Florida Murders Barely Involve Xbox...and the Media Loves It

If you turned on the news once this weekend, you probably heard the story of "The Xbox Slayings" in Florida. The story is tragic and repulsive, so much so, I can't even bring myself to summarize it (read it for yourself here), however, I do feel the need to question why the media is making such a big deal over the fact that one of the items that was allegedly stolen from the assailant, provoking the murders, was an Xbox.

This story has absolutely nothing to do with an Xbox, nor violent video games, but check out the headlines. I'd say four out of every five mention "Xbox" or "Video game system". What do you think this does to the average American who scans headlines and sees that six have been murdered because of an Xbox? This does a disservice to those who were killed by a man who spent eight of the last eleven years in prison, and who had called the police to their house six times in the past ten days because of threats. So why does the media do it? Because America loves to blame video games for the behaviors of the sick and twisted. It's such a shame, too, because as long as we do, we'll never fix what's wrong.