If it is indeed true it is really honourable and commendable for R* to donate the money to charity. As much as a fanboy as I am of their games - this action grants them some respect.
Daily Star Apologizes for Fake Game Story
- Thread starter Logan Westbrook
- Start date
The problem being, so much of the population still has this crazy idea that newspapers do research and print facts. Remember, this is a nation that believes Simon Cowell is a good judge of talent.Soylent Bacon said:
There was a survey on the paper's favourite topic recently, immigration, and it was discovered that areas least affected by immigration actually had the greatest fear of immigration's effects.
To me that says unless people have experience first hand of something, they're willing to take the newspapers at face value, even when they run headlines such as 'Immigrants take ALL jobs in UK over last two years'.
Honestly, who reads that twice and still thinks it is even possible? In two years, not one of 60 million UK citizens has taken a job?
Although it's nice to see them pay in the universal form of money, I really doubt that they'll learn their lesson. The Star is one of those papers that would have a "slow news day" Every Day, unless they populate the pages with vacuous crud, much like other British tabloids. (That's right, The Sun, we're looking at you.)
Steady on, mate. We're not all that stupid over here. To believe Simon Cowell, I mean.SenseOfTumour said:
Joking aside, tabloids like the Daily Star or the Sun pander to the lowest common denominator, and rarely print anything of actual merit. They exist to shock and draw in those dumb enough to shell out cash for shallow gossip, because that's all it is. Research and Tabloid are not two words that go together, especially not in this country. The last place you go for truth is a tabloid.
I'm sceptical over this apology - I always find this crap is much like their stories: not worth the paper it's written on. They allowed that story to be published for attention - but luckily for the rest of us, they got a bit too much and it bit them in the ass.
Not that that'll stop them from doing it all again though. This is practically an annual event for them.
better yet, name, shame and sack the journalIST responsible for the story. Editors will always be sloppy and ultimately they have to trust their agents to fact-check. Sure, this may be just the kind of story they readership might like to hear but when damages are being paid and the threat of libel suits... the guy should not be allowed to make the same retarded slander and cost the Daily Star even more money.TheDoctor455 said:
(Un)fortunately, Daily Star has done the smart thing handing over a wad of money. Sure it could only be 1% of what Rockstar might actually be able to claim in court but it makes any court case hard to start off as:Jumplion said:
(1) the argument is they have already paid damages, plus the retraction and apology
(2) Rockstar looks in a bad light as being greedy, accepting the damages-money then suing for more.
(3) I think both sides would rather not get expensive lawyers involved and just want to end this now.
Daily Star retracted it and suffered financially. This is a good place to end it, though DS may take a harsh line with the responsible journalist though the rest of us need to MOVE ON and not give them an excuse to pick up this story again and try to turn it around to save-face.
I'm a fellow Brit BTW, and I'd like to take this space to apologise to America for both Cowell and Piers Morgan. (who incidentally lost his job over making up newspaper stories when he faked photos supposedly showing British soldiers torturing iraqi prisoners, but sure, he's earned his prime time TV spot judging musical jugglers or whatever.)_tinned_magpie_ said:
Yeah, I know some of us see thru that crap, but damn, Britain's got Talent, and the dozens of other phone in vote shows that swamp our TV channels are the most popular shows on TV now, go back ten years and it used to be comedy, drama and soaps that topped the audience viewing figures, now we're slavishly staring at a 'dancing dog' and then paying £1.50 a time to vote it thru to the next round. when in fact, Cowell's already decided who he can market and sell either cds, movies or tours of. If the public mistakenly vote thru a winner he doesn't like, he conveniently ignores it and promotes the one he knows is more sellable.
Bah, I just hate that we've been reduced to this, when it used to be that quality, well written TV got the highest ratings, instead of a dozen different versions of a holiday camp talent show... on ice... with pets... in space.
Off topic in a way, but I just fear that so many people will believe it, decide 'hurr hurr games are bad' and carry on buying newspapers, when you could buy an iphone game for the price of 3 days worth of the Daily Star and gain so much more entertainment.
