Email for the Star Newspaper

Potential-Monke

Does anyone have an email address for this tabloid? They have an article in todays paper (Page 22) where some fool called Niall O'Dowd is blaming video games for the shootings in America recently, and i have to send an angry email to the idiots that printed it.

I'm at work and can't access the site.

Cheers!

yoyo

Emails attached to this post, theres loads of them so whichever one is up to you to decide, also probably one of the worst newspaper sites I've seen in a while!

Nick

Kiera

Giz a look at it before you mail it......

Mike 1972

OP your post indicates you have a reasonable degree of literacy so why on earth are you reading the Daily Star ?

Biggins

Mike 1972 wrote: »

OP your post indicates you have a reasonable degree of literacy so why on earth are you reading the Daily Star ?

He's probably like the rest of us all.
Every once in a while, we all like to still read a comic or two! :pac:

Agricola

But everyone knows video games cause violence in children. Ive seen my nephews, murdering and pillaging while playing games. Its not healthy, they'd be better off out playing around. Damn computers.

Ruu_Old

It's not the video games, everyone knows it's Marilyn Manson music to blame! :rolleyes:

Kiera

Biggins wrote: »

He's probably like the rest of us all.
Every once in a while, we all like to still read a comic or two! :pac:

A comic book? Its more like Ann and Barry!

spider guardian

Writing an email to complain about the star writing idiotic articles? You might as well draft a letter to the sea complaining about it being wet. Don't waste your time.

Coriolanus

Agricola wrote: »

But everyone knows video games cause violence in children. Ive seen my nephews, murdering and pillaging while playing games. Its not healthy, they'd be better off out playing around. Damn computers.

Dunno. We didn't have a console until I was about fifteen. Me and my brothers spent time outside sure, but it was making peg guns and waging war on the lads in the next village over.
If anything, computer games made me less violent.

JayEnnis

Video games only cause violence in children who are already pathologically violent. Most kids can discern between a game and real life.

Edit: It's those gangster rapper ****ers.

Potential-Monke

I don't normally email complaints, but i'm sick to the teeth of gaming getting the blame. I'm 27, and have been playing games for 22 years and there is not one person i've killed (that they've found) because of gaming.

And i'm reading it because there's sweet FA else to do (in a communications environment) between calls. Plus they usually print boobies!

And all children who have siblings are violent, and by violent i mean playing. My brothers didn't play video games, but they still threw each other around the house because they watched wrestling, of because they saw a boxing match, or even fights at GAA games. So don't blame gaming. And if you ahve to blame the gaming, blame the parents who allow their children to play 18 games.

Biggins

spider guardian wrote: »

Writing an email to complain about the star writing idiotic articles? You might as well draft a letter to the sea complaining about it being wet. Don't waste your time.

:pac: True.
Why fight the tide King Canute?

Agricola

Nevore wrote: »

Dunno. We didn't have a console until I was about fifteen. Me and my brothers spent time outside sure, but it was making peg guns and waging war on the lads in the next village over.
If anything, computer games made me less violent.

Then you are a rare exception to the rule. When I was a kid we made daisy chains, went for walks and sang bible songs. Kids these days decapitate virtual pets with samurai swords and then try to reenact it all in real life. The world is gone to hell.

Potential-Monke

Agricola wrote: »

Then you are a rare exception to the rule. When I was a kid we made daisy chains, went for walks and sang bible songs. Kids these days decapitate virtual pets with samurai swords and then try to reenact it all in real life. The world is gone to hell.

You have a warped and uninformed view of gaming. Do you really think all games are about cutting the heads off virtual animals? To be honest, i can't even think of a game that allows you to do that. Any game for children has very little if any violence in it. Those that have violence are appropriately labelled and even have words on the packaging that tell you what the games contain, thanks to a re-haul of the gaming classificion system over the last number of years.

So please, and i mean this in the nicest possible way, do some research before jumping to conclusions like O'Dowd.

Thank you.

