Shameful. After MyFox Fox News Chicago ran a little piece questioning why a violent game is being advertised on city buses, the head of the Chicago Transit Authority had the ads removed. There are so many things wrong with this, from ignorance on parade to the violation of free speech as a public authority arbitrarily decides what gets to be advertised and what doesn’t. Earlier they decided that M-rated games were equivalent to X-rated movies. No doubt there are still ads for Cialis, the NRA, and the military still cruising around town.
In fact, this very issue came up in Boston with a marijuana legalization campaign and they sued the Transit Authority and won. Ridiculous, isn’t it? But this is how we do it. Two steps forward, one step censored.
Jack Thompson was not involved in this little fracas but I’m putting him in the tags anyway.
Sooooo.. basically they can parade images on the Fox network of people who are maimed, bleeding, bloddy, dismemberd, blown up by roadside bombs, or coffins wrapped in flags with weeping widows and parents; not to mention religious extremists with Kalashnikov’s, home made grenades, and children running around playing ‘mock soldier’; but they have an ethical problem with GTA?
Riiiggght.
Fake Game Violence = Harmful
Real Dead Bodies in Iraq = Informative
Get real.
-olly
You fail to see the point. All that stuff you listed on fox news is real violence protrayed as real violence with real consequences. While GTA and video games make violence seem fun and of no real consequences. That is the difference. You don’t want young children to get the sense that you can do those things with no real consequences.
With that being said I don’t think the impact is that great and Fox news is going overboard. They should not pull the ads but they do have the right to pull them if they see fit. But come on Olly if you are gonna argue against something atleast get an understanding of where they are coming from first.
I can understand the issue with “promoting” or approving of fake violence. I would reply with “What about motion pictures?” Many are violent yet they are readily advertised on buses
Wake up, the news has been given a free pass to be as sensationalistic in regards to violence. They make money by selling unfiltered violence and sex to viewers – how is that not subject to censorship?
They can talk about gruesome murders and vivid details of sexual molestation/rape cases without having any impunity and without having to censor it – the can show all sorts of acts at any time of the day (remember the news comes on in the morning, lunchtime, afternoon and at night – all of which air the same rough content and are not changed besides a casual edit or two to update the facts).
The bible is violent, and that’s passed around without censorship – if you want to censor video games, then subject other mediums to it as well.
http://www.cinegamr.uni.cc – a library of video game cinematics, check it out and see for yourself that even video games with rampant violence are more responsible then other mediums.
This is ridiculous.
Violence in real life is ok but video game fake fun is not?
Moronic.
Please forgive my horrendous spelling in the previous comment!
-olly
everytime i read some stupid news it’s something that happened in boston
Hmm, last time I checked, Chicaco was in Illinois, not Massachusetts and this article clearly states that this was in Chicago, and not Boston.
This particular stupid news takes place in Chicago, not Boson. they mention an event in Boston but that had been resolved.
true
this is nuts… I hate fox news… i get all my news from crunchgear…
Also I can’t wait for GTA4 to come out… I might even buy a PS3 when it dose.
Lastly, Olly I dont mind bad spelling… mine is bad too just read my blog. ;)
@Mosley — True, but I wrote “bloddy” and “dismemberd” … shoddy work!
-olly
Who says I wasn’t involved?
You guys need to reread the Bill of Rights and the first Amendment. There is a large chunk that was censored when it was first created. It states, “You have a freedom of speech as long it is censored!”
Just the American way of Freedom, Liberty, and Democracy! Let the user beware. It is all relative and selective in application!
well fox is in trouble for hiring hackers, former spies and career criminals to mess with competitors. i guess a simulation of the criminal underworld is much more dangerous than the real thing, or real wars(yeah, olly(above)).
Dude, thi is all propaganda warfare, social engineering of Internet to control and manipulate society. Soviet Union and CIA way of doing things! Voice of America, Pravda! I am sure you will find a dozen more old media platforms that mirror today’s Internet behavior of disseminating information – misinformation.
Why spend billions on military hardware when you can spend just a few dollars posting viral messages on the Internet!
please…advertising a stupid mindless violent game is not free speech! Grow up!!
Hey it is free speech. games are a piece of art just another medium.
Local Fox affiliates are not “Fox News”. You people are all too stupid for words.
Did you watch the clip in the first link? It’s Fox News Chicago. Don’t jump the gun next time, it makes you look foolish.
Only more propaganda for GTAIV Frack yea! When will the FOX fuckups understand that they are only spreading the word rather than suppressing it? Gotta love “reverse media”
Grow up? Now don’t be crying Mummy..:)
http://tinyurl.com/483vzx
I think the Dumb Dumbs are clueless to the Blogger’s Power!
I was worried that you might be about to explore the issue in a three-dimensional, objective sort of way, but then you found a way to shoehorn a dumb reference to good old gamer boogeyman Jack Thompson. Nice work.
