CNN host tries and fails to link videogames to violence

CNN's Erin Burnett last night tried desperately to make a psychologist blame videogames for gun violence, attempting to coerce him into agreeing with her that "violent" games make people more likely to kill.

"There's a saying that guns don't kill people, videogames do," began Burnett, before she invited William Pollack onto the show to try and make him confirm it.

Pollack, for his part, was quick to label M-rated games as "heinous" and said he believed fantasy violence ought to be controlled by the government. However, his qualifying sentiment that videogames alone can't turn a person into a killer seemed to aggravate Burnett, who continued to push him into saying otherwise.

[Queasy]

Fail by Burnett, fail by the psychologist, fail by CNN, fail by politicians and fail by the media/political complex in general.

There's been no proof on what games Lanza played, how long he played it or if even affected his psyche if he did play games. Just a couple of unsourced stories from a couple of media outlets parroted by others. But everyone sure is quick to rush out saying the gov't needs to control an entire industry...

[Blacktric]

Hey, it's all about whatever they can find to make a story out of. They don't give a crap about research or finding facts. They only give a shit about causing dumb, unfounded, controversy for dimwits to watch or listen to.

[LOGICWINS]

Right. It's all about creating drama/controversy for ratings. When she said "points", I lol'd.

[adorie]

Screw the story. "But everyone sure is quick to rush out saying the gov't needs to control an entire industry..."

I don't want the stupid government controlling the industry. Remember when WE used to be the government? Now it's people with political ties and the most money.

[Baka-akaB]

the most annoying part is that those games are sold worldwide . I dont see how one country should dictate and decide the content of videogames for everyone else .

[The_Klank]

@Baka-akaB
If that were to happen you would see alot of studios close shop and move elsewhere.

Which is why all of this is misdirection used to avoid the real issue.
I mean in that very same segment they talk about loss of jobs by controlling the 'assault rifle'.
Imagine the loss of jobs from studio closures.

[juandren]

#1: (Okay I know I'm technically replying to 1.1, but I have a point to make). In 5 years of viewing N4G almost daily, your comment is the first I've seen to have that many agrees and 0 disagrees. I'm happy gamers can agree on the sanctity of our beloved interest, if nothing else

Edit: In fact, scrolling down the forum, it seems there are no disagrees. I am a proud gamer tonight

Edit #2: Wow after seeing this I can understand why Jaffe was so damn pissed

[BattleAxe]

If the media cared about facts, they would have actually questioned the official government story regarding 911.

[knowyourstuff]

The ESRB had it exactly correct - "Nations and cultures all over the world enjoy the same movies, music and videogames that the US does, yet the US still has tragically high gun violence statistics that are unique to just the US. This means the answer cannot be found in media."

You need to look at the lowest common denominators - the things unique to your own country when your the only one who has a particular problem. Mental illness exists in all developed nations, it isn't unique to the US, and it certainly isn't better serviced by much in other countries. The problem is that its legal in all 50 states to carry concealed weapons, and acquiring weapons is as easy as pie in the US compared to other countries. In other countries you need multiple permits to carry weapons. Countries like Britain have zero guns, all guns are outlawed with no exceptions, even their police don't have guns. Britain, as a result, has 45-50 gun deaths per year in an extremely densely populated area. The US has over 60 gun deaths every 2 days. With more than 11,000 gun deaths per year, the answer is obvious to the entire world except to those living in a bubble in the US who don't get it, and will never get it.

[ChrisW]

When I was a kid, playing Cowboys and Indians or Cops and Robbers was super big. Of my generation and numerous prior, how many of us turned into mass killers? It's not the violent content we are exposed to, it's something else...

My opinion is, it's the over prognosis of mental illnesses and then prescribing psychotropics that might not help. In fact most people experience extreme setbacks, even worse than before they were prescribed, when they stop taking their meds. Server depression is the most common of the possible with drawl symptons of much of the medication people are given.

Parents need to stop taking the easy way out and looking to medicine to help their children!