Sabre0001

Go up to the office and shoot it up...That'll learn 'em!

Robby91

Ruu wrote: »

It's not the video games, everyone knows it's Marilyn Manson music to blame! :rolleyes:

And, as Joe Duffy apparently likes to call him, that 60 Cent fellow! :pac:

These 'crusades' about video games encouraging violence are entertaining enough at times though

I was only listening to the Rubberbandits podcast, I swear!

Trog

1. The premiss of the article in question was, I'm sure ridculous. I don't even know what the article said, but it was in the star so I'm sure it was awful.

2. Video games don't inspire violence. Violent games pander to a market that is already there. In the case of the shooting in question, I'd say what is more likely to have been a contibuting factor is the rhetoric of the politicians/ commentators etc: just one example. Along with the gun-culture and the fact that they are still involved in 2 illegitemate wars and the drones of the country have spent a long time absorbing propaganda for those wars, and blaming games is a little farfetched.

3. I now REALLY want to play a game where I might chop a pets head off with a samurai sword. Tell me where to buy it. Failing that, I'll have to go to a pet shop with a kitchen knife and settle for the real thing.

Ps. Kids playing violent games is a problem for parents, not game developers. Just be a good parent and your problem is solved.

yoyo

I always love the fact the Yanks blame video games, movies for these kind of shootings, but of course their relaxed gun laws which means people with known mental problems (as this Arizona man had) can go in buy a gun without problem couldn't be the cause or even the fact anybody can go in and buy a 33 round Mag for their Glock :rolleyes: , What use is a 33 round mag for a semi auto pistol for anything except killing people :rolleyes: .

Nick

Agricola

Potential-Monke wrote: »

You have a warped and uninformed view of gaming. Do you really think all games are about cutting the heads off virtual animals? To be honest, i can't even think of a game that allows you to do that. Any game for children has very little if any violence in it. Those that have violence are appropriately labelled and even have words on the packaging that tell you what the games contain, thanks to a re-haul of the gaming classificion system over the last number of years.

So please, and i mean this in the nicest possible way, do some research before jumping to conclusions like O'Dowd.

Thank you.

Dont take that tone with me young fellow m'lad. I was around long before you started playing on the old computer game. And dont try to deflect attention from the issue by blinding me with your marketing speak.

Ive seen these games for myself. Only last night, I saw my young nephew, Fiachra, playing a game where he tortured and brutalized a man of asian descent before decapitating him with his own samurai sword. Then in another game he was rampaging through a built-up area in a tank, mowing down pedestrians willy nilly. Fiachra is 11! My god, its unnatural. And everyone knows at this stage about the games where you can solicit sex and then kill the prostitute. Its an abomination. Companies who sell products like this should be prosecuted with the full rigor of the law.

Mike 1972

Agricola wrote: »

Companies who sell products like this should be prosecuted with the full rigor of the law.

What law ?

Agricola

Mike 1972 wrote: »

What law ?

The law of the land

lintdrummer

Agricola ya legend, I can't believe you're being taken seriously, especially with what your location says!

Mike 1972

Agricola wrote: »

The law of the land

Oh and here was me thinking you were referring to the law of the bleedin sea .

Now what law specifically are you on about or do you even know ?

Agricola

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Now what law specifically are you on about or do you even know ?

........



There was.......a spider in the bath last night

Potential-Monke

@Agricola: My apologies for not realising your, now blatently apparent, sarcasm. But gaming is my thing, and i'm very fond and protective of her.

As for the email, here it is, in all it's attempt-to-be-well-educated-and-informed golry:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you, annoyed, that you would allow an article with a biased and uninformed opinion into your newspaper. I do acknowledge that ye are a tabloid, and as such will print anything that gets attention, but i am extremely annoyed that you allowed a "voice from New York City" to voice his opinion that video games were the cause for the recent killings in America involving Senator Gabrielle Giffords.

