The self-help book author who criticised Mass Effect in the now notorious Fox News Channel 'sex' slamming of the RPG has finally admitted she didn't know what she was talking about in the first place.
"I recognise that I misspoke," Cooper Lawrence, who appeared in the news segment in question on The Live Desk with Martha MacCallum, has now told The New York Times (cheers Kotaku for the tip-off).
Lawrence, who admitted during the segment she'd never actually played Mass Effect, added, "Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it's like pornography. But it's not like pornography.
"I really regret saying that, and now that I've seen the game and seen the sex scenes it's kind of a joke," she continued. "I've seen episodes of [the ABC television show] Lost that are more sexually explicit."
Fox News Channel leapt on its high horse attacking the RPG over non-existent scenes of explicit sex, Lawrence in particular taking issue with the non-existent misrepresentation of women in the game.
The segment moved EA's vice president of communications Jeff Brown to send a letter to Fox in which he called out the news channel and asked for an apology over its "reckless" and error-heavy coverage of Mass Effect.
In response, Fox News Channel has claimed it "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".
Mass Effect developer BioWare has said it's "hurt" that anyone would misrepresent the game without actually playing it.
Haha, what an idiot, shes only doing that now because the net went nuts and started posting( at amazon.com etc ) reviews of her books as being total junk lol
It's surprising that supposedley respected news sites can allow people to openly critic something they have no knowledge of whatsoever in this day and age. Can you imagine the ripping a Poltician would get from the press if he made a speech about something he had no knowledge of!? It's high time we had a news channel, about the news, so unprofessional news items and journo's can be thusly named and shamed.
I thought Mass Effect was very well written, and I can't see anything which women could take offence from, the female characters are fully rounded, and are not just t**s and bottom.
It's surprising that supposedley respected news sites can allow people to openly critic something they have no knowledge of whatsoever in this day and age. Can you imagine the ripping a Poltician would get from the press if he made a speech about something he had no knowledge of!? It's high time we had a news channel, about the news, so unprofessional news items and journo's can be thusly named and shamed.
I thought Mass Effect was very well written, and I can't see anything which women could take offence from, the female characters are fully rounded, and are not just t**s and bottom.
I agree with you, but its entirely a US thing, sensationalism sells newspapers and tv adverts, so they'll jump on the bandwagon in the US simply to make cash and they couldnt give a crap unless they get sued. Thankfully its not as bad in the EU( its still crap though as most media companies are still politically biased etc. )
In future, it might be prudent if "reporters" actually did some investigating and actually got hold of the facts before jumping on a bandwagon.
Journalism doesn't work if it's based on opinions and hearsay. They should be reporting FACTS, not some skewed version of a huge and inaccurate generalisation, backed up with the Mothers Against Everything attitude.
It's surprising that supposedley respected news sites can allow people to openly critic something they have no knowledge of whatsoever in this day and age.
Ehm... you do realise that you're speaking of FOX News here, probably the least trustworthy and respected of all news channels? Just have a quick google around, they do this sort of thing on a regular basis. Its just that now they hit something that could hit back, and hard too.
The only reason that "psychologist" appologised was for damage control, her book on amazon hit rock bottom, her carreer is more or less ruined. There's not a network on the planet that will show her face in any of their programs. She's history. All because she was so desperate to push her books. I doubt she even knew what she was going to be required to speak of 5 minutes before that show started. But its her own fault.
What surprises me however is that FOX still hasn't retracted their obviously flawed story, only inviting an EA representative to a TV show. Probably to milk more cash out of it. Pathetic really. "Fair and Balanced" (FOX slogan) i don't think so.
Fair play, she admitted she was wrong at least, and knowing is half the battle.. or something. Now we just need to get the Manchester cathedral heads, Gordon Brown and Jack Thompson to admit that they attacked things they knew nothing about! ... Oh, and Hilary Clinton, and everyone else who's done it.
For once I wanted to believe the hype about the sex scene, when it was banned in Singapore (or wherever...) I thought it could be something to surpass Max Payne 2's sexual encounter. Alas, not nearly enough to warrant a hamshank.
It happens all over the world. It's much easier to go with the rumours and mass speculation than it is to do the research and either prove or disprove whatever the population is claiming.
Why is it that the only people who speak out against computer gaming are idiots or ill-informed? Surely there's scope of a reasoned discussion in the press, yet all we get are cretinous loudmouths.
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