{"id":419,"date":"2007-04-25T11:59:18","date_gmt":"2007-04-25T18:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=419"},"modified":"2007-04-25T11:59:22","modified_gmt":"2007-04-25T18:59:22","slug":"va-massacre-video-games-did-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=419","title":{"rendered":"VA Massacre: Video Games Did It"},"content":{"rendered":"

In their desperation to come up with a sensationalistic scenario with which to exploit the tragedy in Virginia, the media are wallowing in a “blame something (anything)”<\/em> cesspool of speculation. This is just another example of how shallow the media’s analysis can be.<\/p>\n

This time the culprit is video games. The San Francisco Chronicle<\/a> is reporting that Jack Thompson, an anti-video game zealot, has been making the rounds of the cable news nets promulgating his theories on the threat of gaming to civilization. With regard to VA Tech, he told Fox’ Bill Hemmer:<\/p>\n

“To be able to pull this off, with this high body count, Bill, one has to have rehearsed it in able to do it.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In subsequent appearances on NBC he flatly declared that Cho was a player of Counter-Strike<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The only problem with this is that, as Chris Matthews pointed out, Thompson has no evidence that any of his assertions true. In fact, there is substantial evidence, supported by first hand witnesses, that Cho never played video games at all during his time at VT.<\/p>\n

But I guess the media can’t let facts get in the way of a juicy narrative when they are trying to squeeze a few more days of ratings frenzy from a very real human tragedy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In their desperation to come up with a sensationalistic scenario with which to exploit the tragedy in Virginia, the media are wallowing in a “blame something (anything)” cesspool of speculation. This is just another example of how shallow the media’s analysis can be. This time the culprit is video games. The San Francisco Chronicle is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-6L","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1134,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1134","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":0},"title":"Obama Paranoia Strikes Deep","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/20\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Get ready for an unprecedented government assault upon the First Amendment. President Obama will be at the heart of it.\" These are the words that open an article in the ultra-rightist Human Events by notorious kook, Jack Thompson (more on him later). The article is another in a series of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Free Press"","block_context":{"text":"Free Press","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=14"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":970,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=970","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":1},"title":"Gonzo – The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/8\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Hunter S. Thompson was one of this country's most original and inspiring writers. He lived his life as if it were a work of art - an honest, dynamic, gut-wrenching volume of jungle prose. He was both a journalist and a creative force of nature. There will never be another\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art\/Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Art\/Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50872,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=50872","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":2},"title":"Trump Spokeswoman Posts Racist Attack on Chair of the January 6th Insurrection Committee","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/5\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been nine months since Donald Trump's insurrectionists invaded the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to prevent Congress from carrying out its constitutional duty to certifying the presidential election. Their violent and deadly assault failed to achieve their goal of subverting democracy, but it sparked a treasonous revolt that continues\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump Insurrection","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/trump-insurrection.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/trump-insurrection.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/trump-insurrection.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":541,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=541","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":3},"title":"CNN’s Parade Of GOP Pundits: Laura Ingraham Edition","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/1\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In its quest to out-fox Fox News, CNN is handing over its 8:00 pm time slot to conservative shill, Laura Ingraham for a week. Ingraham is the diva that deemed that artists should \"Shut Up and Sing\" (unless, of course, you're Ronald Reagan or Fred Thompson). It was only a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":334,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=334","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":4},"title":"Google And The 2008 Presidential Campaign","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/27\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A study conducted by Internet marketing research firm Rimm-Kaufman Group, found that there was not a particularly significant use of paid search ads during the 2006 election cycle. The study is less than pure, in my view, because it includes any ad with political content, including some third party advertisers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":144,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=144","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":5},"title":"Songs Of Unity – English Only!","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/10\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The U.S. Senate yesterday approved S. Res. 458, a bill that: ...affirms that statements or songs that symbolize the unity of the Nation, including the National Anthem, the Oath of Allegiance sworn by new United States citizens, and the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States, should\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}