Email Conversations
In the interest of showing the whole truth, we have dedicated this
section to unedited copies of email conversations with Mr. Thompson.
While we edit for length and readibility elsewhere on the site,
here you can find the full texts. The only modifications we make
to these letters is to hide the email address for spam's sake, and
to hide the name of the participant at request.
We can only host conversations when we have permission. If you
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here, contact us here.
Some of Mr. Thompson's conversations include long quotations from
his open letters. We have removed these segments where noted, and
the full texts of his open letters can be found here.
Table Of Contents
- Concerning
Dean Walsh, National Institute on Media & Family
- Between Walsh and
Thompson
- Letter to Senator
Joe Lieberman
- With
Marylin Dean
- I am Very Concerned
- Please report in
your respective publications that arrests will be made...
- Death threats
Concerning
Dean Walsh, National Institute on Media & Family
I. Between
Walsh and Thompson
[source: Gamepolitics]
October 13, 2005
Jack Thompson
1172 South Dixie Highway
Suite 111
Coral Gables, FL 33146
Dear Mr. Thompson,
I founded the National Institute on Media and the Family ten
years ago to engage in research and education about the effects
of media on children's health and development. Our original premise
that "media are powerful" has been validated scientifically
and socially many times over. Our work has been cited by organizations
around the world and our credibility has been well established.
One of the areas of greatest concern is the issue of violent
media's effect on children. I know that you share that common
concern and I am well aware that you have frequently cited me
and our organization as a source of scientific information. However,
over the past few months, I and members of my board have a growing
concern that your use of our name, without our permission, has
had a negative influence as we try to educate the public on this
important issue.
Your commentary has included extreme hyperbole and your tactics
have included personally attacking individuals for whom I have
a great deal of respect. I believe that respect is essential in
all our dealings, including respect for those with whom we disagree.
Some of the people that you have publicly criticized are not only
people of integrity, but are people who have worked to improve
the lives of children.
Even though we have no formal relationship your use of my name
and your inclusion of my name in correspondence have created the
impression that we condone these tactics. We do not. The result
is that our position and reputation as a research based, non-partisan,
solution-focused organization has been jeopardized. Consequently,
I ask that you cease using the Institute's or my name in any way
that would give the impression that we support your efforts. I
also ask that you remove the link to our website that appears
on your site.
Sincerely,
David Walsh, PH.D.
[note: the two following letters are Thompson's reply to Mr. Walsh]
[source: Gamepolitcs]
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2005 6:01 PM
Dave, I received your letter today. A couple of clarifications,
if I'm allowed to do that.
I have never given the impression that you are anything other
than a remarkably talented and insightful professional who has
been sounding the alarm for many years about the dangers of adult
entertainment when consumed by kids. I started doing that in 1987.
Not sure as to the precise date you started, but it has been a
long time.
I have never said to anyone that you and I are in league with
one another. I did recommend that 60 Minutes and Reader's Digest
talk to you about the Alabama wrongful death case. I think it
is fair to say you would not have been on those programs if I
had not recommended you. I was happen to do it. As you recall,
I got you the video gamer to sit with in Tuscaloosa to show the
violent content of GTA: Vice City. I was happy to do it.
You will also recall that it was I that urged you to go forward
on the "Hot Coffee mod" scandal. You repeatedly called
me for legal advice and I freely gave it. As you know, I prepped
Senator Clinton, per her staff's request, before she had her splendid
"Hot Coffee" news conference. As you will recall, you
called me to let me know you were on your way to Washington to
do that press conference with her. I was happy for you.
I certainly did, however, lose respect for Senator Clinton when
she decided, after that, to attend a fundraiser thrown for her
by the video game industry and by ESA's Doug Lowenstein. To me,
that was a sell-out for campaign cash. It may be that because
you raise money for your organization you understand the needs
of fundraising, but to take money from the ESA is to take blood
money. The parents I represented in Paducah would not understand,
nor do I. I note you send Doug Lowenstein, your letter to me.
