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NEWS: Takeshi Nogami Responds to CNN's Rapelay Report


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FMAvatard



Joined: 24 Jun 2009
Posts: 196
PostPosted: Sat Apr 03, 2010 11:23 pm Reply with quote
Oh good Lord, people. It's a video game. I've known people who've played Grand Theft Auto since they were seven and went on to be perfectly normal adults. This is just us wagging the finger of hypocrisy.

Sure, this isn't the sort of the thing a seven year old needs to be playing, but there again, a seven year old wouldn't be able to get their hands on this game in the first place. It's like that woman in the video said, people'll only know it exists now because of the controversy that's sprung up.
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DarkHunter6523



Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 96
PostPosted: Sat Apr 03, 2010 11:31 pm Reply with quote
Good job CNN, not only are you just shy of a year late to the party, but you once again make a failed attempt to hide your biased and inaccurate reporting...

A follow-up editorial from Kyung Lah, the author of the epic troll of a report that rekindled this non-issue:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/04/02/rapelay.japan/index.html
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braves



Joined: 29 Dec 2007
Posts: 2309
Location: Puerto Rico (but living in Texas)
PostPosted: Sat Apr 03, 2010 11:37 pm Reply with quote
FMAvatard wrote:
It's like that woman in the video said, people'll only know it exists now because of the controversy that's sprung up.

lol that was the best of the video. Galanos is going crazy because there's this video game out there and the kids will be downloading it any moment now so we got to get to the bottom of this!!, but she says that. Laughing In any case, it's true. There's a whole lot of other things out there that are just as bad or worse, but CNN decided to make a huge deal out of this particular game a full 4 years after it was released. The result? More publicity for this game and more people checking it out one way or another to see what it's about.

At least Olsen said that censorship is not the way to go and that parental oversight is the key to not letting your kid see this type of stuff. Common sense, but it gets lost somewhere along the line.

Also kudos to CNN for at least giving an opposing view with that British couple in the initial report.
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acoleth



Joined: 03 Apr 2010
Posts: 11
PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 12:04 am Reply with quote
Okay, CNN obviously did not do enough research considering how out of date their reporting was, but can we not at least agree that:

A: Rape is a vile and unconscionable thing.

B: Deriving pleasure or entertainment from the prospect or concept of rape is vile and disturbing, in the least.

C: The fact that there is an audience for such entertainment is disturbing enough to warrant media attention.

If you can't even agree with these points, frankly, you need psychological help, or do the world a favor and paint your ceiling red.
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Apollo-kun



Joined: 11 Feb 2010
Posts: 1213
Location: City 7, Macross 7
PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 12:08 am Reply with quote
I composed and sent a long-ass letter to CNN in response to their report a few minutes ago. I asked whomever it may concern to reply because I was genuinely interested in what they had to say. Hopefully, I'll get my response soon. Needless to say, the report made my jaw drop at it's sheer hypocrisy and misinformation.

It also made me crack up in hysterics Laughing
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SeiyuuOtaku



Joined: 31 Oct 2008
Posts: 16
PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 12:09 am Reply with quote
Have America censor porn so we can talk.
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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
Posts: 3717
PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 12:15 am Reply with quote
DarkHunter6523 wrote:
Good job CNN, not only are you just shy of a year late to the party, but you once again make a failed attempt to hide your biased and inaccurate reporting...

A follow-up editorial from Kyung Lah, the author of the epic troll of a report that rekindled this non-issue:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/04/02/rapelay.japan/index.html

my god, sooo much more bullshit Evil or Very Mad Evil or Very Mad Evil or Very Mad

She makes absolutely no distinction between the virtual and real stuff, intentionally conflating the two; she talks about pressure from the U.N., gets a quote about how "It's a country that has been held to task by the U.N. for human trafficking and exploitation of women." yet omits this U.N. report about real rape statistics:
animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/posting.php?mode=editpost&p=881845

For the CNN report, Kotaku had a blurb about it here:
http://kotaku.com/5506016/why-is-cnn-talking-about-rapelay
and I found this comment from spider-ham accurately reflects CNN lately:
Quote:

My personal experience with CNN:

I once worked at an organization that did an annual study on violent crimes. Our report was one of our biggest undertakings, we'd all worked on it, and we were damn proud of it. It was a pretty straightforward piece, just a breakdown of the crimes, followed by a few recommendations to prevent said crimes. Not at all sensationalist.

We arranged for CNN to have the first crack at the story. CNN's headline was something akin to: "Violent Crimes Caused by Video Games?" They proceeded to blather on about GTA "copycat crimes," using our report (which NEVER MENTIONED GAMES AT ALL) as statistical filler between lines. My boss actually had to double check with her contacts at the network to make sure that this was story that we were waiting for. It was.

For me, this was the most humiliating moment in my professional career.

I'd like to think that somewhere along the line there was the intent to discuss the child porn bill, and some D-bag editor decided to throw a video game/Japan-is-weird angle in to kick up the pageviews.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15478
PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 12:21 am Reply with quote
I gotta admit it's a pretty offensive concept-though not as bad as the banned European game which took place in a concentration camp. Also, if they're easily obtained on the net, maybe there should've been some blocker like Nintendo used for Earthbound 0, so that kids wouldn't be able to access it? I gotta admit that was dumb in its own right. Plus, it's a little arrogant to be comparing a game serving as wank-off fodder for otaku who can't meet women to ukiyo-e. That was a form of craftsmanship. Anyway, considering Kick-Ass is generating its own share of controversy for a lot less, and considering Japan is trying to actively promote its pop culture in a positive way, to boost sales, I don't think it's good for the medium's image to be defending the game right now.

