David Jaffe Lashes Out at CNN Anchor

[Chairman Miaow]

You win points for killing prostitutes in GTA? I didn't even know there were points in GTA! I must really suck at it

 

[MrBaskerville]

I won´t comment on whether all this violence is harmful in someway or not, but if it turned us into serial killers, wouldn´t school shootings be happening everywhere and not just Finland, Germany and USA? That kinda reveals that there must be some other root of the problem.

Aside from that, i find it kinda fucked up that you can buy an assault rifle. Who the hell needs an assault rifle?

 

[Slash2x]

2 things

1. Good on you sir for calling her bullshit. It amazes me how much BS the news media makes up as a "fact" I was in a sandy foreign country and the various news networks never had valid report of what was happening. They would talk about how much better things were getting and show "live feeds" for what was happening. Never mind that the ENTIRE day we were getting shot at and mortared, large sections of the city were on fire. But hey get back to the chow hall and there is CNN or FOX saying "Well it was a calm day finally in the city, it really shows that the war is going better." Then a week later we are at a calm point and spent the last 2 weeks with no activity. Oh look a "live feed" again "THE ENTIRE CITY IS ENGAGED IN WHAT LOOKS LIKE A GIANT FIREFIGHT THERE ARE PEOPLE DEAD IN THE STREETS AND EXPLOSIONS EVERYWHERE!!!" The press is ONLY concerned with getting ratings they have NO interest in getting the "truth" for the people.

2. Never ceases to amaze me how many people defend the news idiots in the comments. These people are saying you are killers in training because you play a damn game on a screen. They do not deserve your protection.

 

[The Great JT]

Jaffe, you are awesome, do not change a thing.

Burnett, you suck and I want you to gargle highly corrosive acid as penance.

 

[HippySteve]

Folks please note: This is CNN not FOX news reporting this garbage. A good sign that major media outlets care less about truth in journalism and more about inciting flame wars. In other words, ALL news channels are troll-bait and untrustworthy.

I really feel bad for you Americans that you have to live with this kind of journalism. How does anyone in your country get any facts?

Thank god that in England we have the BBC. Hell, televised media journalists are not even allowed to state their political opinions in our country. Plus while we do have biased media it is all confined to newspapers, so we can just ignore all of them.

We have to cross-reference all our news. It's awful. More work than it's worth, really.

 

[Iron Criterion]

Dr. Pollack deserves some major props here. Sure, he's not necessarily a fan of games and didn't know enough about GTA to call her on her BS line about "points" stolen from Jack Tnompson (he also didn't mention the rather important fact that games like GTA and CoD aren't meant for kids anyway), but he still stood by the facts when pressed. And, after all that, to have his comments labelled as provocative? Sheesh...

so damn true I saw this interview line on CNN earlier today

you don't "score points" for killing a hooker in GTA. Their are no points in GTA(expect for multi-player modes where you kill other people)

and it seems like the only two games kids play are GTA or COD

If I was in Dr. Pollack's position I would have called her out on her attitude: "oh, I'm sorry I didn't realize you are an expert in psychology. No sense in me being here then."

 

[acewolf1569]

Hah. I don't know if anyone has said this, but the video they used of GTA was one of my favorite youtubers, SSoHPKC. He put out a video talking about it if anyone's interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mq4mXSQgPo

 

[Neonsilver]

I played and replayed the interview and compared the points made in the main article with Burnett's wording - I really don't think she was preaching "gaming makes killers" as absolute fact. At all. When she said "...it's accepted as fact..." she prefixed it with "A lot of people say...". That and her reading the senator's statement on the Norway shooter (as we covered on this site as true that he claimed gaming was his training tool - why he said could be a separate argument) leads me to believe she was reiterating other points being made about the topic and touching on a perception that is still prevalent in our society, after which she asked her guest if he can confirm it or not. Admittedly the only reason I can think for her to press on with the GTA questioning, aside from demonizing, was because the network needed to fill time and they had a clip they could show, which I agree would be good argument against 24-hour news cycle broadcasting (filling time with useless crap) but I didn't see that as trying to bully Dr. Pollack into conceding to that view. Also, did anyone find his quip at the end (6:06) about GTA or other games possibly causing "domestic violence" or making people "stand back" from fights weird?