That is quite odd, given the things you have said to me about
him in the past.
I am wondering just who, David, these people are whom I have
criticized "who have worked to improve the lives of children."
Do you have in mind the folks at Best Buy, one of whom you copied
with your letter? I know you get money from people connected with
these folks, David, but you do know that Best Buy is presently
pre-selling, to adults and to children, the Columbine simulator
game, Bully? You do know that, right, David? Of course you do.
I told you Best Buy was doing that. So is the Target Corporation,
whose Chairman Bob Ulrich you copy with your letter. I am wondering,
David, what these men have to do to get on your bad side? Do they
actually have to do the physical bullying of kids, as selling
a bullying rehearsal trainer to kids is okay?
Finally, Dave, I understand that your letter is more about protecting
your funding sources than criticizing me, so I understand what
you felt you had to do. But there is something else here. Your
role in this fight is indispensable - or I should say has been,
as you maybe have decided to go a different route now - and I
applaud you for what you have done.
But the thing that makes you feel uncomfortable with me is no
so much that I have gone too far but that you have not gone far
enough. The time for hand-wringing and trying to "persuade"
the bad guys to stop being bad was over quite sometime ago. Now
I understand the mindset of the upper Midwest, especially in the
Twin Cities. Everybody likes to get along, assume that everyone
"means well," and things will all just work out for
the best in the end.
I know, and you know, if you are being honest, that that is not
how the world works. Evil people sometimes have to be stopped,
or at least their evil has to be stopped. You can cite all the
studies and all the findings and keep giving your video game report
card to Congress, and it will not matter unless somebody gets
into the trenches and stops these people. While you have been
giving report cards on a bunch of sociopaths, the violent games
have been getting more violent.
Senator Lieberman, bless his heart, wants with Senator Clinton
to fund a study with taxpayer dollars to find out if violence
in entertainment really makes kids violent. That was decided years
ago. It is a dodge from having to do something about the violence.
The entire ESRB rating system is a joke. It is a tool for marketing
violence to kids. It does not stop the sale of violence to kids.
You know that. It would be better if we had no system, and then
parents would not have been fooled for more than a decade into
thinking that the system was actually protecting their kids.
Liberals, like you, love to label things and then think that
the labeling has accomplished something. If that had been the
case, then Churchill's calling Hitler a Nazi would have ended
the war. But no, people like me had to get into the trenches and
stop the Nazis. And there were always those tut-tutting back home
about what a nasty business it is to stop the bad people, and
can't we all just "get along."
Actually, Dave, and this is the point: We can't just all get
along. You want to criticize retailers like Best Buy, while at
the same time taking their money. That is what prompts your letter
to me decrying my tactics and my hyperbole and so forth.
I have been dismayed by your being on both sides of the fence,
because it undercuts your credibility.
Dave, it is laughable, it is absurd, that you have copied your
email to Bill Gates, of all people. This is a guy whose Halo trained
Malvo to kill in D.C. This is a guy who now has put all the Grand
Theft Auto games on his XBox. This is a man who is going to release
Bully when the coast is clear in the spring.
Gates is a man who wants to be on both sides of a fence. Sound
familiar?
Regards, Jack Thompson
[source Gamepolitcs]
October 14, 2005
Dear Dave:
It is interesting that you sent your useful letter (useful to
us) to Doug Lowenstein immediately after you received my request
for an affidavit in Strickland v. Sony.
If you shared this confidential affidavit with Doug Lowenstein,
or with anybody else, as you shared your letter with the video
game industry, then you have a problem.
Unfortunately, Dave, you have opened up the issue of your organization's
funding. Bad move.
You liked your collaboration with me when I got you on 60 Minutes,
but not when it inconvenienced your cozy relationship with Best
Buy and the rest of the video game industry.
You got some pretty bad legal advice in this, Dave, but that
does not surprise. You're talking to attorney Elliott Kaplan,
who sits on the Best Buy board.
