It took the police almost a full 24 hours to ID the Virginia Tech shooter, but all it took was a couple of hours for “School Shooting Expert” and crackpot ambulance chaser-cum-attorney Jack Thompson to get himself an audience with the nation on Fox, citing videogames as a cause for such violent events. As if post-9/11 terrorism and and radical fundamentalism wasn’t getting enough attention in the ratings-hungry world of modern day media, such comments on major news channels just serve to add fuel to the fire, with one news channel’s opinion being paraded around as hard facts on another.

With the unholy politico-legal-media complex driving American society in general, it is not unusual for major news channels and obviously biased TV anchors to run with the story, callously ignoring the sentiments and the anguish of the people who had suffered the real loss in such a tragedy in return for some snappy soundbites. So who cares if the story is cooked up by an attention whore? No one cares about the ethics of journalism and how the media actually has to serve a purpose beyond furthering its monetary interests. How is it that we let people like Jack Thompson and Dr. Phil McGraw get away by touting opinion as fact whereas I can’t walk into a crowded theater and yell “There’s a bomb in here!” How is it different? In both cases, isn’t a lie being perpetuated by people who have absolutely no right to do what they are doing? But no, they praise such people and call them “experts” despite the fact that the lawyers and psychotherapists have little to no real world experience on the things they claim to be experts on, even as they desperately try to make people believe that breast implants and cellphones cause cancer or in this case, how videogames turn people violent. Hit up the jump to read more on this…

Why are people like Phil McGraw allowed on shows like Larry King Live, with a viewerbase in the millions and allowed to spout such invective?

LARRY KING: Why, though - OK, you want to kill someone, you’re crazed, you’re a little nuts, girlfriend drops you, why do you kill innocent people?… Dr. McGraw, are they treatable?
DR. PHIL: Well, Larry, every situation is different… The question really is can we spot them. And the problem is we are programming these people as a society. You cannot tell me - common sense tells you that if these kids are playing video games, where they’re on a mass killing spree in a video game, it’s glamorized on the big screen, it’s become part of the fiber of our society. You take that and mix it with a psychopath, a sociopath or someone suffering from mental illness and add in a dose of rage, the suggestibility is too high.

And we’re going to have to start dealing with that. We’re going to have to start addressing those issues and recognizing that the mass murders of tomorrow are the children of today that are being programmed with this massive violence overdose.

So wait, instead of identifying the real culprit here, all you’re doing is assigning blame? Is this what society’s so-called leaders are supposed to do - make you afraid of it and then tell you what or who is to blame for it? Why don’t you actually try fixing the problem, goddammit?! Videogames have violent content in them, but so do movies, as well as books, comics. music and a hundred other media available to us today. Instead of identifying and treating such people with a better values-based education system or fostering good will via after-school programs that would actually fix the issue, all these guys can do is turn a blind eye and blame a scapegoat, while still siphoning off much-needed funds from systems that will actually help such troubled minds and souls.

Which is why I am happy we’ve got the best of intelligentsia in the likes of people such as Kotaku’s Brian Crecente, who actually took the time to go through each of Jack Thompson’s lies and then went online to research the issues and then talk about how every one of his lines on national television was a cruelly manufactured untruth. Here’s what Brian has to say about the whole issue:

1. The FBI and Secret Service found that the most common denominator for shootings prior to Columbine was that the perpetrator was immersed in “incredibly violent entertainment, most notable video games.”
Time: 30 seconds
Verdict: Not exactly True
Evidence: In 2000, the FBI published an analysis of 18 schools, 14 of which had actual shootings. In the other four, students planned shootings but were thwarted.
The analysis broke down the assessment model of a shooter into four prongs.

While “The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective” found that a “fascination with violence-filled entertainment” was one personality traits and behavior common among shooters, in one of the four prongs,it lists another 27 traits as well. It also does not single out video games as being most notable among the “violence-filled entertainment” shooters were fascinated with.

The student demonstrates an unusual fascination with movies, TV shows, computer games, music videos or printed material that focus intensively on themes of violence, hatred, control, power, death, and destruction. He may incessantly watch one movie or read and reread one book with violent content, perhaps involving school violence. Themes of hatred, violence, weapons, and mass destruction recur in virtually all his activities, hobbies, and pastimes.
The student spends inordinate amounts of time playing video games with violent themes, and seems more interested in the violent images than in the game itself.

On the Internet, the student regularly searches for web sites involving violence, weapons, and other disturbing subjects. There is evidence the student has downloaded and kept material from these sites.

In the lengthy study’s proposals the FBI recommends training parents to track their child’s use of the Internet and viewing of violent videos. No reference is made to tracking video game playing.

2. The FBI found that Red Lake school shooter Jeffrey Weise had “basically rehearsed for the massacre” by playing Grand Theft Auto Vice City in order to get his heart rate down and be able to kill.
Time: 49 seconds
Verdict: Cannot prove or disprove
Evidence: The only references I could find on the Internet, with the FBI, in the newspaper coverage, with the police department of Weise training for the Red Lake School shooting come from Thompson himself. On several occasions he both predicts that police will find this to be the case and then goes on to say it is the case, but never provides any sort of proof or source.

3. Prior to going on a shooting spree at Dawson College in Montreal, Kimveer Gill “trained on Super Columbine Massacre.”
Time: 1 minute 10 seconds
Verdict: False
Evidence: While one could argue endlessly about the merits of Super Columbine Massacre RPG and whether it crosses a moral boundary, there is no argument about it’s use as a tactics trainer. The game was created using RPG Maker and requires zero tactics or marksmanship to complete. Instead you roam endlessly through a generic school setting killing students in an abbreviated turn-based attack system similar to Final Fantasy.

