Let’s just get this out of the way right now: Oliver North was part of a group within the US intelligence structure that sold weapons to Iran in order to raise money for a war Congress had specifically told the executive not to fund, because the people in question were also drug dealers. He admitted as much in public. By all rights, the man should be in jail, and it’s only through a few loopholes that he isn’t.
Instead, he’s promoting “Call of Duty”, to which I’ve got to say…seriously?!
Granted, we’ve learned that a good chunk of the game takes place in Central America in the ’80s, where America got fairly adventurous. The Iran Contra affair in particular was very, very ugly, and actually a pretty good setting for a game about black ops.
The “Call of Duty” games tend towards historical revisionism of the worst sort, although that’s a consequence of gameplay decisions and marketing choices, not any sort of deliberate agenda. Activision just wants to sell lots of games.
But this is pretty morally indefensible; sure, Ollie knows all about black ops, but so do lots of other people who haven’t been convicted of major crimes against the United States. Maybe, Activision, you should have considered hiring one of those?
image courtesy Gage Skidmore on Flickr