Hey folks,
Just sent off a message to the Fox folks. Text follows.
> To whom it may concern:
>
> I've just read the story "Office Shooting Suspect Arraigned" by Jay Lindsay on
> your website (at http://www.foxnews.com/national/022301/mcdermott.sml), and I
> viewed with some interest and alarm the following passage.
>
>> At his home, investigators found computer equipment, a will, gun cases and
>> ammunition, "Dungeon and Dragons" books and a passport.
>
> May I ask why your reporter found it important to mention Mr. McDermott's
> gaming preferences? As a longtime (18 years) player of Dungeons and Dragons, I
> find the implied connection between Mr. McDermott's alleged criminal acts and
> his recreational choice of the world's most popular role-playing game somewhat
> insulting, to say the least. Neither I nor any gamer of my personal
> acquaintance has ever been arrested for any violent criminal act; to the
> contrary, the gamers in my group are some of the most civilized and
> non-violent people I know. Contrast this with the public behavior of many
> well-known players of team sports and one may draw a number of interesting
> conclusions. However, one rarely sees this sort of connection drawn by the
> media. I wonder why? Could it be that the advertising money generated by
> sports journalism affects the way sports are portrayed in the media? Surely
> not.
> I've been playing long enough to remember the last time that the media decided
> to demonize one of my favorite pastimes by connecting the actions of an
> unfortunately disturbed young man with his recreational activities, and I'd
> really prefer not to go through this sort of thing again. For further
> information regarding the alleged connections between games and violence, I
> refer you to http://www.avault.com/news/displaynews.asp?story=282001-122154.
>
> Thank you,
>
> --Joe Crow
What do you think? Rational enough? I thought about not including the last
paragraph, but I figured that they'd already remember the old stuff about
DnD driving kids crazy.
-- Joe Crow
-everything I need to know about life I learned by killing smart people
and eating their brains-
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