In the article, Mr. O'Dowd states that it is "violent images" that "probably caused" the crazed killer to go off. In this statement alone, the author completely removes all hope of a un-biased and factual atricle, instead playing on peoples fear of the unknown. It is in the use of the word "probably" that this author manages this. How can one right a fair article when going on probability?

He goes on to say, after blaming violent images in cinema, that it is the "law of video games to kill or be killed and if you haven't accumulated a hundred or so bodies by the end of the game you have been a waste of space". I find this sentance to be the most uninformed, biased, and downright rediculous view of gaming i have ever, in my 27 years of life, encountered. This man must basing this view on a single advert or hearsay of a particular genre of gaming. He obviously does not know that there is an entire ganre of racing games that are focused on pure driving (Gran Turismo 5, Forza Motorsport 3, et al), or a ganre of puzzle games that don't come anywhere near violence (Puzzler 2011, Lumines, at al), or even games directly aimed at the younger audience that are sickeningly colourful and happy (Viva Pinata, Detective Barbie, at al). I haven't even mentioned Platformers, Role-Playing Games, Strategy, and Simulation genres, all of have some to many games that are not violence orientated.

The games that the author refers to, the Call of Duty/Medal of Honor series, all of which are First Person Shooters, and to which his "law of video games" refers, are all 18's rated, and as such if a child under that age is playing them then it is the fault of the parents for allowing them to play the games, and they had possible even bought them in the first place. And these series alone are based on fact, based on recollections of actual war, and thus are bound to be violent in nature. And no more violent than the documentaries shown in schools and on satellite television.

I have read many an article that blame video games for a variety of incidents, all of which were, like Mr. O'Dowd, not researched and biased. I am looking for an apology for printing an article which alienates the gaming community, labelling us all as psychopaths in waiting, killers waiting for that one snap that will send us over the edge and into a frenzy of mindless murder. The gaming industry was worth USD$9.5billion and USD$11.7billion in 2007 and 2008 respectively (ESA Annual Report). If everyone who was involved in contributing to those figures (ie: the gamers), then there would not be 1 person left in this world alive. Walking down the street in Mr. O'Dowds world would mean watching mass murders on every street corner.

Again, i am looking for an apology, preferably printed in an upcoming issue of your tabloid.

Regards,

James.

OctavarIan

They fished, they got a bite.

bobblepuzzle

Kiera wrote: »

A comic book? Its more like Ann and Barry!

Barry drove a Lorry...

Potential-Monke

OctavarIan wrote: »

They fished, they got a bite.

Well i don't see why i shouldn't reply to it, stand up for what i believe in. Thats why our economy is the way it is. No, not because some yank decided to blame gaming for shootings in Yankmerica, but because we don't do anything about, well, anything.

As i said above, i don't normally emial to give out, but he touched a vein and i had to reply, or kill a cop, rob his gun, steal his car, plough through 200people and a row of Hare-Krishna's (GOURANGA!), eat a burger, shoot some army guys, steal a tank, blow up a couple of dozen cars, and escape the long arm of the law on a bicycle before getting to one of my many apartments and sleeping so they'll forget about me.

Krieg

Reminds me of -
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/40124/Journalist-defends-GTA-Raoul-Moat-story

Potential-Monke

Krieg wrote: »

Reminds me of -
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/40124/Journalist-defends-GTA-Raoul-Moat-story

Any chance you'd copy and paste that, don't have access from work...

OctavarIan

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Well i don't see why i shouldn't reply to it, stand up for what i believe in. Thats why our economy is the way it is. No, not because some yank decided to blame gaming for shootings in Yankmerica, but because we don't do anything about, well, anything.

As i said above, i don't normally emial to give out, but he touched a vein and i had to reply, or kill a cop, rob his gun, steal his car, plough through 200people and a row of Hare-Krishna's (GOURANGA!), eat a burger, shoot some army guys, steal a tank, blow up a couple of dozen cars, and escape the long arm of the law on a bicycle before getting to one of my many apartments and sleeping so they'll forget about me.

