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The Sun Misfires Against Disney Over Swear in Game

Posted by Zonk on from the see,-it-helps-if-you-check-your-facts-first dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "UK paper The Sun published an article about a father who purchased a recent Gameboy title from Disney for his daughter. They were horrified that the credits of the game contained the F-Word and he immediately contacted the paper. The Sun published the article without researching the fact that this was a pirate cartridge based off of the cracked version of this game released. Oops!"

22 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. The Sun... by Uber+Banker · · Score: 3, Funny

    has a knee jerk reaction without thinking?! Only 1 in today's issue?!

  2. wait... by adam+mcmaster · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...are you telling me The Sun is not a reliable source of factual reporting?

    1. Re:wait... by Goyuix · · Score: 5, Informative

      For all those who may not know, The Sun is a British TABLOID - and as such is often publishing material in that rather dark shade of gray... Big surprise they didn't get it right.

      The more interesting story to me would be to follow-up with the father who purchased the Gameboy and cartridge, and find out where he purchased the goods. I mean come on, if you are really concerned about your kids why are you buying something from a less than reputable source. Is there even a story if he bought it off some street vendor?

    2. Re:wait... by SewersOfRivendell · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's better than that, The Sun is owned by Rupert Murdoch. You know, the guy who owns Fox? Fox News? Why this surprises anyone is beyond me...

    3. Re:wait... by Lewisham · · Score: 4, Informative

      Because he also holds The Times, my favourite quality broadsheet, oft voted Newspaper of the Year? If I remember correctly, they came out for Labour, not the Conservatives, last General Election.

      Murdoch holds what he can. He doesn't care what it reports, as long as it sells. To compare Fox News to The Times or even The Sun is unfair.

  3. Did he know? by Some+guy+named+Chris · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The article is rather vague, but I would be interested in whether the man knew the game he had purchased was a bootleg.

    1. Re:Did he know? by fluffybacon · · Score: 2, Funny
      I doubt he would knowingly buy his little kids bootleg games for christmas, and then go complain about them to the media.
      Chavs, you can never tell what they'll do next.
      --
      It's not big, but it's clever!
    2. Re:Did he know? by Ayaress · · Score: 4, Interesting

      From the picture in the Sun article, I don't think he knew it was. The cartridge looks like fifty other GBA games I have sitting around, and it has a very legitamate-looking sticker on it. It's obviously an otherwise good fake made with a crappy unclean ROM downloaded off the internet complete with the cracker intro (Where the "fuck off and die" bit came from).

      There are a couple ways the father could have gotten it:
      1. Bought it off ebay or otherwise from a non-vendor. Worse yet, he could have bought it from one of those carts that get set up in malls and vanish after three days. There was a strange event in the mall near me where a vender cart like that sold dozens of remote control cars with the electronics gutted out of them, and then vanished. Whatever the conditions, if this is how he got it, he's at best foolish (for not realizing it's a fake) and at worst a fool (for buying from shady vendors).

      2. Somebody sold the fakes to stores as used. I've heard of it happening at the EB near me once or twice. A good fake can pass as legit to a visual inspection, and most places don't take the time to actually run the game. In this case, it's not the guy's fault for buying it, but he still should have seen it was fake and complained to the store. From what the intro text said, it should be pretty clear. I guess he's one of those people that can look at a page of text, and only see the word "fuck" in the middle of the page and nothing else.

  4. For non-Brits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Sun is a Rupert Murdoch-owned right-wing tabloid. It's full of hate-bait such as demonising immigrants and is targeted at the "lowest common denominator" of the UK population. Take it about as seriously as the Weekly World News.

    1. Re:For non-Brits by hunterx11 · · Score: 2, Informative

      In fact it has the highest circulation of any daily English-language newspaper in the world.

      --
      English is easier said than done.
  5. In other news by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 2, Funny

    In other news, the Sun's "Page 3 Girl" has FAKE BOOBS and Sun didn't mention it anywhere in their paper.

    Shocking!

    --
    94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
  6. Hope they prosecute this loser... by Mr.+Bendy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Seriously, I hope FACT or someone takes this guy to the cleaners. Why not take the game back to the 'shop' where he got it, or to Trading Standards (UK retail 'police'). Instead he tries to take advantage of his daughter's discomfort and make some money off the Sun. Scum. The Sun is an example of everything wrong with British journalism. Low grade version of the Daily mail - a paper for Chavs everwhere.

