Fox News' Bias Against Video Games (pt.1)

In the several years I have spent on this website, I have seen many stories about attempts to censor video games in many countries. From seemingly censor happy Australia to the relatively censorship free United Kingdom, the world seems engulfed in a debate over the role of video games in society. Fortunately for American gamers, the U.S. Supreme Court recently declared video games to be protected under freedom of speech. This article (and accompanying video) will focus on attempts to demonize and censor video games in the United States. More specifically, we will be focusing on how Fox News repeatedly demonstrate an anti video game bias. This bias is shown by the guests that they have on the air, the "discussions" that Fox News employees have during their shows, and the numerous times that Fox has lied about video games. What lies you ask? Read on and watch the video to find out.

Fox is probably best known for the "Mass Effect sex scene scandal". This interview is included in the video, but the gist of it is that Fox anchors made up that the game featured a full sex scene that gamers were forced to play though. They claimed that the scene was interactive and showed full nudity. In reality, the sex scene was optional. Gamers had to follow a specific dialog tree in the game to access the scene. The scene was entirely in a cut-scene, and there was no interactivity at all. Finally, the ESRB would obviously rate the game AO if it had full nudity. The game featured some partial nudity, which is not at all unusual in games with an M rating (see God of War, GTA). The sensationalist title "se"xbox also does not help. Ironically games that actually do have interactive sex scenes (God of War series) have never been mentioned on Fox.

On the show Red Eye (also featured in the video) it becomes even more evident that Fox News anchors did very little research going into the show. One of the hostesses actually asks what happened to pinball and other classic arcade games, suggesting that she has missed every change in gaming after 1980. They seem to be entirely unaware that video games now commonly have a plot. This type of ignorance leads most of the people on the show to come to incredibly unrealistic conclusions about video games in general, with several suggesting bans.

This opinion piece and the video are all my work and/or protected under fair use. I decided to make this video and write this article because, despite the success of the recent court ruling in the US, many other countries in the world are facing censorship of video games. Even in the U.S. I fear that that battle over video games has not yet quite ended. People like Jack Thompson are unlikely to give up in their endeavors, especially when they are paid so well to do what they do. I hope that my articles and video will continue to inform people about this issue, as gamers around the world must come together to stop groups who wish to slander or censor video games.