schweblog

In case you missed it, there’s been a huge fuss over the almost-cannibal Kevin Ray Underwood, who killed a 10-year-old girl with the proclaimed intention of eating her. While undeniably troubling–although not that surprising–it has been the way that the press has covered the issue that is really disturbing me.

Let me present to you MSNBC’s cover story of the Underwood case, along with CNN’s coverage . Both articles are from the same AP release and, on the surface, seem to be your regular ol’ news story on a murder. “So-and-so is accused of…purportedly seemed like a regular person to…the surrounding community has been horrified, etc.”

Look deeper. Both outlets bring out his blog–deservedly so, I think, since it is a primary source on the suspect. Both articles also mention Underwood’s playing of the online game Kingdom of Loathing (CNN used it as a sub-headline in their story). Both describe it as a game “in which stick figures battle each other”, most likely due to using the same AP source.

I’m bothered by them even mentioning it, though, as if it carries any relevance to the case itself or had some bearing on his actions. What if he was a particularly avid jogger? Or enjoyed watching figure skating? Or liked to do community service? What if he liked eating Campbell’s soup out of the can? Or preferred to take lukewarm showers? Why aren’t we getting the whole story? The point being, his playing Kingdom of Loathing probably had as much to do with his killing this girl as his preference of Pepsi over Coke. Read: none.

Taboos don’t appear overnight, nor have they existed over all time (see Foucault’s Madness & Civilization or The History of Sexuality). They evolve and adapt as society approaches and re-approaches them. I think we’re seeing a period here where a particular technological facet is being made the focus of the media and their treatment of the phenomenon is shaping common perceptions of it. In other words, I think a taboo of video games is being engineered.

While I won’t decry the media’s scrutinizing of the GTA license and its potentially negative effects on behavior (the jury’s still out on that one), the choice to include Underwood’s playing of Kingdom of Loathing reveals an inappropriate bias which in their simple choice to include it as “newsworthy”. Kingdom of Loathing is about as violent as Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty”. This is either the result of sloppy reporting (not entirely unlikely) or an intentional–conscious or not–taboo being placed on video games.

I’d bet on the latter, as it certainly will allow a media institution to “create” more stories as time progresses. In engineering a taboo, you also create a stage. You create a public interest. You spoonfeed people a reason to be outraged and bring on talking heads to think for them. In short, they’re creating news by exploiting a non-issue. And for doing so, let’s applaud the AP and its subsequent outlets for what they deserve–being good capitalist machines and reporting on the stuff they handpick from a variety of issues to ensure a market for themselves. I’ll be sure drink to you, Associated Press, et al, before I lose all faith in humanity.

Here’s to mistruths in the name of capitalism.