Tom Brokaw Calls Blogs And Video Games 'Cancerous'
I should preface this article with the statement that I hold the greatest respect for Tom Brokaw. He's a distinguished journalist. I'm a little flabbergasted, however, at this recent interview with radio talk host Hugh Hewitt. The topic at the end was violence in America, and in part, the tragic Virginia Tech shootings:
HH: All right, last question, and I’ll let you go as long as you want on this. I’m not trying to ambush you.TB: Of course you are.
HH: No, I’m not. It’s a very interesting question. NBC ran the Virginia Tech killer tape on the day they obtained it. Steve Capus, Brian Williams made that decision. Did they make the right decision?
TB: Yeah, they did.
HH: Do you not think it’s going to incite other people to try to do the same thing?
TB: No, I don’t. I think…to get back to something we were talking about earlier in general thematic terms, I don’t think we’re doing a very good job about talking about violence in this country, either. You know, Virginia Tech went away. We didn’t have any ongoing dialogue in our communities or on the air about the corrosive effect of violence. It was not what he, what people saw of him on the air that will drive them, it’s what they read in blog sites, and what they see in video games. It’s that kind of stuff that I think is cancerous. And I’m a free speech absolutist, but I think that at the same time, we have to have free speech in some kind of a context. And part of that context is a discussion of the possible effects of it.
Really? Cancerous? Let me quote part of that again here:
We didn’t have any ongoing dialogue in our communities or on the air about the corrosive effect of violence. It was not what he, what people saw of him on the air that will drive them, it’s what they read in blog sites, and what they see in video games.
If we didn't have enough dialogue, (something I agree with him on, actually), isn't that exactly the sort of thing the old media outlets are for? To give people information so they can form an opinion? To start the dialogue? How is it suddenly the fault of blogs and video games that this isn't happening? If somehow blogs have gained the power to influence more people than television, I haven' t seen it. Moreover, blogging has allowed communities like ours to flourish. There is rarely anything in the mainstream media on gaming, (aside from Halo, etc...), let alone gay gamers.
Here's the best part, on a different topic further on:
TB: No, it’s all right for you to make sweeping…my point is (laughing), my point is whenever I appear on these radio programs, it’s okay for you to make sweeping conclusions, but not me.
I personally think that's a bit of an ironic statement. Check out the rest of the interview and decide for yourself.
Tom Brokaw On Violence [Townhall.com]
[via: PCWorld]
Sgt. Sausagepants
Posted to Video Games on 7 December 2007
· Comments (8)
Other stuff like this: Blogs, Journalism, Tom Brokaw
Brokaw is just as much an old media idiotic douche as any of them.
Screw him, he didn't even include ANYTHING about queer history in his little idiots guide to the 60's.
He doesn't investigate anything, all he does is spout cliche's and non-confrontational nostalgia in order to make his fellow old people feel good about a past that is simplistic and never really existed.
He's not about truth. He's more concerned with an entertaining narative. He just likes to say he is a professional, neutral journalist so people keep thinking he is trustworthy.
I think it's exactly these blog sites that allow the flow of conversation and dialogue these days. You're right, it's the medias job to spark the discussion, but since the major media outlets have failed in that pursuit, us independent blog sites are taking the charge!
I think Brokaw makes a good observation relating the rise in violence based entertainment as free speech to the atrocities being committed by young boys/men. Nobody was taking semi-automatic and automatic weapons into schools and shopping centers to mow down 20 random people after world war II or vietnam - and there were even more firearms more easily available all across the country (as military inventory right-offs). It happens regularly now even though it's much more difficult to find these weapons.
I think, Sgt. Sausagepants and Brandon H, that both of you should have some basis for your un-tempered support of 8 year-olds learning task completion and tactics affirmation through the use firearms and the savage bloodletting of opponents, virtual or not.
Just because, for whatever unsubstantiated reasons you've concocted, you disagree with Brokaw doesn't mean he's an idiot - as a matter of FACT, his observations are being shown to be absolutely accurate based on the body count that is rising arithmetically with every year that passes.
Go to school, learn something about consequence.
www.theskinofmyteeth.com
David B.
Nice to know he's making sure that in maybe 5 or 10 years, nobody under the age of 80 going to give a damn about his editorial opinions.
I, too, agree that free speech should be absolute, as long as it falls under certain restrictions, and is in the appropriate time and place.
Twit.
@David B. If you're in such support of Mr. Brokaw, why take part in the "cancerous" activity that is the blog community he so vilified?
If there is anything 'unsubstantiated' here it's the massive assumptions and leaps you're making.
Except that youth violence is not nearly epidemic as 24/7 "news" (read: sensationalistic agencies encouraging paranoia). And the body count is *not* raising as every year passes, just as youth violence was actually highest in 1993 and 1991.
And you're right - nobody was taking guns into shopping centers and the like before videogames. Nothing like the Whitman tower shootings at the University of Texas at Austin, nothing like the Knowles spree in Florida, nothing like the Houston mass murders. Nothing at all. Virginia Tech was all new.
Let's face it - nobody is trying to really get to the heart of the problem, education is horrible in this country but the latest spree is instantly captured and sensationalized. Media needs to get a grip, just like Tom here, who's just the latest in the fingerpointing war.
Except that youth violence is not nearly epidemic as 24/7 "news" (read: sensationalistic agencies encouraging paranoia). And the body count is *not* raising as every year passes, just as youth violence was actually highest in 1993 and 1991.
And you're right - nobody was taking guns into shopping centers and the like before videogames. Nothing like the Whitman tower shootings at the University of Texas at Austin, nothing like the Knowles spree in Florida, nothing like the Houston mass murders. Nothing at all. Virginia Tech was all new.
Let's face it - nobody is trying to really get to the heart of the problem, education is horrible in this country but the latest spree is instantly captured and sensationalized. Media needs to get a grip, just like Tom here, who's just the latest in the fingerpointing war.
^^ Go PhoTC :D