Fox News guest Cooper Lawrence admits she "misspoke" about Mass Effect

Posted Jan 26, 2008 at 10:39PM by QJ Staff Listed in: Xbox 360 Tags: Amazon, BioWare, Electronic Arts, Fox News, New York, New York Times
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Cooper Lawrence - Image 1After psychology expert Cooper Lawrence joined Fox News'  Live Desk With Martha MacCallum and offended Electronic Arts by claiming the BioWare developed RPG Mass Effect shows full digital nudity and graphic sex scenes, gamers fired back and attacked her through message boards, blogs, and other places on the Internet. Not long since the book she's selling on Amazon, The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace With Your Inner Overachiever, got hundreds of negative reviews, Lawrence finally admitted that she "misspoke" about the game.

According to The New York Times, Lawrence said in an interview:

I recognize that I misspoke. I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke. 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’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit.


Publisher EA already requested Fox News to correct the wrong information spread around via its segment featuring Mass Effect. On the other hand, developer BioWare's CEO Ray Muzyka dropped The New York Times a phone call to say:

WeÂ’re hurt. We believe in video games as an art form, and on behalf of the 120 people who poured their blood and tears into this game over three years, weÂ’re just really hurt that someone would misrepresent the game without even playing it. All we can hope for is that people who actually play our games will see the truth.

Behind the banter between the game industry giant and Fox News, enraged gamers also played a major role in events that led Lawrence to actually see Mass Effect.

As The New York Times noted, negative user reviews of The Cult of Perfection represented by one-star ratings have reached 412 last Friday. Only 12 reviews were three stars and above, while 48 were two stars. It's also interesting that the book was tagged with the keyword “ignorant” 929 times, 744 for "garbage" and hypocrisy," and 710 for "hack" and "hypocrite."

As an act of retaliation, most of the reviews were in the same vein as Lawrence's comments on Mass Effect - bad reviews came from people who never read the book.

 
 
 

Comments [refresh]

by LordQuas431 - 2008-01-26 20:52
.

So she admits that she says things on the news without doing proper research, and now wants to say sorry after seeing how low her book is rated on amazon. Karma is a ***** aint it

by FreePlay - 2008-01-27 02:10
Well...

At least she puts the blame where it needs to go: Fox News and the sh*tty 'prep' people that they provide to their guests.

by yworob - 2008-01-27 05:48
I hate Fox news.

They are a bunch of overly conservative Republicans on that station. All they do is talk s*** about youth culture and after every school shooting they blame it on video games. I dont know why anyone would want to watch that crappy station unless you are a right wing moron.

by LordQuas431 - 2008-01-27 10:00
.

You can't blame FOX News for not 'prepping' someone. If she doesn't actually know anything about the stuff she's bashing on, it's her own fault for signing up for the debate without having proper research.

I dunno, if I was a Fox 'prep' guy and someone signed up to talk about something I wouldn't think I'd need to provide them with much info, if anything

by Binary - 2008-01-27 11:09
next time

They need to buy the game and try it before posting some bull*****.

by mikekearn - 2008-01-27 14:39
Yeah

Good luck with that one. I mean, why would they do that? If they actually took the time to do any proper research before spouting off a bunch of ***** about how evil video games are, then they can't later say that they didn't know any better! Doing it the wrong way lets them say anything they want and then simply later say 'oops' which of course is broadcast to far fewer people.

by yworob - 2008-01-28 05:20
Its not Fox's fault?

They are responsible for anything wrong that she might say. Remember when Janet Jackson had her wardrobe malfunction? ABC was the one who got fined and bared all the criticism for letting that happen. This is the fault of Fox because they should have known beforehand that this lady didnt know what she was talking about.

by Mister Common Sense - 2008-01-28 07:12
Misinformation on Fox news?

I am shocked! Absolutely shocked!



In other topics, when will they show Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and his links to al-quida?

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