"It won't work."

So says the editorial board of the Muskogee Phoenix about Oklahoma's new video game statute.

As reported on GamePolitics, Gov. Brad Henry signed HB3004 into law earlier this month. The video game industry filed suit against the Oklahoma bill on Friday, just two days after the Phoenix ripped the measure, saying, "Oklahoma's new law that prevents the sale of violent video games and material to minors is an example of the state trying to micromanage morality, not violence."

"It won't work," the Phoenix continued, "and it doesn't address the problems we have with violent behavior in the United States. It's simply another law that police will have to enforce without offering additional resources to law enforcement to do the job."
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Forget New York, New York.

If you can make it in Muskogee, you can make it anywhere. And Doug Lowenstein has. Until the ESA honcho came along, country singer Merle Haggard was the most famous name associated with Muskogee, Oklahoma, pop. 38,310.

Lowenstein's Oklahoma star turn began last week when State Rep. Fred Morgan penned an op-ed in the Muskogee Phoenix. Morgan's guest editorial, titled "Video games offer tutorials in violence" advocated Oklahoma's adoption of game legislation similar to that of Illinois - three days after Illinois' was ruled unconstitutional.

Last Friday Doug waded into the fray with his own op-ed in the Phoenix. The ESA boss made some good points and Lowenstein - unlike GamePolitics - was gracious enough not to poke fun at Rep. Morgan's Illinois faux pas.

So who won the Morgan-Lowenstein duel of editorials?

Lowenstein, by a landslide, according to the editorial board of the Muskogee Phoenix. In an opinion published Saturday, the paper showed an impressive grasp on the issues involved, saying, "...Rep. Fred Morgan... referred to statements by a licensed psychologist who said game violence spills over into action... If that were completely true then schools would be havens for violence. But a national report just last month stated from 1992 to 2002, school crime rate was cut in half, and that figure mirrors a national trend outside schools - crime is down 30 percent."
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