advocates committing hate-crimes like the graphic murder of homosexuals, and peddling such trash to minors?
In the meantime, Ms. Lawrence has recanted her original statements, having finally viewed some of the game. Too bad she didn’t do that before the show.
Cooper Lawrence Recants on kotaku
I saw that earlier, but held off on saying anything since I didn’t want to beat you to the punch again.
It’s good that she recanted, but she really needs to do it a little more publicly, like on the same show she made the original statements and on her radio show.
Absolutely, Xian, but I have my doubts. At the moment, by far the majority haven’t heard about her corrections, and she may decide that just saying a few words to the NYT is enough. It certainly isn’t.
I only watch local news anymore. I find I’m more chipper at the end of the day.
Fox News should have to change their name. I’m amazed the writers strike hasn’t shut them down. They must be using scabs.