The Four Color Media Monitor

A woman writing on the GeekDad/Mom site about video game playing recommended a book written by a certain onetime comics writer and historian, totally oblivious to what he got himself into over two months ago:

...Look, we all know that there are a lot of people who just don’t “get” geek parenting. They think that board gaming is fine, but really, all those video games are just rotting kids’ brains. They report back to us about research that is outdated and biased. Yes, even scientific research comes with a bias. Just read Killing Monsters by Gerard Jones.

To be honest, before researching for the panel, I knew video games weren’t bad for kids. We all do, right? What I didn’t realize was just how good they could be. From my perspective, the most interesting part of the research turned out to be how kids use gaming. For kids, much as Jones noted, gaming is something they choose to do not something done to them. Kids want to be in control and often don’t feel they are. [...]

Looks like somebody didn't get the memo, or she's just plain ignorant. Hey lady, haven't you heard? Jones was arrested last December 29 for trafficking child porn on his computer, and is suspected of child molestation in Britain. Some recently planned trades collecting his past work from the early 1990s have been canceled or put on hold till who knows when. That's not somebody whose "research" I'd want to recommend. Talk about outdated indeed! Because that's where it's headed, and I wouldn't be shocked if there was some kind of bias in Jones' book to boot. The topic itself of whether or not video game violence has a negative effect on kids may be valid, but Jones is not qualified to argue it.

And about that little matter of "being in control": that's certainly what Jones wanted if he really did pull the crime he's suspected of committing in England. If the writer of the piece on gaming failed to pick up on the news about Jones, I suppose she could be forgiven for not realizing what he's been arrested for, ditto the impact on the history and research books he's written. But if she does know, then she's embarrassed game players and comic book readers alike by recommending the work of an author who doesn't deserve our time.

On a related note, it's eerie how that coverscan for the Breakdowns crossover Jones was involved in on Justice League America sums up the situation almost perfectly. He really did taint plenty of books with the stench of his felonies.

Labels: dc comics, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, technology, violence