Fox News recently went back on its anti-games soapbox. Much like it had its two cents to throw in about the deplorable, sexist, violent [insert other negative entertainment-related adjectives here] nature of highly anticipated “M”-rated games, Fox’s wrathful gaze has turned toward the game Duke Nukem Forever.

The ongoing debate between violent videogame opponents such as Fox News’ John Brandon and the videogame industry reminds me of a pro wrestling feud. Both sides come out, say the other side is dumb, evil, etc, then after the fight they go their separate ways and count their money. Nothing of substance is resolved and, in a month or so, they do the same dance again.

Fox News recently had a pretty epic fail in terms of an entry for the great game debate.

Unfortunately, The Escapist’s response piece published February 8, 2011, by Andy Chalk seems to have been an epic fail. Oddly enough, it’s for almost the exact same reasons that the Fox News entry fell apart: Poor argumentation.

Recently, Fox News tried asking if the upcoming game Bulletstorm could be the worst video game ever with regard to possible societal ramifications.

OK, it’s worthwhile to examine problem areas but, if Fox News wants far more credibility in the field of entertainment, they need better video game experts.

This isn’t to say they need better educated experts. It just means that they need more realistic and more well-informed experts who consistently have a clear argument.

Whenever Fox News starts talking about videogames, controversy usually follows. It has happened with Mass Effect, Medal of Honor and to a lesser extent, NBA Jam. Peter Moore, president of EA Sports went on Fox News to talk about NBA Jam’s inclusion of politicians such as President Obama and Sarah Palin.

Police have arrested a 31-year old Indiana man after they found his two young children wandering outside their apartment complex while he played games on his computer.

Cooper Lawrence, a self-help book writer who appeared on the Fox News program The Live Desk With Martha MacCallum and berated Bioware’s game Mass Effect for its repugnant content and depiction of women as sex objects, has admitted that she misspoke about the game. Her comments had incensed the gaming community.

She avowedly had not watched the game in action prior to the interview, and had relied on hearsay to make those coarse remarks on the Fox News program. She quickly rallied to apologize for her unfounded criticism of the game, after she had eventually watched 2-3 hours of Mass Effect action. Lawrence confessed to New York Times that she had misspoken about the game.

Earlier this week (January 21, 2008), Fox News’ “Live Desk With Martha MacCallum” segment focused on the sexual content in the Xbox 360 game, Mass Effect. In the segment, titled “SE’XBOX,” it pointed out that portions of the game includes some nudity (though that is debatable) and claimed the game has been marketed toward kids (even with the “Mature” ESRB rating).

According to Kotaku, Jeff Brown, EA’s VP of corporate communications, contacted Fox News, describing the report’s claim that the game was marketed toward children as “flat-out false” and asked Fox News to issue a correction.

Here’s the video of the segment…