HERE WE GO! Video games kill 12 in Washingto D.C.

[ArnoldRimmer]

badgenome said:

ArnoldRimmer said:
I'm still looking for the part where they actually place the blame for this on video games.

I can understand if gamers get angry at people who want to ban violent video games because they consider them responsible for some individual going on a killing spree.

But I haven't seen any such quotation in this thread so far, they're just mentioning that he played such games a lot. There's indeed a significant pattern/correlation between young people going on a killing spree playing violent video games, but that doesn't mean violent video games are the cause for their killing sprees. Rather, both are just indications for other similar underlying problems.

Well, there was this... but they were nice enough to phrase it as a question! (And it's the Mirror.)

I'd like to see the media for once be a bit introspective about whether or not putting so much emphasis on killers and their motives encourages more crazy or disgruntled people to do these things.

Well, that Mirror-headline indeed sucks. It doesn't clearly blame violent video games, but the way they asked the question is really so suggestive that the result is the same.

And your second sentence is correct as well. When it comes to killing sprees, the media are kind of playing a double game. One the one hand, they claim being completely shocked etc. by such tragic events. On the other hand, such stories are making them good money, and the way they report about them, they actually encourage people in similar situations to act similar. In a way, they are part of the problem.