Regards, Jack Thompson
II. Letter
to Senator Joe Lieberman
[source: Gamepolitics]
Dear Senator Lieberman:
I received late last Thursday a remarkably false and hurtful
letter from someone who is a friend of yours and who used to be
a friend of mine, Dr. David Walsh of the National Institute on
Media and the Family. Two people who got Walsh's letter are you
and Doug Lowenstein of the ESA. Therein is the explanation of
why it was really sent.
I have over the years repeatedly told Dr. Walsh of my admiration
for his knowledge as to the harm caused by mature video games
sold to minors. I have done nothing for years but praise him to
others, especially those in the media. Dr. Walsh has gotten himself
on plenty of prominent news shows about this issue on his own,
but I got him on 60 Minutes this year and in Reader's Digest.
Dave indicated that he was pleased that I did. Neither of us seeks
the publicity for its own sake. We both care about the message.
It will save lives.
The three of us, obviously, have shared this same concern about
adult games sold to kids for a very long time. When you meet the
bereaved families of these victims, they change your life forever,
as did the families in Paducah whom I represented. Critics of
the three of us don't understand our concern. They haven't met
the victims.
The very day I sent Dave a draft of an affidavit for him to sign
for our wrongful death case in Alabama, Dave, instead of calling
me wrote this letter saying that I needed to stop suggesting publicly
and otherwise that he endorses what I do. I have NEVER suggested
such a thing, ever. Dave and I have joked about how he is the
"good cop" on this issue, and I am the "bad cop."
But if Dave had a problem with my "tactics," I believe
you and I both know, as people of faith, that the Biblical principle
is that you go privately to the person with whom you have a disagreement
and express the concern. Dave NEVER did that. Why?
You see, Senator, I am presently suing Best Buy and Target over
Take-Two's planned release of Bully, a Columbine simulator in
which you can bludgeon your classmates and teachers. I was on
ABC World News Tonight and CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight about Bully
and my lawsuit against these retailers. The stakes here are very
high.
Dave's organization is funded by Target and Best Buy. Elliot
Kaplan is a lawyer who defended Best Buy the last time I sued
it successfully, and it is his foundation that, in Kaplan's words
"has given millions of dollars to Dave Walsh." Kaplan
is a director on the Board of Best Buy. You and I both learned
to "follow the money" a long time ago. It can explain
why friends write letters that have absolutely no basis in fact
but which help those who fund them. Why else would Dave tell me
publicly to stop doing something he could have asked me to do
privately and which I have never done?
Dave copied you with that letter. He did that because he knew
of my relationship with your office, how I have sat with your
people the day we were both interviewed for Spencer Halpin's Moral
Kombat documentary that is coming out this fall. I am deeply appreciative
of your Chief of Staff's tremendous concern and interest in this
issue. I have a lovely letter from you thanking me for my abiding
involvement in this issue. Nobody here is saying you endorse my
methods. You appreciate my concern.
Why did Dave Walsh send his letter to Doug Lowenstein - to make
sure that it would be spread all over the world. That is precisely
what has happened. You should hear the things Dave has said to
me about Doug, about his prevarications. I think Doug is a liar.
Dave is too nice a guy to say so publicly, but I am not. Doug
Lowenstein, in my opinion, is personally responsible for a number
of deaths. He is paid well to spin like the worst propagandists
in history. I don't need to tell you the harm that propagandists
can cause, the lives they can cost. The Third Reich was founded
upon propaganda as surely as it was founded upon armaments. When
Doug Lowenstein says the industry wants kids not to buy these
games, he is lying. When he says there is no proof that these
games hurt kids, he is lying. Dave would not say so. I say so.
I'm not nice, and I don't pretend to be.
The reason Dave sent that letter is the same reason the Philadelphia
law firm of Blank Rome has embarked on character assassination
of me in our case in Alabama arising out of Take-Two's GTA games.
