Thanks to the mainstream media, most households know the terms “Hot Coffee”, “Columbine”, and “seXbox”, and their relationship to video games. Gamers suffer a poor reputation from the distorted images painted in the news or on television. But have our own journalists done their job in defending us…or are they tossing more kindling to the flames?

In this week’s Robot Punch!, we explore a recent example in how gaming media continues to fail in lifting the stigma associated with video games.
In late March, it was reported that 25 year old Tim Eves died suddenly while playing on his Wii Fit. He’d just gotten off the phone with his mother when he dropped like a stone, dead. Eves was quite active in his life and was considered to be in excellent physical shape.

Doctors have told the family that it’s likely he died of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome. If I may say, it adds an extra touch of depression for someone to die of something called “SADS”. I would have called it “Gradual Infant Death Syndrome”. In any case, no one knows the actual cause of death; Tim just kinda, well…stopped.

This is a terrible thing to make light of his death, I know. God chose to take Mr. Eves long before he’d truly had the chance to experience life. However, the truly bad comedy in this story is the spin by which it was reported.

I’d originally found this story via Kotaku, a gaming blog which sucks in all video game-related news from all corners of the web and distributes it to the masses. This can be a double-edged sword in that while it brings to light interesting stories that might otherwise be overlooked, it also echos the stories’ tones broadcast by the original source.

Well, what could be the harm in that? Read the article again. What does the Wii Fit really have to do with this man’s death? If the casual reader were to merely glimpse the headline, the first impulse is to assume that the Wii Fit was the cause of his death, when in fact, it’s a negligible detail. Kotaku (like most other news sites) does nothing to address the ridiculous headline.

The mainstream media delights in demonizing video games. Almost every week, there’s a report somewhere about how video games cause violence, solicit porn, or deliver our children into the clutches of pedophiles. Nearly all of them exaggerating the facts in order to get people angry or scared enough to stay tuned in.

In the story mentioned above, it could be equally possible that Mr. Eve’s phone had a role in his death. If the reporters had worded the story with emphasis that he’d died after using his phone, that probably wouldn’t have sold as well. However, video games are a hot topic; the Wii Fit needed mention in order for the story to sell. Odds are that those devices were simply bystanders to the event. Like a lamp or his girlfriend, they just happened to be in the room at the time.

That being the case, why—why, Kotaku?—is our own enthusiast media advocating this gross portrayal of our beloved hobbies by reporting these same stories? I agree that these stories should be told if they are in fact relevant to our niche sub-culture, but wouldn’t it be wise for video game journalists to exercise the appropriate filters? Otherwise, they’re just as guilty for giving credence to sensationalism.

It’s the responsibility of video game journalists—in the interest of the industry and our community—to not confirm the poisonous messages cast by the mainstream, but to respond. As our ambassadors, it’s their duty to act with count-points, debunking any false correlation between gaming and societal ills. By reinforcing this yellow journalism, it only makes gamers ashamed of themselves for sharing the pastimes of these monsters.Besides, have we so quickly forgotten the good that Wii Fit has brought to the world?