I'm not suggesting that it's a bad thing to email them, I think the article was a loads of bollocks myself. The people who blame videogames for gun crimes are typically older conservative Americans, the same demographic who stereotypically own guns or grew up in a family that owned one. The only people who genuinely side with them would be other conservatives.

I'm just saying, The Star knew exactly what they were doing publishing this, newspapers have been doing it since the dawn of time. I would change the direction of your email to focus on attacking the person who wrote the article, not the paper. Read the opening paragraph, they will read that and close the email instantly. If you attack the person who wrote the article you'll at least stand a chance at getting published on a letters page or something.

Potential-Monke

I intended on attacking both to be honest, maybe it didn't come across that way. Ah well, we'll see if i even get a reply, not counting on it, but i do feel a bit better for sending it!

Agricola

Potential-Monke wrote: »

@Agricola: My apologies for not realising your, now blatently apparent, sarcasm. But gaming is my thing, and i'm very fond and protective of her.

No worries, Im just in one of my moods. Felt like abit of winding up. Im with ya completely. The witch-hunt of gaming is something I hate too.

SuperInfinity

Don't take this the wrong way, but I've taken the liberty of giving my opinion on the good/bad points in your email.

Potential-Monke wrote: »

I am writing to you, annoyed, that you would allow an article with a biased and uninformed opinion into your newspaper.

A bit redundant. Everyone thinks an opinion they don't agree with is biased and uninformed.

Potential-Monke wrote: »

I do acknowledge that ye are a tabloid, and as such will print anything that gets attention,

Ahaha... fail. If they do then why are you even reading the paper? That's not a good way to get them to print it.

Potential-Monke wrote: »

but i am extremely annoyed that you allowed a "voice from New York City" to voice his opinion that video games were the cause for the recent killings in America involving Senator Gabrielle Giffords.

Okay, this is fine. This is how you should have started it. If they did print it (they won't), they would edit out the earlier parts of it and begin here.

Potential-Monke wrote: »

In the article, Mr. O'Dowd states that it is "violent images" that "probably caused" the crazed killer to go off. In this statement alone, the author completely removes all hope of a un-biased and factual atricle, instead playing on peoples fear of the unknown. It is in the use of the word "probably" that this author manages this. How can one right a fair article when going on probability?

The word "probably" is better than the word "definitely" there... I don't get the focus on the word probably you have.

Potential-Monke wrote: »

He goes on to say, after blaming violent images in cinema, that it is the "law of video games to kill or be killed and if you haven't accumulated a hundred or so bodies by the end of the game you have been a waste of space". I find this sentance to be the most uninformed, biased, and downright rediculous view of gaming i have ever, in my 27 years of life, encountered. This man must basing this view on a single advert or hearsay of a particular genre of gaming. He obviously does not know that there is an entire ganre of racing games that are focused on pure driving (Gran Turismo 5, Forza Motorsport 3, et al), or a ganre of puzzle games that don't come anywhere near violence (Puzzler 2011, Lumines, at al), or even games directly aimed at the younger audience that are sickeningly colourful and happy (Viva Pinata, Detective Barbie, at al). I haven't even mentioned Platformers, Role-Playing Games, Strategy, and Simulation genres, all of have some to many games that are not violence orientated.

You don't really believe that do you? You really think he doesn't know about them? He was stating something that he knew was incorrect but felt some kind of journalistic licence to say it about all of them. Don't add to this by saying something that you know is incorrect as well. (I don't know if you actually believe that there was none or not). Also forget this "sickeningly colourful" nonsense, you're writing about his article on videogames not giving your personal opinion on how you don't like some videogames because they're too cutesy.

Potential-Monke wrote: »

The games that the author refers to, the Call of Duty/Medal of Honor series, all of which are First Person Shooters, and to which his "law of video games" refers, are all 18's rated, and as such if a child under that age is playing them then it is the fault of the parents for allowing them to play the games, and they had possible even bought them in the first place. And these series alone are based on fact, based on recollections of actual war, and thus are bound to be violent in nature. And no more violent than the documentaries shown in schools and on satellite television.