Blank Rome has as one of its partners Barbara Comstock, the head
of "opposition research" at the RNC. Blank Rome has
unethically used her RNC techniques on me because they know they
can't win this case, covered on 60 Minutes and in Reader's Digest
on the merits, so they have cranked up their Swift Boat Vets approach
and used it on me, with no facts to back them up. As Twain said,
"A lie is half way around the world before the truth puts
on its shoes." Dave Walsh's money people took a page out
of the Blank Rome/RNC playbook. I am getting used to it. All it
has accomplished is make me more determined to destroy the Take-Two's
of the world, by God's grace.
Dave Walsh is a very nice man who blew this one. I happen to
think there is room in the world for Dave's approach on games,
but I also think somebody has to be willing to get in the trenches
and slug it out with sociopaths. Take-Two's Mr. Houser proves
in today's New York Times he is just such a sociopath.
With all respect, Dave's Annual Video Game Report Card has not
slowed down Take-Two, has it? I have used lawsuits in the past
to accomplish some very good things. I made enemies in the process.
I am proud to count Doug Lowenstein as one of them.
I wish you all of God's best. I wish people like Take-Two all
of Satan's worst. Dave Walsh would not say that, and that is part
of his charm. Some of us were not called to be charming. I want
to win this thing, not for my sake, but because lives are at stake.
That is what makes what Dave did so hurtful. Instead of calling
me up and talking to me man to man, he wrote a letter to Doug
Lowenstein.
Blessings, Jack Thompson
With Marylin
Dean
[note: Mrs. Dean's first name is often misspelled in this conversation]
[source: forwarded to us by Mrs. Dean]
I. I am Very Concerned
[note: Mrs. Dean refers to the Sims 2 controversy. Please read
our The Sims 2
article if you are unfamiliar with this subject.]
From: Marylan Dean
To: jackpeace@comcast.net
Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 10:07 AM
Subject: I am Very Concerned
I just read Gamespot's article on Jack Thompson, and I am angry
that Mr. Thompson does not have all his facts straight. Even after
the update, he still believes the Sims 2 is a terrrible, terrible
game. I want to reassure Mr. Thompson that the Sims 2 is a wonderful,
non-violent game where I, as a 46-year old Christian woman, can
not only play without being offended, but enjoy the official Sims2
website knowing how heavily patrolled it is to guard against inappropriate
content. Both the website and the game are very family-oriented.
The above image is taken from the Sims2 on my game. I have removed
the blur in my game, and this is how detailed Sims look when the
blur is removed. This Sim is not modified in any way. I resent
Mr. Thompson for attacking the only PC game I play, and I want
to assure parents of gamers all around the world that this is
simulated life without the real-life problems. The basic Sim theme
is to build family dynamics.
Thank You,
Marilyn S Dean aka NoRealLife2
From: Jack Thompson
To: Marylan Dean ; ***
Cc: Curt Feldman ; Christian Svensson ; *** ; ***
; Seth Schiesel
Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 10:59 AM
Subject: Re: I am Very Concerned [this email, below
mine, is from an adult female gamer, for those getting this email]
Dear Marylan:
The picture you've sent [immediately below my letter] is objectionable
for a 13 year old as far as I'm concerned, particularly since
it is embedded in the Sims 2 game, unclockable easily with a simple
cheat code that is being distributed by the New York Times!
You don't walk around nude in your home with the blinds open,
do you, Marylan, or in front of 13 year olds? If you think the
below okay for kids, then send me your address and I'll alert
the authorities.
Many parents wouldn't want their kids playing this game at the
age level of "T," with no ID check at the time of purchase,
given the amount of reproductive activity in the game and the
ability to remove "the blur." The problem, Marylan,
is that there are a bunch of video game companies that are being
deceptive, with the help of the ESRB, in slipping this into our
homes with no adequate warning that they are doing so. Electronic
Arts is in fact collaborating with the modders to put pubic hair,
genitalia, nipples, etc. on the Sims 2 figures, including the
children. The pedophiles out there love it, which is why the mods
are all over the adult porn sites.
You aren't concerned about that, now are you Marylan? You cherish
your "freedom" more than the innocence of other people's
children, now don't you Marylan?
