J. L'Angelle
Univ of Nevada, Reno
Fall 2019
(The Arcade)--Deflecting blame and responsibility is nearly as important to political survival in the Washington rank and file as directing it. Without specific details to back it up, the tactic of obfuscation allows the politician to gradually defuse the issue. Take for instance the twin mass shootings of El Paso-Dayton last week and the half-hearted resolve to "do something about it" with the usual "enough is enough" hardline promises.
Following the Parkland, FL massacre in 2018, the President held a summit of video game manufacturers to get a handle on the link between violent video games and the trigger man in mass slaughter, as reported by Mike Snider in USA Today;
"This likely feels like déjà vu for the video game industry. Several attendees Thursday had also attended a January 2013 meeting convened by Vice President Joe Biden after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Michael Gallagher, president of the Entertainment Software Association, a video game industry trade group; Patricia Vance, president of the Entertainment Software Rating Board; and Robert Altman, CEO of ZeniMax Media, which owns Bethesda Softworks (Fallout) and id Software (Doom). Also attending: Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive (Grand Theft Auto). (Mike Snider, USA Today)
Aside from the rating board, ZeniMax CEO Robert Altman attended; that's Robert A. Altman, the powerful DC attorney. A check of his campaign contributions at Open Secrets turns up something rather interesting;
Money to Parties
ALTMAN, ROBERT A
ROCKVILLE, MD 20850
ZENIMAX MEDIA
10-10-2016
$20,000.00
Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte (D) (Open Secrets)
Money to Parties
ALTMAN, ROBERT A
ROCKVILLE, MD 20850
ZENIMAX MEDIA
07-31-2017
$20,000.00
Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte (D) (Open Secrets)
While the gun control hawks among the Democrats are hollering for the head of the NRA on a platter, they are taking money from the publisher of the very violent video games that are causing the fringe elements to acquire AK-47s and a dozen quick-change magazines.
The overall contributions to the Entertainment Software Association read like a rogue's gallery of Washington, DC rank and file with ZeniMax leading the pack of hired guns and a $5000 pony up in 2018.
Even more shameful in the call to put a muzzle flash on the violent video game industry is the hypocrisy that the President's own brother, as reported in Bloomberg by Sink and Palmeri, is on the board of directors of ZeniMax;
Moonves? Wasn't he in the news recently?
Works Cited
Snider, M., https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2018/03/08/trump-talk-video-game-makers-critics-thursday-white-house-meeting/406374002/
Altman, https://www.opensecrets.org/search?q=robert+a+altman&type=donors
Ent Software Assn, https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2018&cmte=C00439216
ZeniMax board, Sink, J., Palmeri, C., https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-08/game-maker-joining-gun-violence-discussion-has-a-trump-on-board
Bob Trump photo, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_of_Donald_Trump