Reader "Skitzo" emailed the editor of the Toronto Sun after the paper's cover story pinned a car accident that killed a taxi cab driver on Need for Speed. I yanked Skitzo's name from the exchange and pasted the text, after the jump.
More Need for Speed Blame on Accident
From: Skitzo
To: readership@tor.sunpub.com
Hello,
I've have just finished viewing Toronto Sun cover today, and might I add, you couldn't possibly be more repulsive. I'm saying this with no disrespect towards the family of the driver who was killed. How can you run a cover like that with out mentioning the teens parents? Are they not at fault teaching kids right from wrong? I myself grew up playing video games throughout my child hood, teen years and even to this day. My parents always showed me right from wrong, what is fantasy and reality. Maybe that's the issues these days' people like you pressing garbage in the media, for the masses to swallow to detour away from the real problem at hand. Parents being lazy in this day and age.
Maybe you're right; maybe the parents shouldn't be to blame, and maybe its rubbish news outlets such as yourselves pumping fictional prints like this to scare parents from the big bad video games. Hey I have a question if I rob a bank and blame it on video games, will I still go to jail? I would love to have your feed back, please email me asap.
From: Alison Downie
To: Skitzo
Hello,
Regarding today's newspaper ... the reason we did not mention the parents on the front page is because they are not facing criminal charges. Anyone who knows these 2 young men would know who their parents are. We identified the school they went to, where they live and where they are attending for post-secondary education. Both of the suspects are of legal age, so they are adults and are being treated as such by the courts.
I don't have enough information, and I doubt you do either, to determine if the parents of these young men were at fault or not. Life has taught me that good parents can sometimes have bad kids. And sometimes good kids do bad things. In this instance, there is no indication that either of these young men had any previous trouble with the police.
I must also point out that it was the police, not the Sun, that inked the video game with the accident. It is a fact that a car racing video was found in one of the vehicles involved in this crash. That's relevant information which is why we printed it. Had it been a fishing video, we wouldn't have mentioned it.
I doubt the video will matter much to a judge and I can't imagine it being used as a defence. If you believe parents are responsible for the actions of their adult children, and believe that should be in the paper, then you might consider writing a letter to the editor stating your opinion. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I always enjoy hearing from our readers.
Best regards,
Alison Downie
Sun Readership Editor
From: Skitzo
To: Alison Downie
Good morning,
Please have a good look at your front page. http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/TorontoCover.jpg
I will give you the matter of the doubt, that yes the police did say, Need for speed video game was in the car. But yet again I point to that front cover and ask myself, "Wow so drag racing has not been around for years like I always thought it has, Sony Playstation 2 and Xbox must have invented that." I just love the way "cops say high octane video game found in car of one 18 year old charged in alleged street racing crash that left cabbie dead" and in the eye attractive color and size DID NEED FOR SPEED KILL?
Of course the sun did not link the video game to the death at all, how silly of me to think so. Please if you wish to pass this email over you're an editor. Since apparently I did at first, and now you are emailing me with this insulting reply back. I would love to hear your response.











Comments
It's thier paper and they can write the story as they wish =p. I don't see what the point of whining is. In fact this reminds me of parents whining to the FCC about inapproprate content on radio..... It's almost like Jack Thompson.... Nobody is forcing you to read their article =p
"...killed a taxi cab driver on Need for Speed wondering why the paper." Would it kill you guys to proofread your entries just once before posting?
I don't know Aaron, that thing actually read better than the letter to Toronto Sun.
I'm not sure if you guys re-typed the email but if you didn't there were a few misspellings from the person he sent the email to as well. Defense, not defence two not 2 (supposedly proper english)
I don't personally worry or care about this type of negative publicity, nor do I think it will matter at all in the long run/result in censorship of any form. There's too much disposable income waiting to be spent on video games containing graphic violence. For reference, look at how successful Tipper Gore's campaign against 2 Live Crew was.
Regarding the Tipper Gore vs. 2 Live Crew affair, no sensible person was going to listen to a woman named "Tipper" in the first place. It's also interesting to note that our dear friend, Jack Thompson, was part of that little crusade. He failed, just as he will in his current whirlwind of stupidity. Skitzo did a respectable job. A few misspellings and grammatical errors aren't anything to groan about these days. When you look at most online correspondence, being comprehensible to the person you're communicating with is good enough. Our Emails and posts needn't exude Shakespearian beauty. But I do think that anything you write to a news publication must be as legible and articulate as possible. Accuracy in your opinion makes little difference in the world of print; editors won't take a letter seriously if it reads like your English teacher's worst nightmare (rest in peace Ms. McCrotchety). My father laid an amusing quote on me once: "The difference between truth and bullshit is that truth is well-written."
"Defense" = AMERICAN english "Defence" = BRITISH english The reason why I think it's important to "whine" about an article such as this is because of public perception. Public perception will lead to either support or rejection to a politician's motives. It's important to remember that once a story makes a headline and gets publicity, no amount of back-peddling or apologies from the editors will make as big a splash as the originating article. Hence, only about 50% of the people who heard about the wrong-doing actually knows that it's BS. The other 50%, however, are still walking around thinking that what they heard before is still fact. You can discount them as the subject pops up but by then, these ideas have already made an impact on their way of thinking.
You mentioned drag racing in your email to the Sun. These kids were NOT drag racing! They were street racing. Drag racing is performed at a legitimate track under conditions that are much safer for the participants and bystanders. Drag racing is not illegal. Street racing is. I know that your crusade is against the bad stigma that video games receive. I'm just informing you of another stigma that is threatening yet another hobby in the US and Canada. Please use the terms correctly. They are not interchangable. You are not alone in your mistake, of course. Tons of people do it every day. It is particularly damaging when someone in the press makes the mistake, however. Though they rarely care. I would not shed a tear if street racing died tomorrow. But it won't. Ironically, one of the ways to decrease the occurance of street racing is to promote and build legitimate drag racing tracks. But the stigma against drag racing shuts down lots of tracks each year, with very few being built to replace them. The only alternatives to people who want to race is to street race or to not race at all. I'm sure you can see that adrenaline ends up winning in a lot of horribly unfortunate circumstances.
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