Video Games continue to be a convenient scapegoat for everything that’s going wrong around us, and apparently public lynchings still make for great TV. Evil Avatar pointed me towards a blog post by 1Up.com editor John Davison that discusses being ambushed by ‘The Big Idea’, a two-bit show on CNBC you’ve never heard of. Davison was lured on by the promise to talk about a wide gamut of video game related issues, but once filming started, they lasered in on video game violence. Davison apparently walked off the set once, after the first commercial break, they started bringing in kids who survived Columbine.

Ironically, a Columbine kid on the show later emailed Davison to tell him that he backed up Davison’s point of view (that parenting is more important than video games), but that all those bits were edited out.

This isn’t the first time this has happened, of course. Three years ago, I wrote about how Donahue ambushed Henry Jenkins, who happens to be one of the smartest men in media criticism today. Given ‘The Big Deal’s’ bashing of a widely accepted and appreciated entertainment avenue in American life, I fully expect the show to follow Donahue’s lead into oblivion.

Interestingly enough, only the games industry press seems interested in genuinely hearing both points of view on the matter. What does that say about mainstream press?

Fun fact: Violent Crime peaked in 1993. Doom was released on Dec. 10, 1993. Violent Crime has been in decline ever since, reaching it’s lowest level ever recorded in 2003. I’m not saying that video games caused the downward trend – I’m just saying that, if Quake and Vice City were as bad as anyone was saying, our city streets should be red with blood. (Damion notes: link updated in 2014)