Former NBC newsie Tom Brokaw (a total nobody to a Brit such as I) has decided to call both videogames and blog sites a "cancer" while simultaneously painting television as a leading light of virtue and holiness.
The comment came after Brokaw was questioned in an interview over his network's decision to justify Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung Hui and air his stupid videos. Brokaw defended NBC's decision as the right one, and then quickly shifted the blame onto videogames and blog sites that are, according to him, the true source of inspiration for killers. Because television has never portrayed violence in a positive light, ever ... right?
Brokaw, in his blind and flailing way, has served to demonstrate quite superbly the blame culture we live in, and has provided a beautiful snapshot of the pathetic scapegoating of videogames. When the medium he was personally invested in, TV, came under fire, the man quickly attempted to change the subject and pass the buck onto the easiest target he could think of -- videogames and the Internet. Brokaw has embodied society's blame culture in one swift move, and I thank him for demonstrating the ignorance of the general public.
My Dtoid colleague Topher Cantler would also like to add that Brokaw is is a pompous, self-important dinosaur who's too busy pretending to understand the state of the post-WWII world to notice that his sopping adult diaper needs changing, and that his position as a "newsman" can only aid him in avoiding the long overdue touch of the Grim Reaper for so long.
Thanks to Prof. Pew for the tip, and hit the jump for the radio interview in which Brokaw made this statement. It's actually a very interesting transcription. Also, I'm leaving the great GamePolitics commentary in. I love those guys.
Hugh Hewitt: …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?
Tom Brokaw: 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.
HH: Would it have been better for NBC to talk to someone outside of NBC before they made that decision?
TB: Oh, we talked… I was not part of the decision, because I was out of town, and I got in here late, and learned what they were going to do, and I thought that they, I thought they handled it very well…
(GP: Hewitt is ready to end the interview, but Brokaw won’t let it go)
HH: On that note of disagreement, I want to once again tell people Boom!: Voices Of The 60’s, a wonderful book…
TB: Wait a minute. Why would you disagree with me? You’re… I mean, don’t you want to know, aren’t you a free speech absolutist? Don’t you want to know what’s going on?
HH: Oh, I absolutely do. I just think that to allow someone to manipulate the news that way incentivizes…
TB: But we did it in context. We didn’t put him up there and say this was a great heroic figure.
HH: He won. And in fact…
TB: We showed how dark he was, and what the reality is. And it put a lot of campuses in this country on alert. And it’s changed… one of the things that I agree with the NRA is that if people have mental health records that are out there, people who sell guns should have access to them.
HH: The Times of London noted just a couple of weeks ago after the berserk shooting in, I think it was Norway (GP: Finland, actually), that the pictures the man left of himself were eerily reminiscent of the Virginia Tech shooter, and raised the possibility that the NBC decision had incentivized him.
TB: Now that’s their speculation… But I can pick anything that goes on, and say that was a copycat crime of some kind… You’re really indicting a network and saying if there’s some kind of a mass murder, NBC’s going to be responsible…
(GP: …isn’t this what happens to video games?)
HH: Does what appears on television influence people, is what we’re asking, and I think it does, quite decidedly.
TB: I think it’s not just television. What I said earlier is what we ought to be addressing, the whole fabric of the place of violence in our society…
Contest:
9:36 PM on 12.07.2007
| 
Actually I think he was being shot down in that Turok preview you guys put up.
I also refuse to accept that playing Sonic the Hedgehog drove Cho Seung Hui over the edge (unless he was reading some of those furry stories...). Journalistic integrity FTW, Brokaw.
When are people gonna realize that games are a broad medium which is both for adults and children. for every gta, there is a brain training; for every shooter, there is a music game.
jeeze
Insult receives 11/10
And Hugh Hewitt > Tom Brokaw
I mean if I want to learn shit, I just go on that ever so biased thing we call the internet and read things. But again, who watches the news? Let alone reads it?
here nobody is thát funny on TV :-)
he is right, but guess what, tv is an even bigger cancer, and so is the news which is nothing more that force fed propaganda spoon fed as if it is entertainment, lies lies lies. you will find more truth in the music, games, and blogs than on TV. that is for sure..
Who knew Brokaw was a btard?
Not exactly the best way to portray your medium (videogame blogger or player) as mature and legitimate. Actually, a comment like that is terribly reactionary, childish, and inappropriate. What's more, it's one thing to say it, but posting it just shows the degree of *Generation Y* edginess that brings on the criticism you're so pissed off at.