    1. Re:Hope they prosecute this loser... by Ayaress · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The Sun is an example of everything wrong with British journalism Nah, just journalism in general. They're just as bad over here. I'm waiting for the Saginaw News to print this story. They're pretty good at printing stories without researching it. Once, the DoE transported a steel assembly through Michigan that would eventually be used in a nuclear reactor. An unrevealed "someone" provided a "leaked DoE document" to the SN saying that the "radiation" from this material would kill "300 to 600 people" along its transport route, but that the DoE "considered that acceptably low." The truth was, it was just like the shitillion other tons of steel stuff that gets shipped through Michigan every day. It was going to go into a nuclear reactor, but it had never been exposed to nuclear material. The steel had been forged into the desired form up in the UP, loaded on a boat, transfered to a train, and then carried to who-knows-where out west to actually go into a nuclear reactor out there. Nobody was killed, although the article triggered a protest along the transport route (It wasn't the even the correct route, they ended up protesting about 150 tons of feed corn, if I remember right), in which several people were injured when they had to be forcably pulled away from the tracks by the police before the train spread them out over the next eight miles of railroad ties.

  7. educational by Fr05t · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hey if his daughter already knew that fuck was a bad word she obviously didn't learn it from the game. Fuck I bet her father is a big fucking swearer and should have social services called on the fuck! I don't know what the fuck is wrong with the word fuck, it's not like it's fucking over used. If it's good enough for Jay it's fucking good enough for me.

    1. Re:educational by superpulpsicle · · Score: 2, Funny

      Fuck yeah, that's what I am talking about. The kid knew it was fucked up enough to point that shit out. Anyways here is the top portion of the game credits...

      Executive Producer: Richard Head
      Software Director: Oliver Clothesoff
      Marketing Director: Rob Midildo
      Lead Engineer: Cy Weezeformilk
      Lead Artist: Dean Biggins

  8. Fraudulent by theREALMcCoy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wouldn't doubt it if the story of the dad and his daughter is fraudulent. Often, tabloids invent stories to bring attention to a real occurence.

    Maybe some Sun staffer bought a copy of the pirated game, and decided to make up a compelling story to go along with it. Because if you look at the picture, it looks like a real copy of Monster's, Inc.

  9. Pots, kettles by fm6 · · Score: 4, Funny
    The Sun published the article without researching the fact that this was a pirate cartridge based off of the cracked version of this game released. Oops!
    Yeah, everybody on Slashdot always checks their facts before making a post!
    1. Re:Pots, kettles by Mr.+Bendy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not everyone on posting on Slahdot is a major UK newspaper, who should know better. Seriously, reading the full text of what was on that game, even the dumbest journo should have guessed that this may not be a legitimate copy. Scum the lot of them.

  10. Crime by Taulin · · Score: 4, Funny

    The real crime in this whole story is that someone bought a Monsters Inc. game for their child. *shiver*

    1. Re:Crime by beerman2k · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What about the fact that some one actual took the time to create a cracked version of the game!

  11. Re:Fraudulent, I doubt it by Puggs · · Score: 2, Interesting
    On the thread over at fark.com, there is a pic of a 2nd hand cartridge from ebay and the image from the article. theres clearly a difference in the label.

    Although as this is The Sun, I wouldnt put it past them to make articles up...

  12. Story doesn't add up by rhpot1991 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I have a problem with the facts (or lack there of) in the original article.

    1. It just doesn't make sense to buy 2 gba's and 1 game, even if the kids share the game you always have an idle gba
    2. Why doesn't the guy ever say where the game came from, is he hiding something, or did they not include that part in the script they gave him?
    3. Why on earth does that little girl know the f word already, or was that in the script too?

    Now, I know that I can buy monster's inc. and flash the cart with whatever I want and take it back to EB, and more than likely they would not notice. Then someone would eventually buy it as an used game, but if this was the case, why wasn't a store mentioned? So I conclude that either this guy bought the games from a shady source (because he was too cheap to buy the real deal, or too stupid to understand that there may be a difference) or that the story is entirely made up.