It's been a week since Fox News ran a largely ignorant news segment on the the brief, minor and optional sex scene found in Mass Effect. The crew of Loading.Ready.Run have produced a satire of the news segment for our enjoyment. All the important interview tactics are present, from the gaming supporter being frequently cut off mid-sentence, having his mic turned off, and the host giving loaded questions and descriptions ("full on hardcore porn sex ... with freaky alien chicks"). The acting may not be top-notch, but the snark is.

For a summary of events surrounding Mass Effect so far, including head-turning comments by Jack Thompson, check out this post. Video embedded after the break.

[Thanks, Pattmyn]

Perhaps the most well-versed individual on gaming controversy (by merit of instigating many of them), Jack Thompson has found a way to make the Mass Effect Fox News report more ridiculous by defending the game. Unfortunately, weather.com has not updated the current temperature in Hell, but we'll let you know when we find out.

Responding to the latest press release, Kotaku's Brian Crecente asked Thompson what he thought about the Mass Effect story. Thompson responded, "The guy who shot his mouth off about it had no idea what the Hell he was talking about." (We assume he meant conservative columnist Kevin McCullough and isn't confusing Fox News guest Cooper Lawrence's gender.) Thompson later added, "This contrived controversy is absolutely ridiculous."

To catch you up to speed: just after McCullough apologized for writing about Mass Effect's "virtual orgasmic rape," Fox News' Live Desk with Martha MacCollum ran a similar, ignorant segment on the "Sexbox" (so clever) title that pitted Geoff Keighley against a child care author who openly admitted she never played the game. Publisher Electronic Arts demanded a correction, Fox countered, and Lawrence apologized after gamers review-bombed her book on Amazon.

In what looks to be a standstill, MTV Multiplayer's Stephen Totilo contacted Fox News to follow up on a letter sent to them yesterday by Electronic Arts asking to "correct the record" on the ignorant Mass Effect "sexposé." An unnamed spokesperson replied, "Fox News Channel has extended several invitations to EA through a company representative to appear on 'Live Desk With Martha MacCallum' to discuss 'Mass Effect' and the segment which aired on Monday. We have received no response."

We're wondering if an EA representative coming on MacCallum's show would get the same treatment as Geoff Keighley in the original segment. Also today, Totilo contacted Brown, who reiterated his position from yesterday's letter. Hence, both sides are waiting for other to somehow respond. Is someone going to make the next move (we're doubtful), or is this just going to blow away until the next batch of "sex-ified" games? (Potential candidates include Grand Theft Auto 4, Smash Bros Brawl and Spore.)

Update: GameDaily contacted EA VP of Communications Jeff Brown, who wrote the original letter to Fox News, to see if there was any update on the situation. Said Brown, "Not much to say other than there's no interest here in another debate with an 'expert' that will say anything to sell a book. They need to step up and correct the record." We couldn't agree more (and we can't seem to get the image of Brown's razor sharp fangs out of our minds).

Following Fox News' horrifically ignorant segment on Mass Effect, publisher Electronic Arts showed it is not about to go quietly into the night. Kotaku obtained a letter sent by EA VP of Communications Jeff Brown to Live Desk with Martha MacCallum producer Teri VanHorn, asking her show to set the record straight on "serious errors" made by the program concerning the game.

Shown in excerpts of the letter, Brown cites specific lines from the segment (hint: something to do with "full digital nudity" and sex) and explains why they were wrong -- and if you've played through Mass Effect, you know full well how wrong they were. Cited, too, are comparisons to the more sexual content found in less-castigated primetime television such as Fox's own Family Guy and The OC.

Said Brown about the four people who concluded the show: "They have had zero experience with Mass Effect and are largely ignorant about videogames, the people who play them, and the ESRB system that governs their ratings and sales." Watch the video again and see for yourself.

The letter concludes, "This isn't a legal threat; it's an appeal to your sense of fairness. We're asking FNC to correct the record on Mass Effect." Niceties aside, it's great to see EA stand up for the industry and flex its muscle. Gamers have shown much less restraint, bombing segment specialist Cooper Lawrence's book into low ratings oblivion on Amazon.

[Via GameDaily; thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

SeXbox? Really, Fox News? You can't even pretend that you didn't crib that title straight from last week's insane rant on Mass Effect, wherein one right-wing blogger claimed players could "hump in every form, format, multiple, gender-oriented possibility they can think of." But you didn't just crib the title, you covered the same topic in the very same game and even managed to recycle the same erroneous claims that the original creep had already recanted! And it only took you what ... two months after the game first landed in the impressionable hands of pre-pubescent boys everywhere? Bravo!

But oh, what's this? You invited the capable Geoff Keighley on the show to combat the embarrassingly uninformed opinions of one Ms. Cooper Lawrence (loving that book cover, Cooper), a "developmental psychologist" who literally laughs at the mere prospect of playing a video game before flapping her gums about it on national television. Sure, they don't give Geoff enough time to get as many punches in as we'd have liked to see, but that double dose of "that's completely incorrect" is sure to leave a mark in the morning.