I say it over and over (though perhaps not enough and to the wrong people and in the wrong places): the industry needs a voice that can speak the language of its critics rather than simply sitting back, complaining like brats, but continuing to invest in the games and letting their dollars and cents do the talking.
No matter how much research comes out that might contradict mainstream preconceptions, no matter how much we might know better, this is a political issue now, and the talk from presidential campaigns on both sides is that something needs to be done. At this rate, access to interactive media is only going to get more limited if the thing that preserves it now -- money -- runs into a wall because retailers won't carry titles. Game developers, after all, are affected by such decisions, and thus the material of their products.
I read Destructoid because it's on my blogroll, it's on my blogroll because it's, for the most part, entertaining and informative. But you also have to come to a point where, when you have a big enough readership, you'll be representing your medium, your industry, and your generation, and what you say and how you say it becomes indicative of the medium/industry/generation as a whole -- and therefore politically relevant.
For God's sakes Mr. Jim Sterling, I know who you are. I couldn't name one anchor on MSNBC or CNN (nor any of their writers on the blogs that I read) and yet I know who you are. Start acting like somebody worth knowing.
I don't know what Tom Brokaw is or isn't these days, but it's fair to say at least that he's still the same person who used to be one of the most well-known journalists in the world for decades, and didn't exactly have a reputation for being radically mistaken.
As someone else posted, he probably doesn't even believe what he's saying. But if he does, it is a case of subscribing to mainstream beliefs, beliefs that you have done nothing but reinforce.
TB: I think my generation was the greatest generation ever. TV ruled and I gave you the news evey night! You relied on your daily news from me America! Me! Sorry, I'm just getting upset here. These new technologies video graphic games and the internets are polluting the world...and frankly well, I don't get them, but that's beside the point. The point is the world has changed and I'm scared. I want my old world back...mommy!
Sorry, but that doesn't qualify one to go on preaching about how the world should be and expecting anyone under the age of 60 to listen. He's not a politician, he's not an important decision maker, least of all some wise old sage that we should be turning our ear toward for guidance. He's a guy who used to read out loud on television.
Maybe you're just easily fooled, I don't know. I don't think a TV character who's nearly 70 years old has any place telling America what it should or shouldn't be doing. We don't go to Gerald Ford for advice, and he used to run the place, for chrissakes. That's what's wrong with this circus of a country; people look to a talking head to show them the way. You might as well ask Big Bird and Grover what they think about the subject.
Fuck Brokaw. His world is long gone and just because he yammers on about ours doesn't mean he knows what he's saying.
Also, Topher, the problem is is that all those people over 60 DO listen to and respect him. And they actually vote much more often than our generation does (understandably since a large majority of us can't, but even those that can don't). So then it IS our problem when opinions like these threaten our entertainment of choice.
Whether or not he has the same resonance with the younger generations isn't the problem. The army of old people who have nothing to do but pray they're still alive in time for another thing to vote for is the problem. Clearly the answer is to kill the old people. Clearly.
I respect a lot of people solely because they look stern all the time. Look at Harrison Ford, Gregory Peck, Dr. House...
That comment from Topher I added because it was funny and, as insightful as we can be here, we're entertaining as well. We can do both at the same time, man.
That, and I just gave America cancer by commenting.
/yawn
Money is more important than any moral in America and video games are a massive industry.
Anyway, I was more of a Peter Jennings fan, myself.
If I started spouting off about what I think of urban planning or space travel, do you think Tom Brokaw would care what I had to say? Of course not. Vice versa, motherfucker.
Yeah, maybe the added comment was kind of funny, but the kind of humor is greatly frowned upon in our society, and instead of adding substance to your message it will be what what people point to when they call 'blog-sites' "cancerous."
Personal attacks, even if they're just jokes, are never received well. Look at what backlash John Kerry got when he fumbled a joke along the lines of "Better do well in school, or you'll get sent to Iraq!" -- John Kerry, the king of unfunny, overly politically correct pseudo-humor! Especially in this case, where someone made a comment that (I think, now that I've read over the whole transcript) he meant with all sincerity, and you reply by saying he's just senile, has messed himself, and that he's long overdue in dying. That's not exactly what-for-what.
These guys are often editors, producers, and writers in addition to their responsibilities being the face of their network. Though less people read newspapers, and cable news offers a bigger and better source than the network nightly variety, it's still part of the American culture -- especially to those people who at one time only got their news from such outlets. These guys choose what goes on the air, how it's delivered, and therefore what people know. Dan Rather got forced out of his position for making a bad call in going with a questionable (and ultimately false) story. Their reputation rests on what they say, and Brokaw obviously doesn't see any mainstream controversy in saying what he did.