While I aggree that she wasn't exactly preaching gaming makes killers, that she was just questioning and cited other people.
Her questions and the way they are worded, give gaming a very negative undertone.

That quote shows that quite well:

It's accepted as fact that these violent games - and by the way, they are horrifically violent - is why we are seeing this seemingly [sic] explosion in mass shootings.

 

[RJ 17]

The good news is that only like, three people still watch CNN these days, so her ignorant views weren't seen by too many people.

 

[Spartan448]

The only problem I have with Burnett's interview is the opening statement. That could have been worded a little differently. The rest of the execution, however, was spot on. When you interview someone, you always have to challenge what they're saying. This puts them in a position where they either admit a lie or simply offer more explaination into whatever they just said. Saying in the opening "It's an accepted fact that..." is never a good way to open an interview. And it's also obvious that Burnett was not happy with her guest's response, but that seems to be a personal thing. If the opening statement was reworded, this would be a very fair and balanced interview. The psycologist more than made up for Burnett's opening statement, and during an interview, the viewer pays attention to what the interviewee says on a subject, as they are usually the authoritative source.

 

[Formica Archonis]

The good news is that only like, three people still watch CNN these days, so her ignorant views weren't seen by too many people.

But all three of them are Congressmen.



Personally, I'm waiting to see if any bronies update their Erin fanart from a while back, seeing as most of them are also gamers. Make her a little more Diamond-Tiara-running-the-newspaper, you know.

Actually, nah, that'd just make the problem worse.

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

Thank you Mr. Jaffe, thank you sir for being our voice in a world of slandering liars.

 

[Royas]

So what exactly are these witch-hunting journalists/politicians hoping to accomplish?(aside from drawing attention to themselves..) Violent videogames cannot be legally sold to minors. The issue has already been addressed (regardless of any scientific conclusions) with the ESRB rating system.

Any attempt to censor media intended for adults would be a clear violation of freedom of expression/speech etc. The legal systems of most Western nations would never approve of such censorship. If a parent allows their children to play violent video games in the privacy of their homes, the state has little to no means to intervene. It's all a non-issue IMO, these people should just be ignored as they really are not worth the elevated blood pressure.

Not sure where you are getting your information, but there are no laws on the books regarding selling M rated games to minors. Every attempt to make any law like that has been shot down at either a state Supreme Court level, or (in California's case) at the level of the Supreme Court of the United States. The rating system is an industry standard that is voluntary. Any retailer who wants to can ignore it completely, just as any theater is legally allowed to ignore the ratings on movies. The only penalties (if any) would be industry based, not legal.

This is only the case in the United States, of course. I can't speak to the laws of other nations, as I am not familiar with them.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Bwah?

I like the way she says: "Let me ask you a questions about Grand Theft Auto, there's probably some viewers out there playing this all the time."

Demanding quite persistently that violent video games cause people to murder other people and then declaring that your very own viewers are probably playing these games RIGHT NOW. Well I'm sold.

You know I don't recall ever hearing this sort of sensationalist reporting regarding video games here in the UK. We have the very same violent video games too...

 

[archvile93]

Mr. Jaffe, I want to make you cookies now. Or brownies. Or a pie. Or cake. Or chicken. Your choice, sir.

Hell, I will give him a whole grilled lobster!

You do that, since I have no clue how to cook seafood, or much of anything (that, and I find the idea of boiling a lobster alive morally wrong).

They don't cry. That is just steam escaping from their shells. Also, when you gut fish they are alive... sometimes. However, you can kill lobsters if you want, but they taste better fresh.

