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I lurk with the best of them
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: not close to philadelphia. :( well, not THAT close.
Posts: 146
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What do you think about Jack Thompson?
I thought I'd like to see the opinions of people who are mainly non-gamer on Jack Thompson. For those unaware of him, he's a Florida attorney who is very, very strongly anti-gaming. He was the one who got GTA: San Andreas' rating changed to Adult Only. He recently also got caught up in a scruffle with Penny Arcade.
There's even a whole Wikipedia page dedicated to his escapades: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_thompson
He also recently issued a press release regarding an upcoming court case. Via Game Politics:
Quote:
GP has never seen an attorney put out a press release hyping the opening day of a lawsuit before, but we've just received one from Jack Thompson. It is a quite remarkable document in many ways, and reads in part:
"This Thursday, November 3, 2005, at 1 pm the Alabama fireworks ignite in the Fayette County Courthouse. This may make the OJ Simpson trials look like quilting bees."
"Defendants Sony, Take-Two/Rockstar, Wal-Mart, GameStop, and cop killer Devin Moore have all been sued for their respective roles in the June 2003 murder of two police officers and a dispatcher. The corporate defendants are nervous, and here's proof:
"The primary strategy is to get Miami attorney Jack Thompson kicked off the case, alleging in court documents that he is 'paranoid' and cursed with a 'colorful history of disciplinary problems.' Forget that the referred to Bar complaints came 15 years ago from the porn industry and that Thompson has always been a 'lawyer in good standing with The Florida Bar' and 'officially certified sane' by The Bar after the ACLU and the radio pornographers last tried this nonsense."
"That exoneration of Thompson did not stop Sony and Take-Two's law firm, Blank Rome (which has given more campaign contributions to the Republican National Committee than any other lobbyist - they are lead registered lobbyists on The Hill for Take-Two), from plunking down in front of Judge Moore an order stating that Thompson may have a 'mental illness...'
"Oh, and certain regional governments in Japan have banned the sale of the Grand Theft Auto games to minors, but Japan's Sony has no problem whatsoever dumping this garbage into American kids' brains. Looks like Pearl Harbor 2 by Sony/Take-Two...'
EDITOR'S NOTE: Did he just say what GP thinks he said?
"Devin Moore himself has written Thompson explaining the role of the murder simulation games. The video game industry has no rebuttal to the scientific evidence, except to question the mental health of the lawyer who, with the rest of the legal team, filed the affidavits that have this scofflaw industry on the run."
"It may well be that Thompson will be kicked off the case and/or that the case will be dismissed. Thompson is not as presumptuous as other lawyers who claim to know what an honorable judge in Alabama will do. If that happens, there are remedies, but in the meantime this case is a reasonable judicial means to rightly compensate three devastated families targeted by an out-of-control industry. "
"The most reckless video game company in the world, Take-Two, has been fined $9 million by the SEC for accounting fraud and is currently under investigation by the FTC for illegally embedding explicit sexual content in a Grand Theft Auto game sold to children. Thompson is unethical? This is a nuclear bomb calling a cap gun explosive."
"Blank Rome questioning the ethics of Jack Thompson? One of its partners is Barbara Comstock, whom the Washington Post called a 'one-woman wrecking crew'... Ms. Comstock was on the staff of Indiana Senator Dan Burton back when he had a mistress illegally on his office's federal payroll and was also supporting an illegitimate child... Barbara Comstock's fingerprints are all over the false and defamatory character assassination of the lawyer who opposes her corporate clients' mental molestation of minors for money..."
"Stay tuned. You ain't seen nothing yet."
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Quote:
GamePolitics hasn't declared "Jack Thompson Week," although it may have seemed that way at times to our readers.
Admittedly, our coverage of the controversial Miami attorney has increased as tomorrow's GTA cop killer trial approaches in Fayette County, Alabama. It is, after all, a moment that Jack Thompson has been pointing to for months in appearances on 60 Minutes, in the pages of Readers Digest, and, yes, even in the comments section of GamePolitics.
Barring unforeseen developments, GP offers a final pre-trial Thompson item for the reader's consideration. It is both remarkable and relevant, especially given the history and prominence of Japanese firms and creative types within the video game industry.
This story only began to emerge yesterday when Thompson e-mailed a press release touting tomorrow's court appearance in Alabama. Titled "Media Alert: Video Game Industry on Trial in Alabama, 11/1/05," the document began, "This Thursday, November 3, 2005, at 1 pm the Alabama fireworks ignite in the Fayette County Courthouse. This may make the OJ Simpson trials look like quilting bees."
GamePolitics covered the release at some length in yesterday's edition, although it was edited for length. According to the cc:'s on Thompson's e-mail, it was also sent to a variety of media outlets, both game-oriented and mainstream; Dr. David Walsh of the National Institute for Media and the Family; a variety of political figures, including Senators Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman, and Rick Santorum; Thompson's opposing counsel in the Alabama case, and others.
While the press release contained Thompson's usual over-the-top prose, one paragraph caught the attention of GP, as well as of several readers:
"Oh, and certain regional governments in Japan have banned the sale of the Grand Theft Auto games to minors, but Japan's Sony has no problem whatsoever dumping this garbage into American kids' brains. Looks like Pearl Harbor 2 by Sony/Take-Two..."
On its face the comment seems insensitive. But did Thompson really mean it the way it sounded? GamePolitics followed up with the self-described "anti-game crusader" via a series of e-mails.
GP: Jack - Some readers are taking offense to the Pearl Harbor comments in your press release, and I have to say that it does read as a somewhat insensitive remark. Would you care to comment on that section or elaborate further on what you were trying to convey?
JT: Insensitive? What the Japanese are doing to our kids is insensitive and racist. The Japanese have for a very long time dumped pornography into this country in a fashion they would not tolerate in their own country. It is another version of Pearl Harbor.
GP: By porn, I take it you mean violent video games? Are you referring to various Japanese-made game platforms? (i.e. PS2, Nintendo, etc.) But Take-Two is an American corp., and Rockstar an English subsidiary. Most of the games I can recall you criticizing over the years have been American-published.. (GTA, 25 to Life, Bully, The Warriors, The Sims, Blitz: The League, Everquest, Doom, etc.)
JT: Sony is a Japanese company.
GP: But Sony only makes the player. I don't recall you criticizing any of their titles in a major way. If you take that approach, wouldn't TV, VCR, and DVD player manufacturers be equally complicit? Since their products play violent movies and even actual porn? And are also needed to play video games?
Toshiba, etc.?
JT: GTA is a Sony/Take-Two game. It was made by Take-Two exclusively for Sony's Playstation 2. Sony has led the planet in the distribution of mainstream porn. I don't have time to document it for you. As for the offensiveness of the Pearl Harbor comment, it's accurate and it's needed. The Japanese have a contempt for our culture which is patent. There (sic) dumping of garbage into our culture is a slow motion version of Pearl Harbor.
Thompson followed up with a letter on the topic to Japanese Ambassador Ryoko Kato. For space reasons, GP has attached it as a comment.
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So, what do you think? I personally think of him as a new, stupider Joesph McCarthy.
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11-02-2005, 07:13 PM
Linear Mode
