Over the last few years, the soon to be former attorney, Jack Thompson attacked the former head of ESA (Entertainment Software Association) Doug Lowenstein several times, but Lowenstein always declined to respond.
Following Jack Thompson's recent disbarment, Lowenstein blamed the gaming media for "making Thompson what he became."
"The game press had a schizoid relationship with Thompson. He was the person they loved to vilify and the person they could not get enough of", he wrote. "Time and again, the game press - and mainstream press - would ask ESA to engage with, or respond to Thompson's latest excess. The media knew well that he was a charlatan who wholly lacked credibility. But hey, they said, he was news and could not be ignored. That was a cop out. It gave Thompson a platform he might not have had for as long as he did."
"Mainstream outlets (The Today Show, CNN, Fox) were worse but the game press knew better. But he was the game press' crack. And even as they said privately he was a kook, they treated him as if he was a credible, fair minded critic. That represented an abdication of the critical filtering role the media should play."
About a year ago, we decided not to publish stories about Jack Thompson. We enforced this decision until the disbarment ruling, but this doesn't mean that we agree with Mr. Lowenstein. We believe that the gaming media undertook a very responsible role of exposing Jack Thompson's tactics and the only reason we stopped printing stories about him is because we trust our audience of hardcore players not to be fooled by them.
