Cooper Lawrence repents after Mass Effect criticism
January 28th, 2008 by Colin Temple
Psychology/self-help writer Cooper Lawrence, who recently appeared on Fox News, has apologized for taken back her criticism of the Xbox 360 game Mass Effect. Lawrence’s appearance on the program was to comment on the game’s alleged nudity and its effect on children. If you’ve read this blog recently, you’re probably familiar with my thoughts on the matter.
In the segment, Lawrence accused the game of objectifying women and depicting full nudity. When asked during the interview whether or not she had even played the game, she answered no. But in an interview with the New York Times, Lawrence explained her situation and took back her remarks:
“I recognise that I misspoke. 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.”
My comment earlier was that worse content regularly appears in film and on network TV… and it looks like Cooper Lawrence agreed with that, too:
“I’ve seen episodes of Lost that are more sexually explicit.”
Some fans of Mass Effect were angered by the original broadcast and hundreds went to Amazon.com to give negative reviews of Cooper Lawrence’s book. Some of these attacked Lawrence’s character, while others sarcastically pointed out that they don’t need to read the book to know it’s ignorant (referencing how Lawrence commented on Mass Effect without having played or even seen the content she discussed). Amazon deleted most of the reviews that didn’t directly discuss the book, but several remain. It’s unknown whether or not this pressure led her to retract her comments.
Personally, I say good for her for admitting her mistake and putting her neck out there to fix the problem. Hopefully she, and others, will think twice about reviewing content you’ve never seen — or having a knee-jerk reaction to anything Fox News says. Meanwhile, Fox continues to refuse to apologize or clarify its remarks about Mass Effect, as EA continues to request a retraction.
So what’s the deal, Fox? There were actual lies in that segment (not a difference of opinion — lies), and anyone who’s actually played Mass Effect knows it.
Anyways, thanks for helping to set the record straight, Cooper.
#1 R. Knight
January 28th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Fox News not offering an apology for an ill-advised segment on one of their commentary shows, that does not offer much truthful information whatsoever, and featuring guests who are not aware of what they are talking about?
They would neeeeveer thought they would do anything like that. Oh no, not Fox News…
/sarcasm off
#2 Colin Temple
January 28th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
In Canada, Fox News is shown exclusively on The Comedy Network.
#3 Kevin
January 29th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Um, when did she apoligize? She never once used the word apoligy or sorry in her statement. Rather, she claims to have misspoken (wouldn’t lie be a more accurate word) and shifted the blame on some unknown person. Furthermore, the reviews from people who actually read the book suggest that she, just like in the interview, knew nothing about the subject and did poor research while writing it. Why is this lady allowed to help people? I can’t accept her “apology” because she never apoligized.
#4 Colin Temple
January 29th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Kevin: I suppose you’re right — it wasn’t an apology as much as an admittance. She did say that she regrets the incident and acknowledged that.
I suppose I interpreted that as a sort of apology. It has about the same value to me, since it’s more important to me that the game is cleared and the damage to its reputation is reversed than how we feel about Cooper Lawrence herself.
As for her book, I won’t comment on that since I haven’t read it. I’m only concerned with the discussion about the game, here — which I agree she was not qualified to be a part of. I don’t support nor criticize her own work, I’m not familiar with it — and unlike her I’m not going to make the mistake of dishing out garbage in the first place.
In any case I’ve adjusted my post to clarify a bit. Thanks for the pointer.
#5 Kevin
January 30th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Colin: Yeah, no problem. A lot of people have been calling it an apology. I haven’t read her book either, but reviews written beforehand seem to indicate it really did suck. While I understand their motivation, I don’t agree with our fellow gamers leaving negative reviews of a book they never read, basically doing the same thing she did. You’re right that the game’s repuatation’s has been restored, which is important. Actually, I think Ms. Lawrence and Fox both suffered much more damage to their reputations than Mass Effect did, so the whole thing really seemed to backfire on them.