I'm not saying you shouldn't stand up for what's right, but there are times and places for that[like when those manga-ka protested the government's attempt to censor manga], and being the emissary for a "pro-rape" game is not going to help the reps of people in more legit lines of work who probably need the money more than a dude who can make a quick buck on porn. Especially when the country's rep has already been damaged over the dolphin thing and the Toyota thing.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14876
PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 12:22 am Reply with quote
CNN has done this before with RapeLay last March too. It's that time of year for April Fools. Laughing
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hissatsu01



Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 963
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 12:50 am Reply with quote
configspace wrote:

my god, sooo much more bullshit Evil or Very Mad Evil or Very Mad Evil or Very Mad

My comment on this is maybe slightly off topic, but it does have to do with this kind of reporting. In my experience, the "reporting" of just about every major news organization is absolutely riddled with gigantic factual errors/close to non-existent fact-checking, copying of stories from one another, and "sexing" up stories to make them more interesting/controversial.

One generally doesn't notice because the story is usually about a topic you're not familiar with yourself. But as soon as it hits one of your hobbies/interests/areas of study it's extremely rare that you don't notice massive errors. I've seen this time and time again, in fields totally unrelated to one another (anime, video games, anthropology, paleontology, woodworking, orchid growing - what can I say - I have varied interests). The people writing these stories are generally not knowledgeable about the topics they're writing about. They rely on secondary (tertiary, quaternary?) sources, and they fudge and bullshit their way through to the end. For the most part, I don't think they really care. Investigative reporting is a dying art.

Basically, it's come to the point that I assume that if an article is not written by someone I know has some expertise in the topic, and it's about anything other than the most basic of information, it's probably partially to completely wrong. That knowledge doesn't sit very well with me.
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Axe-336



Joined: 19 Jan 2007
Posts: 143
Location: Springfield, VA
PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 12:53 am Reply with quote
SeiyuuOtaku wrote:
Have America censor porn so we can talk.


Heh, I think that's the short version of the John 8 passage he quoted in his open letter.

Seriously, these media groups make it sound like anyone can get their hands on this material. Sure there are a lot of jokes in anime about how high school students DO get their hands on it, but generally those same characters have trouble even approaching a woman (Or in Konata's case, are women)
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mt-i



Joined: 26 Jan 2007
Posts: 8
Location: Tokyo, Japan
PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 12:59 am Reply with quote
mt-i of tsurupeta.info here (the "translator"). In case it wasn't clear from the preamble, I just wanted to point out that Nogami-sensei's letter is a response to the follow-up CNN article, the one from Apr. 2 (as well as the presenter's comments on the accompanying video), rather than to the original Mar. 20 piece.

Thank you.
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lunaitc



Joined: 18 Feb 2009
Posts: 55
PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 1:16 am Reply with quote
Post removed, don't feed the one-post troll.

Last edited by lunaitc on Sun Apr 04, 2010 1:23 am; edited 1 time in total
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Richard J.



Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 3367
Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 1:23 am Reply with quote
acoleth wrote:
C: The fact that there is an audience for such entertainment is disturbing enough to warrant media attention.
No, not really. The media doesn't cover actual crimes nearly enough or the injustices that occur on a regular basis when real live rapists get light sentences.

A bunch of people who play a game, which certainly isn't my idea of fun but whatever, don't even warrant a human interest piece in my opinion. People who actually commit a crime should be looked at.

Maybe talk about the new pedo priest scandal? Or the UN troops that have been raping? Those sound much more newsworthy than some gamers who haven't raped anyone.

acoleth wrote:
If you can't even agree with these points, frankly, you need psychological help, or do the world a favor and paint your ceiling red.
Wow, that's some debate skill you have there.

So if I don't agree with all of your points, I'm some nut? You must be fun at parties.

And what the hell does the color of my ceiling have to do with anything? Confused (No, really, can anyone explain that one too me.)

And my oh my, I do like Takeshi Nogami's response. Not a perfect response in my opinion, I think he's a bit off on a few minor points but I like the overall theme. Very well written. (At least from the translation version.)

It's really quite sad how people waste time on things like this. Whether you think the game is disgusting or not, it's just a game. There are real criminals out there who never played it and people want to talk about a game instead of dealing with them or the system of "justice" that keeps letting them out if it catches them at all.

I love what Nogami said about rational adults. Could not agree more. Let the rational adults make their own choices and if they make criminal ones, let's punish them harshly. (Personally I'm in favor of the death penalty for rapists but a lot of people think that's just too harsh for that crime. Rolling Eyes )

This to me is like the controversy over here over a game like Grand Theft Auto. I don't play it, I don't want to play it but it's just a game and the only way kids can get it is by idiot adults buying it for them or the Internet. Can we please go back to adults actually trying to raise their children themselves instead of just shielding them from every possible bad thing? Can we stop acting like every game is for kids!

Let free-minded adults make up their own minds about these things.
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tuxedocat



Joined: 14 Dec 2009
Posts: 2183
PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 1:28 am Reply with quote
This kind of thing is going to get play with the media no matter where the source material is from. Too bad for the Japanese. This time. Next time this kind of thing could come from anywhere.

IMO, the media's airtime would be better spent concentrating on the issue of piracy and file sharing. That is the real reason the game is available to all the "innocent" yet unsupervised children. Unfortunately, the media doesn't think the subject of illegal file-sharing and piracy is flashy enough to reel in the numbers. Rolling Eyes
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