Jack Thompson: Who’s Next? Kotaku!
Last Sunday I humorously reported about Jack Thompson and his new free time due to a settlement with Take Two Interactive (he cannot sue them this time around). The question I posted: “who’s next?”
Only two days after my first remarks and Thompson picks his first innocent target: Kotaku. Kotaku is a very popular web blog that tells the news like it is, up-front and bluntly. They pull no punches when a person deserves to be punched in the face and when someone tries to get them to back down they post the corrospondance for all to see (and usually it’s a hit on digg.com).
Now, Jack Thompson is strong arming Kotaku into taking down an article they posted about him and his stupid non-sensical decisions.
First Jack tried to tie us to allegations that a 14-year-old made a threat against the University of California Berkley campus by emailing one of the sergeants of the campus police. After speaking with the sergeant actually handling the investigation (not the one Jack emailed) I was told that there was nothing to worry about.
Next Jack asked us to remove our analysis of his misstatements on national television and when we politely declined he faxed the FBI in Colorado
It’s amazing to see just how a single individual can cause so much discomfort in society. It’s as if Jack thinks the world owes him a favor. He goes on to say, “this web site at the below url is targeting me” and supplies them with a URL to kotaku and the article about him. He goes on to say…
“Kyle81 says: Actually the VT shootings are now the biggest mass shooting in US history with 31 dead, not just school shooting. Jack should be shot for taking the opportunity to leech off a tragedy to push his own agenda 04/16/07 03:25 PM”
Now Kotaku has to take time out of their day to handle a false report and shove this back in Thompson’s face. Apparently, when you’ve got no real jobs to do you’ll take the time to mess with people who do have real work to do. How many stupid mistakes do you have to make before you’re dis-barred? He’s got to be getting close.
(Thanks, Kotaku)
April 24th, 2007 at 10:06 am
The funny thing about this is that local authorities sometimes pursue threats like this, regardless of how vague and benign they may be.
However, the authorities don’t go after the website that hosted the comment. They go after the person who published the comment.
I really can’t tell if Jack is just doing anything he can to make life difficult for gaming supporters or if he truly is out of his mind.
I think it’s probably a combination of both.
April 24th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Then don’t comment anything bad about him or I’ll be forced to report you
April 24th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
I would love to see one of the developers or publishers he’s targeted sue him for libel or slander. In light of his recent statements Valve would have a good case because his comments implicating Counter Strike in the VT massacre are objectively false.
Kotaku might be able to claim that he’s interfering with their prospective business contracts.