Letters to the Editor
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Not quite there but
There is a Law and Order had an episode where a sleazy "Geraldo" like TV host (played by Robert Klein) sets up one of his guests to be shot on his show. Then again, with so many episodes of L&O, I think they've hit almost every possible story scenario. :-P
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Relax
Television shows are no more reponsible for influencing how people think and behave than....video games, right?
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I agree, but where is the head-shot?
I very much agree with what the article says, mainstream media (i.e. not Internet media, no games) have still not understood that games do not produce violence and that the average gamer is not going to perform a "Columbine".
However I did expect a little more meat in an article written by Salon. I've read Salon for 3 years now and I'm not used to seeing this kind of half-baked article swing by. Slow down, breath and do an hour of counter strike before you squat down, take aim and do a head-shot on CSI: Miami, instead of a little knife-jab in the groin.
You had a perfect opportunity to connect the story with two big events in the gaming industry this week, the Cyber games over in Asia, where teams of highly trained "athletes" competed for 500,000 dollars in cash prizes. None of them when on real killing sprees although they all probably have more tactical training than any S.W.A.T member alive. And today, the Xbox 360 hit the streets launching a new generation of consoles which will head an industry surpassing film and bringing in 25 billion dollars a year. But, TV execs and the mainstream news media still treats it like a little freak industry which only produces psychopaths and killers.
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Mainstream media coverage of games
leoutskot: "TV execs and the mainstream news media still treats [gaming] like a little freak industry which only produces psychopaths and killers."
Thanks for filling me in on this, since I'm too busy gaming or reading Salon to pay much attention to TV or the mainstream media. You might say that the creators of CSI:Miami are firmly in touch with the values of their target audience. I don't think we're in their demographic - did anyone make notice of any ads for Xbox 360, etc. during the airing of the show?
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Bloody hell
I don't watch CSI Miami, in fact I steer clear from most television as a general rule (with exception to Rome, Lost, Commander in Chief, and Boston Legal) but when I saw the alert on GamePolitics.com in regards to this episode I thought I'd watch to see how bad it is. I went in expecting the worst, though apparently my idea of "worst" is not up to snuff lately. I was actually outraged and surprised by the stupidity and prejudice spewing from this show. I've never heard the word "Gamer" spoken with the same amount of hatred and animosity that a Klansmen says "N*gger," even from the likes of Jack Thompson. I know there are people who will say "It's just a TV show, relax," but imagine if someone put out a modern day minstrel show, or a show that depicted all gay men as diseased effeminate child rapists, the backlash would be huge. You'd see politicians coming out demanding an apology from the network executives. Gamers though, oh no, we're all homicidal delusional powerless losers.
Newsflash, I didn't become homicidal until I saw this crap... and David Caruso's acting but that's another matter entirely.
Also lets look at some facts here. Violent crimes, and youth violence in particular, have been on the decline since the release of the first Playstation when gaming became mainstream. The average gamer is thirty-years old, not 19, and there's 70 million of them, that's alot of people CBS just degraded. CSI in particular has some balls about another medium influencing people to commit crimes, especially since there are reports that the cops are seeing more criminals use condoms in the case of rape, gloves for theft, and the like ever since CSI aired, so who's doing the most damage here? A TV show that teaches criminals how to get away with their crime or video games that have had less than ten crimes related to them, those same crimes still being disputed on whether or not video games had any influence.
One last thing, the only games that give you points for killing an enemy these days are kids games such as Mario, Sonic, Pacman, etc. Get with the times already you fools.
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Come on
Next you'll be telling me that CSI: Miami and other true crime shows have been spinning current popular fears among older demographics into ironically twisted tales of mayhem and murder all the way back to the first season of Law & Order. And that'd just be crazy.
Of course these shows are going to portray video-game-playing teenagers as a mysterious enemy sent by their masters to kill, just like they're going to portray the Internet as populated primarily by snuff film directors and child rapists. Look at their target audience.
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Only 99%???
But I refrained, just as 99 percent of everyone who has ever played a violent game refrains from throwing a punch at someone in flesh and blood.
Only 99%? I bet it's much higher than that, actually.
Paul Reiners
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Only 99%???
I'm not sure I made myself clear in the preceding post and may have inadvertently sounded sarcastic. Anyway, I'd be willing to bet that the percentage quoted is actually off by at least a factor of 1000 and is at the very least 99.999%.
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Not a surprise
The 'CSI' series (though, not so much 'CSI: Miami' is highly ranked because it reaches out to every demographic.
The blue-staters love the edgy scripts, good acting, decent writing (for network TV); red-staters love the judgemental hammer of God it brings down on victims and criminals alike.
If you watch any of the CSIs (specifically Vegas), you'll notice that most of the victims basically have it coming to them: the normal lady who wants to try out stripping ends up being killed by a hobo; the Sherlock Holmes imitator is a heroin junkie; the movie actor accidentally hangs himself while masturbating.
So, it allows the viewer to tut-tut judgementally about lifestyle choices that they, of course, would never choose. It's a perfect recipe for ratings, because nobody wants to watch a show (like 'ER' is now) where good people die for no good reason.
What keeps people coming back to CSI, is that deviants get what's coming to them. Pat Robertson couldn't preach it better.