Fox News - that
ever-expert friend of the gamer - is slapping its corporate spine at the news at the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is pulling ads for
GTA IV.
This apparently follows a
Fox News report from Sunday 20th.The report used footage from
San Andreas to illustrate
GTA IV and then leapt to the statistic that Chicago's weekend had been especially violent - "with over two dozen people shot".
How did the intrepid Fox News crew respond? Did it head down to the 'projects'? Did it seek out explanations for the SHOOTING crimes (maybe, the easy availability of GUNS?) Did it question the police force? Did it compare and contrast the same weekend last year or even the previous weekend?
No. It 'spotted' adverts for the "unapologetically violent video game
Grand Theft Auto". That's right students of journalism, the Fox News team 'spotted' some adverts. Observe closely how a cut to governor Rod R Blagojevich talking about how evil these adverts for GTA are adds to the issue ("..targeting to kids as they go to school". Even if that cut was to footage of the governor talking about how evil adverts for San Andreas were... in 2004.
Then - keep reading students - cut to a gentleman in the street for some economic analysis, "It's all about money", before cutting to 'a parent' who advises that parents should "censor" children. Such censorship should not regard blocking adverts though.
Then announce that, "the advertisements will be coming down" and greatly emphasise the word "will". There is no need to point out that the adverts in question showed character images from GTA IV rather than any of your actual in-game violence. Equally there is no need to point out that when the advertising will be coming down.
There you have it. A Fox News story about video games.
FYI, CTA advertising is handled by Titan Worldwide (the largest privately held Out-of-Home advertising company in the world) which took the deal on April 11, 2008. As part of the Titan and CTA deal, the former is paying the latter more than $10m (£5m) a year for the next ten years to sell ads on "eight 52-inch screens in every rapid transit station"