Thursday, August 05, 2004
Media got it wrong - again
Last week you might have heard about a video game called manhunter that was linked to a murder of a teenager in England I believe? If not here is a quick brief: A media outlet in the UK stated that police found a copy of the video game Manhunter in the possession of the alleged murderer and the family of the victim claimed that the murder was "obsessed" with the game and the game was a "how-to" manual to murder. Because of this the family of the victim was going to launch a lawsuit against the maker of the video game and retailers in the UK began taking the game off of their shelves in fear of being included in any on going lawsuits. As it turns out the media outlet was a very right wing organization and they had a not so hidden agenda when they began promoting this. Don't you know if you kill someone or commit a crime it can't be your fault? Hell no it must be someone else's fault. Sue everyone until you find out who. The media outlet is very much in favour of telling people what they should hear, see, read and play. Why would they be in favour of this? Well a reader who doesn't question anything and does what they're told is a good reader and a good reader is a loyal reader and a loyal reader will buy what the paper's advertisers are selling and if advertisers sell what they advertise they will continue to advertise. All the while the people in charge get to use their rags as a way of getting people to think the way they do. It works out very nice for all involved. Except for those of us who prefer to use our brains and believe there shouldn't be any such thing as censorship.
Further it turns out, the media outlet got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They reported the story wrong, the murderer never had a copy of the game, it turns out the victim was the one with game. They also got the motive for the killing wrong the police reported that the motive was robbery, the murderer allegedly killed the victim for money to pay off bad debts not some psycopathic murder spree that the family of the victim and media would have had you believe.
Here are some links to the stories
Reg Article
Outing of the hand
Any bets that the media will go back and say oops the video game had nothing to do with the murder? At least they won't on the front page, perhaps a one liner in the middle of the paper that says " Victim had the game not the murder, but the game is still deadly"
Further it turns out, the media outlet got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They reported the story wrong, the murderer never had a copy of the game, it turns out the victim was the one with game. They also got the motive for the killing wrong the police reported that the motive was robbery, the murderer allegedly killed the victim for money to pay off bad debts not some psycopathic murder spree that the family of the victim and media would have had you believe.
Here are some links to the stories
Reg Article
Outing of the hand
Any bets that the media will go back and say oops the video game had nothing to do with the murder? At least they won't on the front page, perhaps a one liner in the middle of the paper that says " Victim had the game not the murder, but the game is still deadly"
