Why, Mainstream Media, Why

Posted on April 16, 2007 by Scott Jennings| 18 Comments

Ordinarily I wouldn’t comment on something like the VT shootings, because (a) it doesn’t involve gaming, which is the usual subtext of this blog, and (b) it’s such a horrible tragedy that anything I would have to say about it would be obscenely, inappropriately, not nearly important enough.

Unfortunately, Jack Thompson doesn’t share my ethics. Assuming he’s familiar with the term to begin with.

Wall-to-wall coverage on all the 24/7 cable networks, and, of course, anti-gaming crusader Jack Thompson pops up on Fox News Channel as a “specialist” in school shootings.

Forget that the details are hazy; we don’t even know if it’s one person, what his name is, what his motive was, etc. Crazy, facing disbarment, Jack Thompson is an “expert” who is ready to immediately blame violent videogames for allowing this shooter to “rehearse” the incident.

Admittedly, the demands of the 24/7 news cycle is such that Benji the Wonder Puppy probably could have gotten face time on MSNBC, being earnestly interviewed by Brian Williams. “Come on, boy. One woof for the shooter using a 9mm pistol, two woofs for a rifle.” And to be fair, comparing Benji to Mad Jack Thompson is unfair, as Benji is probably very personable and most probably neutered and toilet trained. That being said, we expect Mad Jack to froth his usual froth around spraying Jack-bits everywhere. He’s an ambulance chaser, and that’s what ambulance chasers do.

The media that continues to give him a platform to spread his misinformed hackjobbery has far less of an excuse. I know that it’s the American way to find blame well before solutions can be found, and given the demographics of engineering schools, it’s more than likely someone will find a game or two among the shooter’s personal effects. It’s also more than likely that they will find textbooks and warm clothing, but of course, the games are far more relevant. And Lord help us all if they find, say, a copy of Guild Wars or Everquest II.

But could we at least wait until the bodies have finished being counted before someone gives Mad Jack a platform to spray spittle over whatever press release he wants to send out this morning? It’s only fair to the deceased. Give the bullet wounds a chance to cool before making your career off the remains.

You know, show some class.

I’m thankful that the only links to Thompson’s wackjobbery have been a New Zealand radio station, a blog, and a Slashdot comment. Let’s hope that that’s where the damage is contained, and Foxnews’ airing of Mad Jack is a temporary goof, something a panic stricken producer greenlit to fill the dead air between reporters trying to make undergrads cry on camera again. Maybe then we can start to work on the incredible growing alienation within our society that causes its most maladjusted members to suffer their demons alone, until they finally enter the “How Many People Can I Go Out With In A Blaze Of Glory” contest.

I know, wacky thoughts. Let’s just get Mad Jack on TV again, he’s always good for a sound bite. Right before the Anna Nicole/Howard Stern story for today, too. Roll tape.

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  • blachawk

    As a current VT student, it’s annoying me to no end that a turd like him is using a tragedy for his own personal agenda.

    The icing on the shit-cake was when my mother, a Fox News devotee, calls to tell me about what the ‘expert’ said about video games psychologically preparing a person for mass murder.

  • Aufero

    I’d rant about Fox News putting soulless, bottom-feeding paranoiacs in front of a national audience every time there’s a tragedy, but I don’t think any of the other networks would hesitate over this kind of thing, either.

  • Dren

    I think in any of the cases like this, the first blame-target that gets mentioned sticks the best. So, Mad Jack took his shot, and unless they only find his Webkins (TM) account active on his computer, it will stick this time too. He’s just getting the huge 3 ton boulder rolling now.

  • http://www.thisisnotacommunity.org D-0ne

    We need to ignore Jack at this time.

  • antibunny

    Lum, I would suggest contacting MSNBC and dropping the ‘I MAKE INTERNET FANTASY GAMES THAT MILLIONS PLAY FOR MORE TIME THEN IS HEALTHY’. They’d probably be happy to put you up as an assumed punching bag for Jack. Just don’t let on to the fact you know what you’re talking about until the cameras are rolling…

  • Serpilian

    Heck, I just read over at Gamepolitics that Dr. Phil is already out pointing blame onto games too. Talk about pathetic.

  • maskedfencer

    I agree with antibunny. Just ONCE I’d like to see someone intelligent debate Thompson, not a self absorbed ass who drags the debate into a screaming match like on G4.