Gutted? ALIVE? THE SEAFOOD INDUSTRY IS FULL OF MONSTERS!!! >X[

(I don't have anything against you if you eat seafood, but that's just messed up to me)

That's nothing, some Japanese recipes call for scaling and cooking the fish while it's still alive. If it's done right the fish will still be gasping when it's presented to you.

 

[vid87]

I played and replayed the interview and compared the points made in the main article with Burnett's wording - I really don't think she was preaching "gaming makes killers" as absolute fact. At all. When she said "...it's accepted as fact..." she prefixed it with "A lot of people say...". That and her reading the senator's statement on the Norway shooter (as we covered on this site as true that he claimed gaming was his training tool - why he said could be a separate argument) leads me to believe she was reiterating other points being made about the topic and touching on a perception that is still prevalent in our society, after which she asked her guest if he can confirm it or not. Admittedly the only reason I can think for her to press on with the GTA questioning, aside from demonizing, was because the network needed to fill time and they had a clip they could show, which I agree would be good argument against 24-hour news cycle broadcasting (filling time with useless crap) but I didn't see that as trying to bully Dr. Pollack into conceding to that view. Also, did anyone find his quip at the end (6:06) about GTA or other games possibly causing "domestic violence" or making people "stand back" from fights weird?

While I aggree that she wasn't exactly preaching gaming makes killers, that she was just questioning and cited other people.
Her questions and the way they are worded, give gaming a very negative undertone.

That quote shows that quite well:

It's accepted as fact that these violent games - and by the way, they are horrifically violent - is why we are seeing this seemingly [sic] explosion in mass shootings.

To which he replied - particularly during the GTA questioning - that he does consider stuff like that "heinous." I don't usually watch her segment, but I imagine she gets more leeway in dialogue and can throw in her own opinion, so her finding these games "horrifically violent" and "offensive" was probably more of her personal preferences for entertainment and less about arm-twisting. BTW, I'll admit I'm not happy overall about the interview and will absolutely retract what I've said thus far if it turns out she and the network do have an official, misguided slant on gaming, but for now I'm just saying I don't think it was as awful as it could've been and that Jaffe might have gone a bit overboard. It may be his way of dealing with things, but a proper dialogue is going to need calm, reasoned exchanges, not venomous mud-slinging, no matter how "righteous" it may seem at the moment.

 

[Saika Renegade]

Every generation blames something. Movies, rock and roll, Elvis Presley's hips, television, radio, video games, computers, the internet, laying blame for things such as illegal drug use, illicit sex, and violent actions solely at their feet. Every generation's had a scapegoat for the societal ills it experienced because it's easier to blame ambient entertainment than actually reach for a meaningful solution to cultural ills, especially if it's painful in some form (like, say, limiting the reporting media's obsession with violence).

Not that we should stick our heads in the sand, but really, she and her ilk contribute to the problem just as much as any mentally unstable individual with the means and the motivation.

 

[Thoric485]

I like Jaffe, the guy's uncensored. His confrontation with Kotaku [https://soundcloud.com/ben-kuchera/jaffe-confrontation] is my favorite.

 

[mattaui]

I wish more people would realize that you don't have to be on your most polite behavior when you respond to someone in an argument, especially if they're spouting absolute falsehoods and trying to gin up public opinion against, in Mr. Jaffe's case, his very livelihood. While I'd suggest holding back on excessive profanity and definitely avoid personal insults (none of which Mr. Jaffe engages in), he rightly calls her and her entire profession on the carpet for not only failing to do their jobs, but to be part and parcel of spreading misinformation.

What he posted wasn't a 'violent outburst' nor was it childish or insulting. What's childish and insulting is the sort of sensationalist nonsense that passes for news these days, in all corners of the media world. Part of the reason we're in the state we're in is that too many people get all hot and bothered when anyone vigorously questions authority figures, either elected, self-appointed or otherwise. Thankfully we now have plenty of avenues to challenge media and political figures who used to control most of the levers of mass communication.

I'm so glad he said what he did, and I wish more industry members would be as outspoken so as to force people to stop nodding their heads at self-appointed video game experts.