[JP1369]

knowyourstuff-

Ironic name for someone who only seems to deal in half truths. Yes, Britain does have less gun violence, because there aren't any guns. But, they also experience more overall violent crime, because there are no guns and people aren't able to defend themselves. In fact, with the exception of Australia, Britain has a higher violent crime rate than any other rich nation. Criminals know its citizens are helpless and simply choose to use other means to prey on them.
It's funny to see people excuse videogames by - rightly - pointing out that it's an issue of personal responsibility; and yet the same doesn't hold true when you're not talking about your hobby. Just another hypocrite speaking from ignorance.

P.S. Oh, since you seem to like statistics so much, how about this: in Chicago, the city with the strictest gun control laws in the nation, the murder rate is exploding. Forty-two people were killed in the month of January and the city is poised to witness more than 500 murders before the year is out.

[matgrowcott]

@JP1369

That statistic is pretty old now (the article I found on it was from when Tony Blair was PM, so it's AT LEAST six years old, almost definitely closer to ten years) and our violent crime stat has actually fallen by almost 10% in the last year. Going on a larger scale, crime has dropped nearly 29% in the last 10 years - that's based on the latest figures.

Add to that the fact that we count violent crime as anything including violence. That includes (but is not limited to) pushing and shoving. Not sure about you guys because I couldn't find concrete evidence on... well... anything without more searching than I was willing to do.

Pretending like the fact that we don't have guns makes the crime rate higher is ridiculous and it's just an attempt at getting support from people who don't know what they're talking about. Not a million miles away from those people who were saying there's years of waiting for anything on the NHS, so nationalized health care is a bad idea.

It's bull. Keep talking about half-truths, why don't you?

[Tres21]

i think they should do more research heck im tempted 2 help em, im goin 2 do my own Super Size Me, im thinkin Game on lik ur Crazy...nothing but gaming 4 a month straight see how many ppl i kill after...but what if i dont kill ppl however will i help prove there point?

[Mounce]

Bill O' Reilly? Meet Cunt O' Reilly!

Bill's new wife!

[JP1369]

"Pretending like the fact that we don't have guns makes the crime rate higher is ridiculous and it's just an attempt at getting support from people who don't know what they're talking about."
Ridiculous statement proven wrong by history and common sense. The simple fact is that most people want to be good and live what they would consider to be a normal life. But, you are always going to have another element of society, composed of the disenfranchised and the mentally ill, that will use any opportunity they are given to take advantage of the people that simply want to live in peace. It goes without saying that the people that live a life of crime and violence become quite good at crime and violence. So ask yourself, how is an everyday citizen unaccustomed to brutish behavior supposed to protect him/herself during an encounter with the aforementioned brute, especially if said thug has a bat or a knife? A gun is the only guaranteed equalizer for any situation when your life or the lives of those you love is being put in danger by someone who seeks only to take advantage of what they perceive as a "soft" majority. So no, I'm not saying that a lack of guns will suddenly create violence in and of itself. I'm saying that criminals are emboldened when they know that their targets are unable to defend themselves. And yes, the study is old but, like you, I had a hard time finding anything more recent that centered on the effects of a society that chooses to leave itself woefully unprotected. The facts listed about Chicago, however, are very recent. Interesting that you've failed to touch on that...
In the interest of keeping this from continuing to build into a wall of text, I'll simply provide a link to an article that takes the time to highlight the issue with more nuance.

http://www.samharris.org/bl...

[LackTrue4K]

the dam government them self's is trying to keep there citizens down!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 4uck her and her ideas!!

[specialguest]

Wow, she really tried hard to come at him about video games causing kids to become violet, but she got shot down every time.

I used to think Fox News was bad, but CNN is just as bad when it comes to certain issues, agendas, and their bias views.

[PersonMan]

"shot down every time" ... I see what you did there. ;-)

[Snookies12]

Bubble buddy, very intelligent. :]

[flyingmunky]

Here's a summation photo.

[Seraphim]

the only thing Government to control is News. there's absolutely no reason, cause, or benefit to the way the media has ran itself or the "News" they beat to death then continue to beat it to death w/ death leg when then they turn to the arm and keep beating it.... I bet news, ie Monkey See, Monkey Do has a bigger impact on all this hoopla than any other media.......

[Tonester925]

I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL GTA V COMES OUT!!!!

[BlackIceJoe]

I really hate this stuff. How is M games worse then say an R rated movie. Gore in R rated films look more real then they do in video games. The same can be said about guns in movies too. Yet I would not say films are evil. Why because it is the person that is evil. I have played many M rated games and watched many R films yet you don't see me going on a crazy loony spree.