Fine... I guess... I personally wouldn't agree though that it would be the parents' fault if indeed the games were damaging. Much like I wouldn't blame parents if their children were consuming illegal drugs.

Potential-Monke wrote: »

I have read many an article that blame video games for a variety of incidents, all of which were, like Mr. O'Dowd, not researched and biased. I am looking for an apology for printing an article which alienates the gaming community, labelling us all as psychopaths in waiting, killers waiting for that one snap that will send us over the edge and into a frenzy of mindless murder. The gaming industry was worth USD$9.5billion and USD$11.7billion in 2007 and 2008 respectively (ESA Annual Report). If everyone who was involved in contributing to those figures (ie: the gamers), then there would not be 1 person left in this world alive. Walking down the street in Mr. O'Dowds world would mean watching mass murders on every street corner.

Again, i am looking for an apology, preferably printed in an upcoming issue of your tabloid.

Okay look, this whole paragraph sucks. You won't get any "apology", they would never apologize in a situation like this.

Half the people who read the paper are probably gamers themselves or were gamers, and the other half buy them for their children without a second thought. (shur a quarter of them probably have experience with real guns considering this is the Star...)

I mean the article isn't even meant to be taken seriously. And if some tiny percentage of people do, who cares?

If I were you and if you really wanted to get it published, I would totally edit all of your letter, do you really think they're going to publish anything even half as long as that?!

And don't ask for an apology, they'll just laugh at you. Frankly, your last paragraph doesn't even make sense.... Suppose for a second that videogames DID cause people to be more violent, that WOULD NOT mean that "nobody would left alive", it would just mean that everyone would be a little more violent and a tiny bit more likely to murder people. If that were the case, I would be totally against videogames in all ways. But he never made any claims about how every person who plays a videogame is suddenly turned into a violent murderer.... you're the one who's saying he said that when, bad as his article was, he did not say anything like that.

Krieg

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Any chance you'd copy and paste that, don't have access from work...

Journalist defends GTA: Raoul Moat story
by Ben Parfitt | Email a friend | Print
31 comments

Jerry Lawton says he’s “baffled” by the reaction to his story from men who “sit around all day playing games”
The Daily Star journalist who penned yesterday’s story claiming that a Grand Theft Auto game based around the recent Rothbury shootings is in the works has stated that he’s surprised by the reaction to the piece.
Furthermore, speaking on his Facebook page Lawton chose to make a further dig at gamers.
“Baffled by the fury of adult gamers,” he wrote, as reported by Destructoid. “These are grown (?!?) men who sit around all day playing computer games with one another who've today chosen to enter the real world just long enough to complain about my story slamming a Raoul Moat version of Grand Theft Auto!
“You would think I'd denied the Holocaust!!! Think I'll challenge them to a virtual reality duel....stab....I win!!!”
Lawton’s comments are unlikely to win favour with an industry already irritated by his ignorance of the medium.
Article continues below
Advertisement

MCV is yet to receive an official comment from the Daily Star, who removed the story shortly after we contacted them. A copy of the piece can be found here -

http://www.mcvuk.com/static/images/assets/565/1055_DailyStar_GTARothbury.jpg

The paper ended up paying rockstar (company that make GTA) an undisclosed settlement

Johro

Robby91 wrote: »

And, as Joe Duffy apparently likes to call him, that 60 Cent fellow! :pac:

The 'half a euro chap'.

silvervixen84

You should send it to the legal department. All complaints will be forwarded there anyway, even if you email the reporter directly.

The email from that website is legal@thestar.ie

baalthor

Here is the original article:
http://www.irishcentral.com/story/news/periscope/violent-films-video-games-played-role--in-gabbie-giffords-shooting-killings-113422074.html

You can leave a comment directly on his blog

(Niall is owner of the Irish Voice newspaper in NY and brother of FG Louth TD Fergus)