Jack Thompson Says He is Running for “Bully” Judge’s Seat
Sunday, October 22nd, 2006
Game-bashing attorney Jack Thompson claims to throwing his hat into the political ring.
In a lengthy press release issued on Thursday, the controversial attorney says that he plans to run for a judgeship on the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in Miami. If that court sounds familiar to GamePolitics readers, it’s because the Bully court case has been playing out there in recent weeks before Judge Ronald Friedman.
In fact, it’s Friedman’s seat which Thompson hopes to claim in the 2008 election. Thompson has been harshly critical of Judge Friedman in the wake of the jurist’s decision not to block the release of Bully. Thompson had sought to have the game declared a “public nuisance.”
Circuit court judges in Florida are elected for six-year terms. The outspoken attorney says he is announcing his candidacy early in order to raise sufficient campaign money.
However, a source familiar with the Miami judiciary speculated that Thompson’s announced candidacy could also be a tactic designed to force Judge Friedman to recuse himself from the Bully case, for which additional motions are pending - including, apparently, one filed by opposing counsel which seeks to hold Thompson in contempt.
Will we be calling Jack Thompson “Your Honor?”
Only time will tell.
NIMF, Walsh, Educators Urge “Bully” Boycott
Saturday, October 21st, 2006
The furor over Bully won’t be going away any time soon as several well-respected educational and child advocacy organizations appear to be joining the fight.
As reported by the Boston Globe, Dr. David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media & Family, has weighed in on the Bully controversy. Walsh told the newspaper:
“We don’t think this game is appropriate for kids of any age. It glamorizes and rewards the kind of anti social behaviors that teachers struggle with every day… In one scene, the so-called hero sits in a tree like a sniper. Instead of a firearm, he has a slingshot. His target is the football team… This is an example of the inadequacy of the rating system…”
NIMF is warning parents off of Bully and urging retailers not to sell the game to teens.
Marlene Snyder, a national training coordinator for the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program at Clemson University in South Carolina, expressed concerns that Bully takes place in school and that it deals with interpersonal relationships rather than with inanimate objects:
“Because it’s torn from a teen’s real life, it becomes a how-to manual. In a world of escalating violence, this is not the message we need to be giving kids.”
Barbara Coloroso, author of The Bully, the Bullied & the Bystander, told the Globe:
“For a young kid who’s been relentlessly tormented, afraid to go to school, socially isolated, the game provides a kind of comfort: `Yes! This guy gets back at them!’ …the more they play, the more the neural pathways in the brain connect violence to pleasure.”
The Globe piece also dings Rockstar spokesman Rodney Walker for an interview posture described as “not forthcoming.”
The article also cites a Jack Thompson letter to the ESRB which urges the ratings board to change Bully from a T (13 and older) to an M (17 and older). Thompson’s letter is described by the newspaper as “forceful.” Forceful, indeed. Addressed to ESRB head Patricia Vance, Thompson’s letter includes the following “forceful” excerpts:
“Take-Two has just had sex with the Lady holding the scales of Justice.”
“You, Ms. Vance, now have a really, really, really serious problem… you’re pwned.”
“You’re broken, Ms. Vance, and we’re going to fix you.”
“Fraud has been committed, and the price therefore is going to be exacted, not upon me but upon you and Take-Two, your constant ratings scandal companion.”
“I would suggest that you stop primping for photo ops and do your job, while you still have it. You have until Wednesday, Ms. Vance, then all Hell is going to break loose.”