You don't want me to be the arbiter of moral in America? Fine,
the vast majority of Americans don't want the ESA and ESRB to
be the arbiter of morals either nor women who think nudity distributed
to other people's kids is their business but stopping them is
nobody's business, right Marylan?
We're going to have legislative hearings all over the place now,
now that the ESRB was found to be totally inadequate to prevent
the "Hot Coffee" fiasco. Let's decide, through a democratic
process, whether the below hidden, embedded material is appropriate
in a "T" game. I can abide the democratic conclusion
on that, but I bet you cannot.
[note: the letter that follows can be found in our Open
Letter Archive]
II. Please report in your
respective publications that arrests will be made...
[note:It has been reported by several media that Mr. Thompson has
received "death threats" by several angry gamers
[1]. The following mail seems to be a reply from Thompson to
one of those threats also mailed to various other people, including
Mrs. Dean.]
From: Jack Thompson
To: Marylan Dean ; ***
Cc: Curt Feldman ; Christian Svensson ; *** ; ***
; Seth Schiesel
Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 11:22 AM
Subject: Please report in your respective publications
that arrests will be made...
----- Original Message -----
From: ***
To: <jackpeace@comcast.net>
Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 8:28 AM
Subject: hello
> im going to kill you becauz you are a motherfucking asshole.
Links:
[1] Advanced
Media Network – Death Threats Sent To Attorney
III.
Death Threats
From: Jack Thompson
To: Marylan Dean ; ***
Cc: Curt Feldman ; Christian Svensson ; *** ; ***
; Seth Schiesel
Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 11:49 AM
Subject: Death threats
John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law
1172 South Dixie Hwy., Suite 111
Coral Gables, Florida 33146
305-666-4366
jackpeace@comcast.net
July 23, 2005
The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. Via e-mail
The Honorable Joseph Lieberman
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. Via e-mail
Dear Senator Clinton and Senator Lieberman:
I have had a number of video gamers threaten to kill me in the
last few days in the aftermath of the success against Grand Theft
Auto: San Andreas. This is noteworthy in a number of regards:
1. The people threatening to kill me so are doing so in the name
of the First Amendment and “freedom of expression”—not
mine, of course, just theirs. Don’t you love it?
2. The use of death threats in retaliation for my participation
in the public square serves to prove, rather convincingly, that
the violent video games are having the attitudinal effect that
psychologists such as Dr. David Walsh and others who have testified
before Congress say they have.
3. None of the “video game media” will report that
the gamers are threatening to kill me, although I have asked them
to report this phenomenon, as it reveals the validity of the above
two points.
I would appreciate any help your respective offices could give
me in persuading the FBI to act in response to these threats.
I don’t think anyone should have to put up with such dangerous
nonsense.
Regards, Jack Thompson
[Archive]
From: Marylan Dean
To: Jack Thompson ; esa@theesa.com
Cc: Curt Feldman ; Christian Svensson ;*** ; ***
; Seth Schiesel
Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 4:14 PM
Dear Mr. Thompson:
It's no wonder you are recieving death threats, if you have
responded to other people in the same manner you have responded
to me. I am sorry you are so angry, I hope you can find peace.
(I know when I get stressed out, I play The Sims 2.)
Also, I wish you would not send me any more e-mails that are threatning
and/or contain vulgar language. Out of your four emails you sent
me this morning, you, sir, have offended me more than any game.
From: Jack Thompson
To: Marylan Dean
Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 3:22 PM
Subject: Re:
Oh, I'm not angry. I'm just very determined and successful against
nitwits who have nothing better to do with their lives than play
video games and corrupt other people's kids. you are so self-righteous,
so sad, and so aimless.
From: Marylan Dean
To: Jack Thompson
Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 4:27 PM
Subject: Re:
Wrongo, tiny one. You are very angry. I'm praying for you that you
find peace.
From: Jack Thompson
To: Marylan Dean
Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 3:51 PM
Subject: Re: Re:
Got it, honey. I'll pray you have no more children.
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