  • http://www.plutospage.com/wow/ Yunk

    First it will be games, then guns (even though these things happen in other countries where there is already gun control). Soon it will be his friends who teased him, or his girlfriend, or his parents, then Halliburton. sigh

    Thompson is only the tip of the iceberg of idiocy, blaming game, rumor mongering, taking advantage of tragedy for political ends, and scraping the bottom of the barrel that passes for journalism nowadays.

    The problem not just in America, not just the West, but a problem that all societies share is how do people end up like this and can they be identified and stopped or helped.

  • Boanerges

    I think National Review hit the nail on the head for this phenomenon

    The rush to blame the school’s administration and police is a reflection of a society that believes any and all misfortune can be averted by the proper application of government will. At this very moment, politicians in Richmond, Va., and Washington, D.C., are exerting their tiny brains trying to be the first to propose legislation that will “prevent the next tragedy.” The number of laws the killer broke on Monday will probably run to more than 20, but there are those who actually believe he might have been deterred by a few more strokes of a legislative pen. I can’t put it any more simply than this: There are evil people in the world, and no amount of laws will make them any less so.

  • Random Poster

    “I agree with antibunny. Just ONCE I’d like to see someone intelligent debate Thompson, not a self absorbed ass who drags the debate into a screaming match like on G4″

    Thing is you can’t really have an intelligent debate with someone who has the IQ and maturity of chimpanzee.

    I probably just insulted a chimps intelligence come to think of it.

  • maskedfencer

    True, but it doesn’t help when both sides have the maturity of a chimpanzee.

    Case in point, try having two children argue over who gets the bigger slice of pie, vs a child and an adult. The adult doesn’t escalate the situation by yelling nonsense at the child, does he?

    The G4 debate was a joke. They “argued past eachother” as a teacher describes it. They weren’t on the same point, and neither had anything but buzzwords to say.

  • http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18169776/page/3/ Vasagi

    From an msnbc article on the shootings:

    Gov. Timothy Kaine said he would appoint a panel at the university’s request to review authorities’ handling of the disaster. He warned against making snap judgments and said he had “nothing but loathing” for those who would take the tragedy and “make it their political hobby horse to ride.”

  • http://pixelsea.blogspot.com/ Tess

    I posted on my own blog about Chris Matthews’ similarly idiotic efforts to implicate games in the tragedy:

    http://pixelsea.blogspot.com/2007/04/digging-in-dirt.html

  • Jeremy

    Some reporters seem to be digging deep to try and make a link, ANY link, between this disturbed individual and video games. And if they can’t manage that, there’s always potential to draw ridiculous, implied connections! Like this one from one of the Washington Post articles:

    “The package includes one nightmarish photograph of a menacing, black-gloved Cho posing in a black baseball cap holding two black pistols at arm’s length. He is wearing a black T-shirt and what appears to be a tan safari vest, resembling an apparition out of a violent video game.”

    I particularly like how they also manage to slip in ‘violent’ there.

  • Wanderer

    Yet so far, despite all the digging, no evidence has come to light that the guy played so much as Tetris.

    This is a situation where the gamer community needs to be heard. We need a quiet but persistant voice, or voices, responding to every one of these implied accusations. Otherwise, it’s going to become “common knowledge” that the shooter was “inspired by” the violent games that he (never) played.

  • http://weblog.probablynot.com Jason

    “The package includes one nightmarish photograph of a menacing, black-gloved Cho posing in a black baseball cap holding two black pistols at arm’s length. He is wearing a black T-shirt and what appears to be a tan safari vest, resembling an apparition out of a violent video game.”

    Because clearly, that image could not come from book covers, or movies, or television, or magazines… nope. Video games, the spring from which all evil doth flow.

  • VPellen

    How many of you first heard the story and DIDN’T immediately think “Wait until Jack gets a hold of this”?

    Guy goes nuts, kills people, people look to blame things, people find things to blame, blame them, defenders of the blamed things beg for reason, lots of to-and-fro, various politicians and media companies use the story to their advantage, we all sit around in deep contemplative thought, we question ourselves, question the media, question society, ultimately come up with “boy, the world sure does suck, doesn’t it?”, a few people write touching articles, and we all more or less forget about the event except when we occasionally bring it up in order to win an argument / point out how much society sucks / point out how lawyers are hypocrites / point out how the media is only interested in getting a good story.

    World sucks, people are broken, tragedy, moment of silence.

    Wake me when it’s over.

  • http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18220228/ Vasagi

    MSNBC article on Jack Thompson vs gamers re: VT shootings.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18220228/

    At least they kind of got it right. They reported more on how much of an idiotic zealot Thompson is, rather than just repeating his oral defecation.