In my
article this week about anti-game crusades and panics, I
mentioned the Senate hearings on violence and video games that
Sens. Joe Lieberman and Herb Kohl chaired in 1993. To see the
hearings for yourself, click below:
If you just want to skip to the highlights, here are some
memorable moments:
2:31: Lieberman’s opening statement. Notable for how he
oscillates between descriptions of real violence and video game
violence as though they were the same thing. Also notable for a
perplexing metaphor at 3:39: “Like the grinch who stole Christmas,
these violent video games threaten to rob this particular holiday
season of a spirit of good will.”
6:58: Joe Lieberman produces a game controller that looks like a
large water gun. He’s trying to illustrate how “brutal” the game
is, but all I can picture is kids running around an inflatable
backyard pool.
13:40: On this day, Kohl notes, leaders of the video game
industry announced that they were willing to come up with a ratings
system. He concludes that this proves games can harm kids: “Clearly
they can, or the industry would not be willing to rate its own
games.”
20:52: Sen. Byron Dorgan (R-N.D.) declares the game Night
Trap “an effort to trap and kill women.” The player’s goal is
actually to save the women, but these are just petty details.
23:38: The committee watches a selection of violent video game
sequences. The infamous Night Trap sequence—a scene
players see if they lose, featuring one of the most bizarre killing
machines ever filmed—starts at 25:40.
33:55: Prof. Eugene Provenzo explains that “some of my more
recent research” suggests that video games are becoming “possibly
something very close to what Aldous Huxley described in Brave
New World as ‘the feelies.'”
36:28: Provenzo quotes a researcher who believes “the
introduction of television in the 1950s caused a subsequent
doubling of the homicide rate.”
47:47: A woman from the National Coalition Against Television
Violence says the “only word” you can say to manufacturers and
shareholders behind Mortal Kombat and Night Trap
is “shame on you.”
1:22:55: Here begins the testimony of Howard Lincoln,
representing Nintendo. It is followed by the testimony of Bill
White, representing Sega. Later, at 1:56:00, the two answer
questions from the senators. Lincoln and White bicker like crazy,
blaming each other’s companies for video violence and failing
completely to present anything like a unified front. Any industry
or social group that becomes the target of a congressional inquiry
should study these guys’ performances as a lesson in What Not To
Do.
2:25:34: Kohl tells the assembled representatives of the video
game industry, “I hope you walk away with one thought today—that if
you don’t do something about it, we will.” And with that one
sentence, he sums up the entire
history of nominally private but ultimately government-derived
regulation of speech.
(For past installments of the Friday A/V Club, go here.)
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