News > Jack Thompson Debate Ruined By...Jack Thompson
June 2, 2007
It appears that Penny-Arcade had been planning a debate at this year's PAX event in August between Jack Thompson and an as-of-yet undecided second party. The plans had been hush-hush both for security reasons and to make huge news of the eventual announcement - about an hour prior to the event.
While negotiations were going on to secure Thompson's opposition, the Miami attorney must have gotten antsy about the secrecy surrounding the debate. He fired off a letter filled with his usual misinterpretations of, and attacks on, the video game industry, and now it seems the debate will not happen at all.
…I would be delighted to do the [debate], but Penny-Arcade’s position that this must be kept “under wraps” and that I cannot tell the media and others about the event is both absurd and troubling.
For Penny-Arcade to take the position that there must be a news blackout on this strikes me and others as hypocritical to the max. You guys are the ones who think that even adult entertainment materials should be marketed and sold to children because of “freedom of expression,” and yet I am not allowed to tell media and others of this debate? Come on, how transparently double-standard-bound in your machinations can you all be?
If you want me to come to Seattle and address 6000 hostile people as to why the United States is the only backward nation in the world when it comes to the distribution of adult video games to children, then I will be happy to do it. But your position that only Penny-Arcade gets to tell the world about this event and in the way that only you all get to decide is patently ridiculous.
Man up and realize what the First Amendment is really all about, Robert and I’ll be happy to celebrate it with all my “admirers” in Seattle, including Gabe.
I’ve been in far more hostile environs than what you offer. You all need to grow a pair of what a kid can cut off in Manhunt 2.
Clearly, Jack just doesn't get it. If gamers know that Jack Thompson will be at the event, the place will burst at the seams. There will be far too many attendees, which will cause safety issues. The silence is simply to prevent that from happening. Thompson had this to say about it:
When Thompson insisted upon knowing what in the world was the reason for Penny Arcade's bizarre position that only it could tell people about the event, Penny Arcade said that it was concerned that too many people would want to go if word got out too widely that Thompson would be at the event.
Pause.
One wonders what the real reason for the news blackout by Penny Arcade is.
One wonders what Mr. Thompson could possibly be wondering the "real reason" might be. Does he think he will be thrown in a boxing ring with Mike Tyson or something? Who can tell what goes on inside a madman's mind?
*Eddie R Inzauto - Senior Editor, GameWad.com
