The hullabaloo surrounding an inaccurate Fox News report on Mass Effect continues today. Joystiq readers will recall that Fox News recently ran a story claiming that Mass Effect contains "full digital nudity and sex," a charge that is simply untrue. Electronic Arts, who now owns the Mass Effect property, later contacted Fox via a letter from EA VP of communications Jeff Brown. The letter asked Fox to correct the errors in the segment and also cited more than a bit of hypocrisy by pointing out that many of Fox's own programs, such as Family Guy and The OC, show sexual situations that are just as graphic (and are rated for ages under 17 by the way, unlike Mass Effect).
MTV did a little digging and got their own response from Fox on the matter. A Fox spokesperson, who would not be named, said, "Fox News Channel has extended several invitations to EA through a company representative to appear on 'Live Desk With Martha MacCallum' to discuss 'Mass Effect' and the segment which aired on Monday. We have received no response." So, in other words, Fox can apparently report as much erroneous information as they want, because the party they were defaming wasn't present to defend itself. We'll have to wait and see if EA takes the bait.
Editor's rant: Fox's stance on this matter is complete bunk. The fact remains that they misrepresented Mass Effect, and having EA on to "discuss" the game isn't going to change that. What's called for is a correction of inaccurate reporting. Sorry folks, but as a member of the Joystiq network, it's disgusting. We do our absolute best here to report the facts as they are. Should we find out that we published something that was inaccurate, we fix it and post a correction. That's the way it should be. If we tried to get away with the same things that Fox is trying, our commenting public would skewer us. It's as simple as that. If Fox really wants EA to go on the air, it should be for an apology. Will that happen? We don't think so, but it should.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1-25-2008 @ 12:08PM
xenocidic said...
I can, have, and will, skewer you for much less than inaccurate reporting!
like grammar!
rawr !
Reply
1-25-2008 @ 12:18PM
DjDATZ said...
LOL...you grammar nazi.
1-25-2008 @ 12:41PM
DjDATZ said...
Sorry xeno for another reply...but this needs to be at the top of the comments so everyone can read it.
Take a stand against this BS:
http://www.petitiononline.com/EAvsFox/petition.html
1-25-2008 @ 1:24PM
Dale said...
"I can, have, and will, skewer you for much less than inaccurate reporting!"
"like grammar!"
First letter of a sentence should be capitalised.
"rawr !"
First letter of a sentence should be capitalised; extraneous space between final word and terminating punctuation.
D-
1-25-2008 @ 2:23PM
xenocidic said...
OH the irony !
however, good sir, I am a mere commenter and should be held to a lower standard =]
p.s. the extraneous space is for added effect !
1-25-2008 @ 12:15PM
Pyronite said...
There's a key difference here:
Fox is big enough that they are capable of MAKING the news. It doesn't matter if it is true or false. Much like a bad chain letter, once the information they wanted to suggest has been released, there's no stopping it, and they get what they want in the end, whether it's controversy, publicity, or... whatever the hell it was they were suggesting with that piece. Game censorship?
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1-25-2008 @ 12:27PM
DjDATZ said...
The funniest thing is...THIS GAME DOESN'T NEED CENSORSHIP! lol
1-25-2008 @ 12:15PM
DjDATZ said...
Bravo Rich. Well worded and well said. My sentiments exactly. I think you echo the sentiments of most gamers...regardless of what platform they support.
Reply
1-25-2008 @ 12:20PM
Bryan T said...
What's the point in having EA talk? The guy from Spike TV would be just as correct as a rep. from EA. Fox will still cut them off and let the child protectors/psychologists talk for 85% of the time. The end result would be the same, and we would be right back here pissed off for the same reasons.
Just let it die down, it's not causing that much of a controversy.
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1-25-2008 @ 12:20PM
nerrrrrrd said...
the one good thing with EA being so huge is they atleast have some weight to throw around when crap like this happens. If Mass Effect was just Bioware, I doubt FOX would entertain their complaints.
on an off topic note, can we get rid of that old hag on the tax relief banner add? brutal.
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1-25-2008 @ 12:24PM
Jayslacks said...
We need to stand up and fight. Harder and stronger. No one is going to fight a gamers political battles but us gamers. Good stuff, EA.
Reply
1-25-2008 @ 12:24PM
Zoot Suit Jedi said...
The Fox network is to idiots what Lifetime is for women. The people who believe any of the trash that spews forth from thier ever decaying mouth are narrow minded bigots whose opinions will not be swayed by thing like "facts" or "evidence." Unbiased news on televison is like the fabled Griffin - non existent. Like anything in politics or media, videogame publishers need to start with the tug jobs before reports, like this one, air.
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1-25-2008 @ 1:11PM
AnOffday said...
You're a dumbass. While I agree they should correct their mistake, they're still one of the most watched news networks on tv. And there's no need to call all the people who watch Fox News idiots just because they reported a mistake about your precious Mass Effect. It's not the first, or the last time this will happen. News reports lie about games and content all the time, but it doesn't automatically mean that every report is garbage. Get over it.
1-25-2008 @ 1:29PM
Dale said...
Sadly, AnOffDay, it's not just when talking about video games that Fox are at best misleading and at worst down-right despicable.
There are many examples to support a strong negative opinion of the network.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News_Channel_controversies
You're right, it's not fair to dismiss all of their large viewership as idiots, but a good number of them do accept the information presented to them at face value and echo some of the network's more repulsive opinions.
1-25-2008 @ 1:38PM
Van Faulk said...
Anoff-
something like a third of fox viewers not only think there were WMD's in Iraq, but that we found them.
I think his analogy stands.
1-25-2008 @ 12:35PM
x3f said...
It is things like this that actually make me happy that America is a litigious country. I hope EA sues the crap out of Fox.
Reply
1-25-2008 @ 12:42PM
Tony said...
Yeah, I was going to say the same things as what is in the editor's rant. Fox News doesn't seem to understand that there is a REASON why people don't want to appear on their programs. Given what usually happens, I imagine they'd cut off the EA spokesperson anyway.
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1-25-2008 @ 1:06PM
chenry said...
Should be rebranded as Fox "News"
Reply
1-25-2008 @ 2:46PM
David W. said...
LOL nice...and too true, haha
1-25-2008 @ 4:34PM
Darkharmony said...
100% true, I refuse to watch fox noise because they like to report the "news" as they see fit. So lets see the incorrectly report about mass effect. They refuse to say they were wrong (no surprise there, they never do). And now they want EA to come on probably so they can bash them and the game again.