I should just stop doing my own updates and start linking directly to Kotaku. Because they've found another mindless, unbalanced, anti-video game scare-the-parents story. This one, coming to us from Chicago's Very Own WGN, might actually be even worse than the one from Philly Action News 6. At least the 6 story attempted to present a legit concern, but just had every single fact wrong. This one doesn't even try to use facts.
The premise behind this Medical Watch segment is that video games are drugs, teens become addicted to their own adrenaline, and that once you limit access to them teens all of a sudden become nicer. And all without talking to a single doctor! The only "expert" is a social worker who claims that the video game generation currently in college dorms can't even share rooms together because they've never had to relate to fellow humans before.
There's plenty of talk about all the "speed, sex and violence" in video games - while we see footage of two teens playing Tony Hawk on what looks to be a kickass home theater setup. It's the same crap once fielded against rock and roll, against comic books, against television. Yet another Nation of Wasted Youth is upon us, folks. Just "unplug the drug" and your surly, inattentive kids will be pink-cheeked and bright-eyed again!
Full disclosure: I work for the same company that owns WGN. I could use the company intranet and ask all three WGN personages in the piece (two anchors and a reporter) how they managed to say things like "It's the latest drug of choice among kids, and they're doing it right in front of their parents!" without throwing up onto their company-dry-cleaned clothes. But I won't. As someone who occasionally has to write things exactly like that, I cringe at the baseless boogeymanning encased therein. If a reporter had come to me or anyone in my department with a line like that, we would have stopped them and said "Whoa, that's a bit overdramatic, don't you think?"
What crass sensationalism. What blatent audience pandering. What utter lack of evidence or balance. What unsubstantiated fearmongering.
What a sweeps piece. They probably spent all night teasing the "new drug of choice" in hopes of dragging prime time viewers into the late news.
Quite honestly, gaming comes up with regular frequency in broadcast circles. It's one of those topics that threatens to "change the business," because it's keeping young demos from watching television. It's a threat to the bottom line. Don't be fooled by Medical Watch and the notion that WGN wants you to have a healthier family. They want you to watch more TV. Demonizing one of television's "new" enemies is simply a defense tactic.
