The excellent GamePolitics blog recently posted this transcript from CNN's prime time Nancy Grace news show. It's a 'debate' (and I'm stretching the dictionary definition of the word to breaking point here) regarding the violence depicted in forthcoming GTA rip-off 25-To-Life, specifically the assertion that players are rewarded for shooting cops. Of course, we've all suffered instances of the mainstream media cackhandedly fumbling videogame scare stories, but this is a really quite astonishing example.
"The military, Nancy, uses these murder simulators, killing simulators... to break down the inhibition of new recruits to kill. And therefore, of course it'll have that same effect on teenage civilians," says attorney Jack Thompson in a quite awe-inspiring leap of deductive reasoning.
Skewed logic, poorly researched arguments, participants lacking in basic knowledge about the medium - if this were a prime time news debate about, say, suicide bombings in Iraq, the network would surely hang its head in shame.
And is this game even important enough to merit such treatment? Fascinating and weirdly familiar stuff.