I wish people would start blaming what the shooters do on them and then alone. Because say I put in your hands a gun. At the end of the day you have a choice to shoot it or not. I did not make you shoot it. It falls on the insane person them self and no one or no thing else.

[Simon_Brezhnev]

You know the media wont blame movies. They advertise them 24/7. Until they start getting checks from game industry they will keep talking shit.

[Tony-Red-Grave]

id still hit that >_>

POW right in the kisserr

[Empire X]

Simon hit on the nail. It's all about money.

[MacDonagh]

Their anxiety causes them to see only what they want to see and believe only what they wish to believe.

They are afraid of an emergent form of media stealing what's left of their audience.

I can't blame them.

[bunfighterii]

FAIL.

[clintagious650]

Alcohol & Cigarettes kill millions of people but hey lets let that slide & blame everything on video games lol. GTFO here.

[Mottsy]

"in gta you kill a prostitute you get points, i dont know how but its a pretty big deal, you kill a prostitute you get points"

If they cant even get the facts straight on one video game then they shouldn't be even talking about them. Violent video games have been around forever, but you know whats been around even longer are people that are just twisted and crazy. We have wars over religion, oil, genocide. But no video games are teh bigger problem, Bunch of horse boo boo!

[JAMurida]

I think what was more funny is how they used old GTA 3 footage for this, (unless this was an old video).

[cloud495]

Yeah, GTA V comes out in a few months and they use footage from a game that released in 2001 lol.

According to the description bar on YouTube it's from 31st Jan 2013.

[Ashunderfire86]

CNN is well known to use old footage for everything. They are notorious for showing old war torn videos of Africa, making it look like that is all of Africa, when in fact 6 countries in Africa, in the top 10, have the lowest crime rate than any other country in the world!!! The Bias CNN, FOX, and MSNBC News will never tell you this. But I digress.

GTA 3 is 12 years old as the Duke Nukem development cycle. Why use an old PS2 game? These people are funny. I get real news from Russian TV(RT) when I search it on youtube.

[Siren30]

I thought that was funny when she said you get points for killing prostitutes. Its pretty clear she has never played a gta before.

[juandren]

Yeah my first though was "Wait I'm supposed to get points? I've been playing it wrong for 10 years!"

[Brasi1989]

Saying "Guns don't kill people, Video Games do." is like saying "Food doesn't make people fat, silverware does."

[TacoTaru]

Not quite right. I think it was Tom Selleck who said to Rosie O'Donnell - blaming a gun for killing someone is like blaming a fork for making you fat. She didn't like that.

[DragonKnight]

What these morons who are blaming video games are forgetting is the other side of the coin. That being that games can be a very effective stress/tension reliever. They should be thinking about it this way. All people have aggressive thoughts; knowing that to be true, would it be smart to eliminate an outlet that allows people to take out any aggression they may have accumulated during their day on something that is literally harmless?

If you remove the harmless methods of relieving stress and tension, you will come to find that you'll have a lot more problems to worry about than some random nutcase shooting up a school then conveniently blaming games because he knows he can use that as a scapegoat.

[Empire X]

Why wont these people ever have real gamers on there show?

[LOGICWINS]

For fear that they might make sense.

[rainslacker]

I believe certain groups...such as the ESRB...would be chomping at the bit to be asked to be on a panel discussion about this. I've seen some more level headed reports where the journalists have actually defended games, hell even Bill O'Reilly did a couple weeks ago which was surprising, even though his thoughts were just his feelings (ie common sense) on the issue and not actual statistical facts...which is what we saw here.

However, I believe the debate would end rather quickly when those willing to defend gaming actually brought real facts to back up their arguments...and that doesn't necessarily equate to good ratings.

[Codeman420]

Wow CNN get your sources right as well that COD is not from Infinity Ward thats Treyarch you dumbasses.

[AKS]

Erin Burnett is a hack. She was an analyst for Goldman Sachs, and in her eyes bankers and influential big businesses can do no wrong. Evidently that includes gun manufacturers. She pretends to be a journalist and routinely makes a huge fool of herself. She's even married to a big banking executive.