Gunman Kimveer Gill did play the game, including it among a long list of games he liked to play. It was not his “favorite game” according to his profile on his blog.

4. Michael Carneal was spurred to go on a spree shooting in Paducah, Kentucky by computer games and trained on Doom before the shooting.
Time: 2 minutes 12 seconds
Verdict: False
Evidence: That song and dance is certainly what Jack Thompson tried to prove in the $130 million lawsuit he filed in April, 1999 against two Internet pornography sites, several game developers and the makers and distributors of The Basketball Diaries.

Fortunately, Thompson lost that little bid. In 2002 the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it was “simply too far a leap from shooting characters on a video screen to shooting people in a classroom.”

A psychiatrist who interviewed Carneal also rebuked Thompson’s claim that Carneal had never fired a gun, saying that the teen admitted to stealing a .22-caliber pistol and practicing with it and other handguns.

Thompson continues to spread this particular lie despite a court of law saying it isn’t true.

5. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold used Doom to train for “what they did at Columbine.”
Time: Two minutes and 32 seconds
Verdict: False
Evidence: Again, a lawyer tried to show a connection between games, including Doom, and the shootings and again that lawsuit was tossed out by a federal judge.

In dismissing the suit, the U.S. District judge said there was no way the makers of violent games including “Doom” and “Redneck Rampage,” and violent movies such as “The Basketball Diaries,” could have reasonably foreseen that their products would cause the Columbine shooting or any other violent acts.

But perhaps Thompson is talking about the wide-spread myth that Harris created a level for Doom so he could practice the deadly shooting. Again, not true. While Harris did create four levels for the game, none of them resembled the school.

6. Jeffery Weise uploaded a “flash game version” of Grand Theft Auto Vice City in which he was predicting what he was going to do.
Time: Three minutes and 15 seconds
Verdict: False
Evidence: While Jack Thompson certainly tried to liken Jeffery Weise’s animation to both a video game and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, it is clear neither are true.

The animated short, entitled Target Practice, shows an animated character shooting four people and blowing up a police car before committing suicide. Shortly after the Red Lake school shooting Thompson also tried to tie another short, entitled Clown, to a Rockstar game, saying it was a”replication” of Manhunt. Also, obviously not true.

7. After Robert Steinhauser’s deadly shooting at a school in Erfurt, Germany, police found “52 shooter games, most notably Counterstrike Half-Life which was his game of choice.” Steinhauser “dressed up like the hero in that game for his assault.” The involvement of video games in that shooting changed the law in Germany.
Time: Three minutes and 55 seconds
Verdict: Not exactly true
Evidence: Police did find violent comics, movies and video games in Steinhauser’s home after the shooting, but according to Erfurt Police Chief Rainer Grube there were “several computer games featuring “intensive weapons usage” not 52.

While Steinhauser did dress in black “ninja-like” garb, it would be a stretch to say he was “dressed up like the hero” in Counterstrike.

His last point, about it changing the law, was a bit tricky to prove or disprove. I finally tracked down an update at EurActiv, which tracks political actions in the EU. According to the site, while there was a lot of initial political grandstanding, no law was ever passed. Instead the Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini called on ministers meeting in Dresden to agree “to share best practices” on curbing the sale of violent video games to minors.

Update: Reader Lazy points out that there were some changes in law due to the shooting.

Conclusion: What do we learn from this assessment of Thompson’s babble on national television? That you can say anything on TV and not have it fact-checked as long as you say it quickly, when TV needs someone to fill time and it’s a good sound bite.

So you might be asking, what can we really do except sit at a blog and rant about how we wish it was actually Jack that was at the school or question his sexuality? For starters, take up matters into your own hands. If a doctor’s office has a whole list of references about medical terms printed and hung up as boards, then game stores need to have the ratings system displayed prominently as well, so that more and more people become aware of how the ratings system exists to protect you or your kid from influences that could potentially be harmful. If pubs and video sales/rentals can ask people for ID so they don’t serve anything inappropriate, so should videogame sales stores! If you see someone picking up a game that you know is inappropriate for them or their kid, let them know. Sure, you’d get scorned most of the times, but at least you’re helping! Blaming and trying to ban videogames claiming they are the root of all violence is much like going after an ant with a bazooka. As with any problem, awareness is half the problem solved. Once again, the ANGRY pixel sends their heartfelt condolences to all those who lost their friends and family in the incident. The ball’s in your court now, so act responsibly!

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By N2H

• Krishnan Rajagopal Says:
  April 18th, 2007 at 10:46 pm

  If you want to convince your parents you are a regular gamer and won’t try shooting up real people or butchering puppies, here’s something you can print and sign to show to parents and non-gaming phillistines alike (Source: Joystiq)

  Dear ____________,

  In light of the recent tragedy, you might have heard some people saying that violent games are partially to blame for real life violence. To put your minds at ease about these games, I, ____________, make the following declarations:

  * I know the difference between right and wrong.
  * I know the difference between fantasy and reality.
  * I know where the game ends and real life begins.
  * I know the difference between aliens/zombies/monsters and people.
  * I know the difference between digital people and real people.
  * I know the pain real violence can cause.
  * I know the pain real crime can cause.
  * I know that people who commit real crimes go to real jail.
  * I know that people have played Cops and Robbers for generations without becoming real robbers.
  * I know that millions of people play violent games without ever committing a violent act.
  * I know that video games are a safe way to let out my aggression without hurting anyone.
  * I know that pressing a button isn’t the same as pulling a trigger.
  * I know that no amount of virtual deaths will make me comfortable seeing real death.
  * I know that virtual death and real death are worlds apart.
  * I know that, in real life, you get one life and there’s no reset button.
  * I know, in the end, that these are only games.

• Yadu Rajiv Says:
  April 18th, 2007 at 11:34 pm

  spot on!!