Do not adjust your set, you really did read that Cooper Lawrence, the psychologist who appeared in Fox’s unfair and unfounded slander against Mass Effect, has admitted that she “misspoke” about the game and has actually done the right thing in retracting her comments. Having now actually done what she should have done and watched the sex scenes in question, Lawrence has realized that the game was not the foul and degrading porno she told everyone it was:
I recognize that I misspoke. I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke.
Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it’s like pornography. But it’s not like pornography. I’ve seen episodes of Lost that are more sexually explicit.
This is actually incredibly pleasing news, to see someone who has enough of a spine to admit something like that, especially when it comes to videogames. While it does little to justify her going on air and defending a viewpoint she had no right claiming to hold, and doesn’t make up for the disrespect she showed Geoff Keighley and the games industry, it is at least a respectable move and a sign that not everyone on “the other side of the fence” has to remain ignorant and offensive in the face of the truth.
I would like to think that Ms. Lawrence remembers this the next time Fox News hands her an axe and tells her to get hacking, but I’m not so sure. Another thing that isn’t quite clear is just how much this is linked to the online backlash Lawrence received for her comments, but I have to think that may have at least spurred her to look into the game some more rather than just cash the check from Fox and forget about it (and some people said it wouldn’t achieve anything). Either way, what Lawrence did was a mistake that no professional should have made, but admitting the fault has raised my estimation of her quite a bit. Now let’s hope Fox has the stones to admit its errors. We’re all waiting for some of this “fair and balanced” integrity.
[Thanks, Sharpless]