What idiotic points regarding the loss of jobs of poor gun manufacturers, too. Attack video game developers and try to crush their sales and how many hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs would be lost? Video game sales exceed $1 billion in over 11 countries now.

[kingPoS]

Would it really be such a tragic loss if weapon manufacturers earned any less. I don't think so. Less weapons less fighting right? Yet somehow the people profiting from wars don't see it that way.

[rainslacker]

21 billion a year in the US anually. Not sure the makeup of violent games in that mix though. That's just game sales revenue also, doesn't include all the things that go with it...like salaries for the game developers and the taxes they pay, production costs of media, payment of high speed internet for many, sales of related technologies (sound systems, tv, etc), hardware/peripheral purchases, advertising, and much much more. That 21 billion in revenue gets spread out and expanded on quite a bit in our economy.

Many technical and specially trained people would lose their jobs over the gaming industry than the gun industry though, particularly since guns won't ever be banned outright.

[Azurite]

CNN, you've lost a lot of credibility this last decade.
"Just sayin'"

[matrixman92]

"You kill a prostitute, you get points"...i didnt realize gta was a point based game, whose got the high score?

[Codeman420]

well i guess that would be me cause thats all i do in GTA, gets me my money back :P

[Megaton]

She's awful in general. She was mocking OWS and anyone else who dare criticize the banks who destroyed the American economy, no doubt in part because she's ex-Goldman Sachs and married to someone from Citigroup.

[Baka-akaB]

This is hardly the worst thing she said . She has been a full fledged moron and PR figurehead for a while , some only notice because it's about trashing video games this time .

I've seen among many mangled news , multiples occurances of her cutting off her guests to try and force her personal bias .

She liked blackberry and hated apple stuff ? She wouldnt miss an occasion to trash it , even when it was about stocks analysises .

She's a hack and everyone would have noticed if they stopped gushing over her photoshopped semi nude maxim and what not covers .

And what kind of journalist waste portions of her airtime responding to actors tweets or pretending she aint mad at Colbert for mocking her , when she obviously is ?

[A7XEric]

What a dumb bitch.

You're neither rewarded nor encouraged to even kill prostitutes in GTA. Yea some of them might drop some money you can take but she makes it out to be like the game is sending the message that it's good to kill people and prostitutes. I have the freedom to hack away at chickens in Zelda but that doesn't mean the game is about that or encourages me to do so.

[whamlollypop7]

I have come to believe that few to no people know what an assault rifle actually is. And the good ole news, thankfully they just distort everything.

[shodaime]

what a dumb bitch. fuck outtta here with that bullshit, y the fuck she didt mentioned movie, movie show gun killin nd shit too

[clintagious650]

Funny thing is she said he practiced shooting from video games lol. Ive been to a gun range & used a 9mm & playing call of duty or any other fps does not help u become a professional gunmen lol. Even if u had practice using a fake gun, anyone whose ever shot a real gun will tell u, there is a BIG DIFFERENCE especially with the impact after firing a shot.

[Baka-akaB]

Of course on show and with convenient editing , she would dismiss your testimony as coming from some wacko whom did try to become a better shot via games :p

[rainslacker]

You should look up the Penn and teller bullshit episode on video game violence and watch the end. It's pretty telling of the difference. The whole episode was one of the best they've done.

Edit:

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Here ya go.

[Gambit_the_White]

Exactly. Throughout my life I've played more shooters than I can count, but when I went to a gun range and got to shoot from a shotgun, a sniper rifle and a pistol, I couldn't hit a goddamn thing. Holding a controller and wiggling two sticks is different from holding a real gun in your own hands.

[GreenRanger]

*Games get banned.
*Gun violence continues.
*Media blames something else.
*Gun violence still continues.
This will continue until the real perpetrator is held accountable.
And that perpetrator is... http://media.tumblr.com/tum...

[neoMAXMLC]

I lol'd.

[WeAreLegion]

Haha. That's good stuff. Thanks, GreenRanger!

[Treian]

stfu lady

[Ashunderfire86]

Failed by the lies on her face!!!!

[CPTN MITCHELL]

Born in 1974 and a gamer since ET came out I have play all kinds of games from arcades to ps3 and I have never kill or think about killing anyone not even after 8hrs of call of duty....stop blaming the games or Hollywood and start taking Action by teaching kids what's good and wrong

[Statix]

The news media is a joke nowadays, with as much bias and agendas to push as you'd expect tabloid magazines to push. It makes me cringe just watching this so-called "objective reporter" making phony faces/expressions and pretending to be offended while editorializing about gun violence.