I am rather certain that the picture… is from Grand Rapids, MI. Where our bus system is called the Rapid… Not to mention I work in the dark green building on the right of the image. The building above it, the brown brick one… is the WMU graduate center… I just thought I would point that out as I have never seen my place of work online before… rather neat.
Are you serious? That’s awesome.
Yes they did pull the adds, but if you actually read the article its due the massive gang violence happening in Chicago right now, the other day they had around 40 gunshot victims and a dozen deaths. Not just because FOX made the city take them down, its beacuse the city thought it was inappropriate after all outbreaks of gang related violence. Read whole articles before you post a stupid story that is 90% incorrect.
Do you think they would have taken down ads for the 50 Cent’s new album, or for a movie like “Shoot ‘em up”? Did they take down ANY ads other than these for GTA4? Video games are being used as a scapegoat here and the head of a government agency just fell for it hook line and sinker.
fox, the city, its all just as stupid that it is being taken down. Typical band-aid thinking that some how taking down a video game ad will have any effect on gang violence. The only worse case of band-aid thinking here is that some how there was a correlation between gta and gang violence in the first place. Its seriously arrogant and condescending to assume that people are so mindless as to let a video game advertisement exacerbate gang problems. Note to city officials: gangs are not caused by video games, so maybe take a look at the socioeconomic issues that got you there originally. Band-aid politics in full effect!
Games do not cause violence, it is people!
Have you tried to educate adolescent youths?
The system is broken!
And who is to blame, if not its citizens! Stop firewalling it all and open up discourse of communication!
Fox news is just biased against video games from mass effect to this. Heck i would be it is an application requirement.
Nice. Fox News pulling another goofball move. Not surprising. Kids who behave violently from playing video games have problems at home that are bigger than the games themselves. When will Fox News start acknowledging that parents are the problem? I have 3 kids and we are all gamers. They can only play age appropriate games, I limit their time so they do things like play outside, etc. and I treat them with respect and have rules. By the time they are old enough to play GTA in a couple years, they’ll know it’s a game and won’t wonder why it’s not OK to walk around downtown with a rocket launcher blowing up cars and people for fun.
Rich, nice to see real parents still exist. ;-)
Fox news is just a neoconservatist propaganda machine!
I’d care more, except it’s just a videogame.
Today it is a video game, tomorrow it maybe a writer, a book, or even a presidential candidate!
Free speech is free speech! Maybe it’s time to care more!
See how the neocon propaganda machine works.
http://tinyurl.com/4syz2b
Chill out guys. Its not like Fox or the government is not allowing the game to be published. Chicago is just taking down advertisements for it because they don’t agree with displaying that kind of content on their buses. You have the right to free speech, but companies have the right to choose what advertisements they run. You can’t force someone or some company to display something. Its called property rights, and that’s a fundamental freedom in America too.
why are they showing a picture of a bus from Grand Rapids, MI on an article for Chicago CTA busses?
Brian, are you on the payroll of any of the parties concerned? Now a days its hard to know who is who! You may want to declare it if you are. ;-)
I think you libs are just a bit high from sniffing your own farts. Get over it.
Guns don’t kill people, rappers do.
Well, this city tried to Ban the original Manhunt as well as GTA: San Andreas. Truly doesnt suprise me seeing the irony that we had over 20+ people shot between friday and saturday, yet they need to pull a GTA bus ad. Our politicians have their heads up their arses.
Hey they might be declaring Martial Law next week! I wonder if this Hoopla has anything to do with the Sex messaging scandal by the Mayor? Or is that in another city?
Hard to follow the Sex science now days! It just happens everywhere. Time to go back to the 70s and Free Love Era!
Too many Fox news articles cover violence and pornography, which are of equal or more harm than modern video games. Fox tries to appeal to a younger crowd the same as the GTA developers. It smells like hypocrisy to me.
As a side note, GTA could certainly do without the pornography and bad language. I used to be a huge fan until they started pushing that further. Too bad.
Hmmm. Interesting that Fox News questioned the advertisement isn’t it? Well, not really when you realize that in GTA IV, there is a news station called Weasel News which is obviously made to make fun of Fox News and its horribly conservative and biased material.
It’s funny how everyone who vilifies this game hasn’t even played it yet. What’s even better is that despite these constant attacks on video games, there is no evidence that video games cause violence. Not even a correlation. How can you claim that a kid is violent because he played a video game when there are millions and millions of kids that play this game. I bet you would have a better chance arguing that violence correlates to Sunny Delight. Hell, all that High fructose corn syrup can’t be good for anybody.
I got an idea, look abusive family members or bad parenting and see how THOSE relate to kid violence.
for sakes it was just a video game why on earth did they pull i dont understand US politics
Nice comment Pete, nothing to add to that :D!