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Good Luck To Kotaku Editor On FOX News

ESRB RatingsUPDATE: The approximately three-minute-long piece aired shortly before 5:00pm ET.  My thoughts can be found below.

Talking heads can only talk amongst themselves for so long.  Eventually they have to bring in fresh meat differing points of view to facilitate on-camera discussions.  That's why I'm wishing the best of luck to Brian Crecente of Kotaku.com when he appears on FOX News this afternoon to debate the ESRB ratings system.

I’m not sure yet who will be on the other side, though I’m sure it will be someone who is much better at speaking on live TV. Tune in if you’re up for a little light weekend amusement at my expense.

While I'm sure that FOX is going to stack the deck against Brian here (it's the news media's way when it comes to this kind of thing), I'm sincerely hoping that he can score a "Jon Stewart's Stop Hurting America" moment against those who would censor every pixel and polygon.  The gaming industry and gamers themselves need a moment like that, one that puts the censors in their place.  Godspeed, Brian.  His segment airs between 4:30pm and 5:00pm ET.


The segment was about what I'd expect from FOX News, although the network didn't completely railroad Brian as I'd thought they would.  I half-expected Jack Thompson himself to be the opposing guest.  Brian was countered against a representative from the National Institute on Media and the Family who was given the first chance to respond to each of the news anchor's questions.

I felt that, all in all, Brian's answers were somewhat disregarded by the anchor once he agreed that Rockstar should not have included the Hot Coffee on the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas disc.  Somehow I don't think FOX News was expecting that response.  The anchor wanted to incite some quick debate on a hot topic and the Institute fellow had the "games are bad" agenda to push; both of them frequently cut Brian off in mid-sentence to jump to another question and, on occasion, forgot Brian's name.  You know the debate is stacked against you when the moderator repeatedly screws up your name.

Kudos to Brian for appearing on the show.  Even if gamers are ignored and disrespected by the media, we have to continue to show up and speak our minds.  One day someone in the mainstream will listen.

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