Anyway, rant over, sorry about that, got a bit out of hand. I don't remember the last time anything quite riled me like this, it's partly the family member interview, and partly the overwhelming arrogance of the hack in his response to being called out on his shit.
Yes, I suppose that's true. If the story had been bigger, with it getting plastered all over the news everywhere, then R* could definitely sue.Treblaine said:
Really, I just want Daily Star to shove it. I've never heard of them nor do I care about them, but damnit it really gets annoying when video games are targeted with this crap and essentially compared to pornography peddlers (in general, not specifically here, though I do have an idea that I really want to run with...)
That at it's really disgusting how they actually asked the grandmother of a victim what she thought of the "game". You have to be pretty-fucking-sure of something to go that distance.
So wait the journalist who covered the 'story' wasn't fired for gross incompetence?
I mean that's how it works right? You suck at your job or your an arsehole, you get fired.
Shit, I bet even MacDonald's has that kind of work philosophy going.
He even asked for the opinions of the victims family? All based on a photo-shopped picture with no documented facts? That's bringing up extremely traumatic events for the sake of misinterpreted rumour-mongering.
And to turn it into an anti gaming thing as well? The guy didn't care if it was true, just how much attention it would get.
Then he had the nerve to insult people who knew the facts.
Sure, to him they have been ridiculous 30 year old man-children who play games together and nothing else.
But it didn't occur to him that the reason they were complaining was because maybe, just maybe they're also people who read the fucking newspaper?
They pay his wages...
Publicly fire the son of a *****.
It's no less than he deserves.
I mean that's how it works right? You suck at your job or your an arsehole, you get fired.
Shit, I bet even MacDonald's has that kind of work philosophy going.
He even asked for the opinions of the victims family? All based on a photo-shopped picture with no documented facts? That's bringing up extremely traumatic events for the sake of misinterpreted rumour-mongering.
And to turn it into an anti gaming thing as well? The guy didn't care if it was true, just how much attention it would get.
Then he had the nerve to insult people who knew the facts.
Sure, to him they have been ridiculous 30 year old man-children who play games together and nothing else.
But it didn't occur to him that the reason they were complaining was because maybe, just maybe they're also people who read the fucking newspaper?
They pay his wages...
Publicly fire the son of a *****.
It's no less than he deserves.
[quote[It also said that it had agreed to pay a "substantial amount" in damages, which Rockstar is donating to charity.[/quote]
Now that is just made of win. Rockstar, you are made of win.
Now that is just made of win. Rockstar, you are made of win.
Well on one hand it is still kind of shameful to not check their facts before making such a powerfully unjust statement about Rockstar's game but at least they then realized they were wrong to do so and issued an apology, that's better than a lot of other newspapers out there who more often than not just print things that are blatantly wrong and then just stubbornly stand by them.
Well, if TV Tropes is to be believed, most of that publicity (at least initially) was their own doing, in order to drum up interest in the games. The series' whole angle is being subversive and "dangerous", so they hired a PR firm to create a public outcry over the game. Some might say this was irresponsible of them, given that it could very well have led to massive censoring of the entire industry, but maybe they knew just how hard they could push it without something like that happening.robotam said:
That being said, what this writer did clearly crossed a line Rockstar would never have crossed themselves: Trying to cash in on a real tragedy that had just happened, to say nothing of approaching the victim's family directly. Forget being fired; I hope the victim's family sues the ************ so hard he winds up in a homeless shelter.
I have to say, I am really loving Rockstar for donating that money rather than using it to produce a game or some other poppycock.
Thumbs up to Rockstar.
Thumbs up to Rockstar.
That is the single sleaziest news website I have ever seen.
OT: Good. I always hate when a newspaper fucks up hard and does nothing, but they should fire the guy before he does anything else stupid.
OT: Good. I always hate when a newspaper fucks up hard and does nothing, but they should fire the guy before he does anything else stupid.
