jack thompson

Response to Bandit's good question:

There is a two-part response re my view on R-rated movie ads:

1. The ESA, headed by prevaricator in chief, Doug Lowenstein, promised Congress, under oath, that ESA would assure that ads for Mature-rated games would not be seen, would not be tolerated by the ESA, in venues in which minors were, in substantial numbers, going to see them. This ad campaign by Take-Two on the sides of buses violates that promise. What do you expect from a paid lobbyist like Lowenstein.

2. These are ads that are being run not on private property, where Take-Two has a "right" to run ads (unless they violate the above industry promised by ESA on Take-Two's behalf--Take-Two is a member of ESA, by the way), but rather these are ads on governmental property. Doesn't anyone at Joystiq understand the difference?

The difference is that the Transit Autority has a rule against running ads for NC-17 movies on buses. I have written the MBTA this past week and asked them to conform that rule to the video game products.

Guess what? The MBTA has now sent me this morning the letter stating that they agree, and that no more M-rated video game ads will be tolerated and accepted, as the movie-rating rule is being expanded to games.

Now, you all would have been informed of this if Dennis McCauley, who is the only censor in this situation, had bothered to update Joystiq directly or his own GamePolitics.com site by sharing the actual letter that the MBTA sent me hours ago and that I faxed to McCauley!

McCauley may be afraid to report this news (unless he has exploded like Mr. Creosote after his turkey day dinner), because McCauley has had a perpetual censorship policy against me for many months now, refusing to report, for example, that the baseless Bar complaint he filed against me was dismissed. McCauley has even rigged his gamepolitics.com site in such a way that I cannot access it from my main computer.

This guy thinks what I do is censorhip? McCauley won't report this great victory in Boston because a) he predicted it wouldn't happen (see above), and b) I was part of the victory.

Bandit, good question. See what we can all learn when self-appointed censors like McCauley are exposed for being the fraud that he is?

Wow, Dennis McCauley, predicting that this would just "go away" (see above) is wrong yet again. I was delighted to help the Campaign secure the below-noted victory against the sociopaths who run Take-Two. The good guys are winning the culture war, and the video game industry, with its sychophants like Dennis McCauley and the editors at Joystiq, are not.

By the way, love the fact that Joystiq has tried to ban me here, and then it and its readers whine about "censorship" in Boston. Bypocrisy is always hilarious. Jack Thompson, Hooah!

Immediate News Release – November 24, 2006



Victory for Parents against Corporate Predators in the Culture War:

Boston Buses to Ban Mature-Rated Video Game Ads!



Last week a fabulous public interest organization, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org, publicly urged the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), to pull ads for the hyperviolent Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories video game from the sides of its buses.



The Campaign is a national organization of educators, public health advocates, including the Mayor of Boston, who have recognized this and other corporate predatory practices targeting kids with adult products.



MBTA’s General Manager, Daniel A. Grabauskas, shot back in the Boston media that “the First Amendment” prohibits this governmental entity from refusing ads for adult entertainment products, even though children were seeing those ads, and even though the video game industry, through its Entertainment Software Association, has repeatedly promised Congress and American parents, in the aftermath of Columbine, that it would not run Mature-rated game ads in venues in which kids in substantial numbers would see the ads.



As events in Boston this last week have proven, the Entertainment Software Association lied.



Now for the good news: Miami attorney Jack Thompson, over the last decade an advocate against the marketing of Mature-rated video games and a perpetual thorn in the side of the reckless people who run Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. which makes the Grand Theft Auto games, has just this morning received from the MBTA’s Mr. Graubauskas a letter of surrender.



Mr. Graubaskas states that the MBTA will no longer accept advertisements for Mature-rated video games for placement on its buses. This is a total victory for the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, which organization Jack Thompson was privileged to assist in this matter over the past several days. This fact is acknowledged by the MBTA in sending Thompson this written announcement.



The First Amendment, of course, guarantees “the right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” It does not protect the “right” of corporations to market adult entertainment products to children.



Is this a great country, or what? Contact Jack Thompson at 305-666-4366.