In the wake of the tragic shootings at in Littleton, Colorado, it's only natural that people immediately begin searching for answers to the question "why?" Unfortunately, in their attempt to provide explanations, some members of the press apparently hard-wired their word processors into their adrenal glands and never filtered anything through their actual brains.
The day after the attack, the New York Times spoke thusly: "exactly what prompted their attack, and where they obtained the arsenal of weapons to carry it out, is not yet known. In coming days, no doubt, these and other key details should emerge. Meanwhile, it is not too early to begin drawing lessons. " Oh, lovely. We know next to nothing, but don't let that stop us from pontificating.
Then, inevitably, the blame patrol went after computer games. Several TV reporters breathlessly reported that the Boys in Black liked computer games like "Doom" and "Quake." One "expert" on "60 Minutes" claimed that they used the games to sharpen their marksmanship.
I have to cop to some geekiness of my own here. Computer games are a hobby of mine. I've fragged more nasty aliens than the entire cast of "Babylon 5". I've dropped bombs on the Russians, re-fought the great battles of World War 2, and conquered the world more times than I can count. So far, the only effect I've noticed is an overwhelming desire to fly an F-16, and I probably would have had that anyway. I've played so-called "shooter" games, such as "Doom", "Quake" and their progeny, and the only human being I ever wanted to murder is the game designer who came up with those nine-foot rocket-launching monsters in "Doom 2". Those suckers nail me every time. And by the way, I can't hit the broad side of a barn in real life.
But I realized a few days ago that perhaps I was not being fair. I am, at least theoretically, an adult, and I knew next to nothing about the effect of such games on children. So I did an experiment. I took my seven-year old son and had him play a couple of games of "Panzer General 2". And what do you know? The little guy actually invaded Poland. We're SO proud of him.
In one article in the Washington Post, the writer managed to lump together Goths, neo-nazis, and that old bugbear Dungeons and Dragons. In case you're not familiar with the term, "Goth" is a type of youth subculture where people like to dress in black, listen to music that I personally find dreary and depressing, and party. Especially party. Think of it as a sort of a year-'round Halloween celebration and you'll get the idea.
I actually know a few young people into this sort of thing. They don't want to die, and they don't want to kill anyone. They don't even KNOW any white supremacists or Nazis, and if they ever met one, would probably spend a happy half-hour chewing them out for their bigotry. Goth kids may look and occasionally act odd by your standards and mine, but then a lot of adults I know are into weird stuff I don't understand. Golf, for example.
Just because someone wears black does not make him a Nazi. Some of the shooters' fellow students apparently can't tell the difference, but I expected better from the Washington Post. I don't know what I was thinking.
So what prompts this type of well-intentioned but ill-informed idiocy? I put it down to the obsessive desire to get something on the air or in print, NOW, before someone else gets it first. In a previous life, I worked as a cameraman in a TV studio. I soon noticed that getting the story on the air first was an obsession among the "talent" (a word I can no longer use without giggling). The reporters always had one eye on a bank of TVs in the newsroom to make sure no one else was getting a story they didn't have. Reporters who got stories on the air before the competition were rewarded with everything from pats on the back to big raises. I never saw anyone get praised for taking the time to get a story right. And once someone got a story, everyone else rushed to cover it for fear of being left out. This combination of the "get it first" syndrome and the accompanying herd mentality is a guaranteed recipe for sloppy journalism.
We may never know what inner demons drove Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to act out their gruesome version of "Revenge of the Nerds". But the media haven't helped anyone by reporting wild guesswork and ill-informed assumptions just so they could get something, ANYTHING, out there. The only effect of this will be to encourage fear and ostracism of anyone different. Isn't there enough of that already?
© 1999 Jerry D. Rhoades, Jr.