Why can't reporters just provide the news, instead of trying to force feed certain emotions or opinions down the audience's throats? They must think the general public is incredibly stupid, or they have agendas to push, or both.

[dudeOplenty]

As someone in a military infantry unit... training to kill using video games is like training for soccer by playing foosball.

Also, I'd put it in her butt.

[SuddenFearXYU]

Her near mispronunciation of the word “aficionado” as “a-fiction-ado” is pretty appropriate, because facts have given way to outright fiction in modern day media.

More disgusting or heinous than any video game violence is the media’s blatant disregard for the truth and their persistent feeding of lies and misinformation to the public. What ever happen to journalistic integrity? The sad truth is that a good portion of their audience will perceive this as truth simply because it got streamed into their idiot box. At least her argument hit a brick wall with the psychologist.

[kingPoS]

Anything that they can't make money off from doesn't fit they're agenda. Look at this way, the gun is valued for it's inherent ability to wound or kill. Video games themselves are valued for they're inherent ability to entertain or appease.

Which is more dangerous, a device whose sole purpose is to kill or entertain?

[juandren]

I wonder how many parents kicked their children's asses after seeing this "You told me Grant Theft Auto was just a car game!"

[LordHiggens]

The internet and gaming community must rise as one and slay her...does she have any books out? Any online merchandise? Anything at all? Anonymous you there? We need you.

[WeAreLegion]

Hello.

[Deadpool616]

Is anyone in the gaming industry going to stand up and defend themselves? Their jobs may very well be on the line. You would think one of them would have stood up said something by now, but so far (to my knowledge) no one has done anything.

We can only defend them so much, but no matter how much we defend them, they will have to stand up for themselves eventually.

[Soldierone]

They played a card on you, the viewer. They got him to say "its not the direct cause' but still said "believed fantasy violence ought to be controlled by the government."

We are land of the FREE and have a right to make and say what we want. We are not a socialist "government censor" everything country! If it becomes one, I'm out. The only thing we have is the ability to speak freely, and with people finding a sneeze offensive or violent, its beginning to make this country depressing.

[titans9999]

Well, I am a teacher. I teach Math, and I love video games!! I play COD, GTA, Bioshock, Skyrim, and more. I can connect with my kids when we talk video games, and they think it is cool that I play the same type of games. Point being, this is the same BS as always, face it you political idiots, games don't kill people, people kill people....did we have violent games in the 60s? No, and look what happened...two presidents who were brothers were shot....get a life you stupid political leaders and CNN buttheads!!! Time to face the real truth and get the idiot parents to use their brains and not let their children have guns that harm people!

[Williamson]

I laughed my ass off when i heard the phrase " Guns dont kill people, video games do" One of the dumbest things that ive ever heard.

[madjedi]

I really want a special airing of 10 call of duty gamers that have never fired a real gun before, in one group and 10 cops in the other group. And have a marksman competition to show just how proficient we are with real guns. No special training(minus standard gun safety) for the gamers, just hand them the weapons under professional supervision and shoot.

Then do a quick interview with the gamer to see if they want to shoot a real gun again. I'll say about 50% choose no.

At some point the audience will stop laughing and this whole bullshit about video games turning people into killers will go away.

I blame idiot politicans and the brain dead general public's knee jerk reaction.

[BDG]

what makes me laugh is that they are using the economic impacts as reasons to not impose new gun laws, so companies making profit is more important than the lives taken by the guns they happily sell to people! I think that any decisions made on these laws should be made along moral lines and the american people should be able to take a vote on the issue (kinda like UK has referendums etc) given that changes are against the current constitution. Not sure how this works in US law but it should be done somehow. that way the american people as a whole can shape their own country and decide how they want to move forward as a nation.

[nup]

my gun WILL BE LOADED!!!!!!!!! the right was givin to us americans so we don't end up with a one sided government, the british troops were assualting and killing the colonist. the colonist had nothing against the british empire. we are givin guns so that doesn't happen again. the people who wrote this law was there to fight for freedom.