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Americans wanted to blame everything but Columbine High for the massacre- they blamed a violent media, Marilyn Manson, Goth culture, the Internet, the Trench Coat Mafia, video games, lax gun control laws, and liberal values. And still skipping over the school, they peered into the opposite direction, blaming the moral and/or mental sickness, or alleged homosexuality, of these two boys, as if they were exceptional freaks in a school of otherwise happy kids. They searched all over the world for a motive, except for one place: the scene of the crime. (Page 184)

 

Mark Ames

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Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking sound bites to support it. "Wouldn't you say," she asked, "that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?" No, I said, I wouldn't say that. "But what about Basketball Diaries?" she asked. "Doesn't that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machine gun?" The obscure 1995 Leonardo Di Caprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office (it grossed only $2.5 million), and it's unlikely the Columbine killers saw it. The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. "Events like this," I said, "if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn't have messed with me. I'll go out in a blaze of glory."
In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, the NBC Nightly News and all the other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of "explaining" them. I commended the policy at the Sun-Times, where our editor said the paper would no longer feature school killings on Page 1. The reporter thanked me and turned off the camera. Of course the interview was never used. They found plenty of talking heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy.

 

Roger Ebert

 

Jack Thompson on Kansas Television This Evening
Pixelantes and Hal Halpin, Who Is Just a Highly Paid Pixelante Lobbyist:
I am on Kansas television tonight and your're not. I'll be explaining to folks in Senator Brownback's homestate that some of the perps involved in the "Kansas Columbine" incited were found to be gamers by virtue of my close work with the law enforcement community there.
On the other side of the ledger, you have Hal Halpin, who spends days and nights doing whatever he can to make sure other parents' kids have access to violent video games that are mature-rated. If Hal Halpin really wanted to stop the sale of mature-rated games to kids he would stop agitating against legislation that requires a parent to make the purchasing choice.
See, Hal Halpin can't have it both ways, and maintain to the public that he is an honest individual. If the industry acknowledges that the mature-rated games are inappropriate for minors, then you can't also be for a scheme, as is Hal Halpin, that allows the sale of a mature-rated game to a kid with no parent in sight.
Either prohibit the sale of these games to kids, or stop pretending to want to stop the sales. The Federal Trade Commission repeatedly states that 35% or more of the kids who got to major retailers are able to buy these mature games. A kid who goes to two retailers has a better than 50% chance of getting the game. Hal opposes doing anything to stop the totally unregulated sale of mature games to kids of any age via the Internet.
Hal Halpin assists, daily, the video game industry's mental molestation of minors for money. Hal, get an honest job, please. Jack Thompson

 

Jack Thompson

 

In retrospect these years form not only the least agreeable, but the only barren and unhappy period of my life. I was happy as a child with my toys in my nursery. I have been happier every year since I became a man. But this interlude of school makes a sombre grey patch upon the chart of my journey. It was an unending spell of worries that did not then seem petty, of toil uncheered by fruition; a time of discomfort, restriction and purposeless monotony. This train of thought must not lead me to exaggerate the character of my school days ... Harrow was a very good school ... Most of the boys were very happy ... I can only record the fact that, no doubt through my own shortcomings, I was an exception. ... I was on the whole considerably discouraged ... All my contemporaries and even younger boys seemed in every way better adapted to the conditions of our little world. They were far better both at the games and at the lessons. It is not pleasant to feel oneself so completely outclassed and left behind at the very beginning of the race.

 

Winston Churchill

 

Hey, how many people here are in high school? Any high school kids here? Are you in high school? Are you teacher's pet? You're sure? I was, man. I used to f**k my teacher every night. I lost my virginity with her, man. She was f**king nice.

 

GG Allin

 

that's why the ESRB exists. so the PARENTS can DO THEIR JOB
NO, THE ESRB EXISTS IN ORDER TO FRAUDULENTLY MAKE PARENTS THINK THAT MATURE-RATED GAMES ARE NOT BEING SOLD TO KIDS IN STORES WITH NO PARENTS IN SIGHT.
Tell the self-regulation spiel to the MPAA. you're getting a bit pompous to assume that you are going to be elected as governor. Children never have been, are not, and most likely never will be "mere prey in a race to the lowest common denominator" as they are the future people. I know that sounded corny and such, but it's true.
SORRY, BUT THE AMERICAN ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY HAS A DOCUMENTED HISTORY OF MARKETING ADULT, HARMFUL PRODUCTS TO KIDS. CHECK THE FTC.GOV SITE, AND PUT "MARKETING VIOLENT ENTERTAINMENT" IN THE SEARCH ENGINE.
it's already being done, oh wait, I forgot how censored an environment the USA is! seriously. there is no big conspiracy. perhaps i parents did their jobs then the kids wouldn't be playing so many videogames!
NO THE FTC STUDY RECENTLY FOUND THAT 42% OF THE TIME MATURE-RATED VIDEO GAMES ARE SOLD TO KIDS UNDER 17. CAN YOU READ?
and for good reason. because at the same time, the world is getting more graphic too. if you want your children to grow up all protected and their naivety remaining untouched, fine. but when they get screwed over, I'm blaming you.
RIGHT, WHICH IS WHY THERE ARE MORE COPYCAT ACTS OF VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS. RECENT STUDIES SHOW TEEN VIOLENCE IS UP, NOT DOWN, AND THE CULTURAL CESSPOOL IN WHICH YOU ARE SWIMMING IS A BIG REASON WHY.
guess what? the enforcement of those laws? not happened. if it's IGNORED, that's the PARENT'S FAULT! and there is currently something that prevents a 14-year-old from getting an AO game, that being that most places don't carry AO games. show me a place that sells AO games and I'll show you a porn shop.
BY "ADULT GAMES" HE MEANS M-RATED GAMES. HE DIDN'T SAY "AO" GAMES. THAT IS YOUR TERM. YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT.
'Safe Games' legislation should also require retailers to post signs explaining the video game rating system to customers. Democrats and Republicans both have bills that would address these problems, but they have gone nowhere. It is time to make this a priority.
okay, the entire thing requiring signs? that's just stupid. the ESRB DOES have a website. if parents want ot see the ratings, they can spend 5 minutes to see them at www.esrb.com
OH, SIGNS ARE STUPID? WHAT DO YOU THINK SIGNS ARE FOR? SO PEOPLE READ THEM AND ACT ON THE INFORMATION ON THEM. I THOUGHT YOU ALL WERE FOR PARENTS GETTING MORE, NOT LESS, INFORMATION, HMMMM?
it's obvious that if spitzer has to say all that vile spew, then I'm glad to not live there, and parents DO have a job to do. it's called PARENTING>
RIGHT, AND PARENTS VOTE, UNLIKE MOST VIDEO GAMERS, ESPECIALLY THE ONES UNDER 18 WHO CAN'T VOTE. WE'RE IN CONTROL HERE, NOT YOU. GET USED TO IT, KIDS.
JACK THOMPSON

 

Jack Thompson