VT Review Panel Witness Compares Games to Porn
By Shawn on Sunday, May 20th, 2007 at 8:51 AM PST In Game Related Laws, Games Industry, Microsoft
Gamepolitics.com has an excellent article up regarding the interviews of the Virginia Tech Review Panel, a group created by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine that was tasked with studying the April 16th shooting on the college campus. The commission invited witnesses to speak on the many possible causes and influences on the shooter for the massacre and one of those, former Lyndon LaRouche team members – Don Phau, is presenting just about every anti-gaming source in the media to defend his case. Phau quotes Florida lawyer Jack Thompson, and video game violence critic David Grossman to support his claims that games should become a controlled substance or controlled media like porn.
One would hope that the members of the panel would be intelligent enough to disregard the erroneous information Phau is spouting. In one quote he even claims Microsoft developed Counter-strike – the only game the VT killer was known to play years ago. While Microsoft did publish the Xbox version they are not its developer – they just have a big well known name outside of the gaming community. Sometimes I just wish the media talking heads would do their homework before they spouted off at the mouth.
Click on over to the Gamepolitics.com article for more in-depth commentary. Gamepolitics also has links to audio and video of the testimony.
Someone needs to digg into Jack Thompson’s background. I am sure there is a J. Edgar Hoover incident in his past somewhere.
Well in many ways the less said about JT the better.. he’s like the Candyman.. say his name too many times and he appears
The media got so many things wrong with the VT shooting, it’s not even funny. I work for the VTPD and know for certain that 50% of what I have read in the papers concerning the murders is false. I think one day soon, probably towards the end of summer, more of the truth with actually get out there.
The press handled this situation in a horrific manner and that’s why they certainly are no longer welcome in Blacksburg.
Kezins,
As someone who has worked both as a journalist and as a member of a university community I’ve seen both sides. What happened with the VT situation is definitely people finding stories to look like they are involved in the absence of information..
The university I work for recently had a data breech which the local media incorrectly reported as being the result of a firewall problem – when in fact it was a website serving information – the firewall did its job, but now the public thinks our security was lax because of the firewall.. granted this is not so big as the BS in the VT situation but its a common occurrence in the media – they went to the loudest, most available talking heads for misinformation and then failed to report the actual news because they have to report something immediately – even if its just to fill airtime.