The Daily Mail Takes a Tragic Story, Chucks in Videogames For Hits

The Daily Mail is reporting on the tragic story of a schizophrenic 18 year old who has been convicted of manslaughter after killing Irene Roberton, a 65 year old Widow form Hull, UK. The boy, James Callaghan (then 17) attacked Mrs. Roberton with an axe and injured another man.

Callaghan who had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic claimed he had heard voices in his head which told him to kill people, as well as seeing a man with horns on his head. Obviously this man has severe mental health issues, which has led him to kill an innocent woman. But guess what, the Daily Mail has somehow managed to turn this into yet more demonisation of videogames.

In a ridiculous article, the writer Chris Brooke manages to turn an horrific story about a poor woman’s death into more agenda pushing bullshit. The headline, rather than mentioning the man’s medically recognised condition, suggests that Callaghan “killed [the] widow in a drink-fuelled rage after losing a computer game to his brother”. Now I’m no journalist, unlike Mr Brooke who is obviously fully qualified and trained to write for the Mail, but to me something isn’t right there. Surely in the headline, the sentence that pulls you in and briefly informs of the story should have some mention of Callaghan’s schizophrenia? It seems that his condition is the main aspect of the story, rather than alcohol and videogames causing the death of a pensioner.

Then just to make sure that the story hits the minimum quota of scaremongering:

He also played the computer game Grand Theft Auto, which sends the player’s character on a violent crime spree.

I’m not making this up. The Daily Mail uses videogames as the source for the violent attacks stating:

In the hours before the rampage, Callaghan lost three consecutive games of Fifa 2008, playing at home against his younger brother and a friend.

Hours before the attack? What are we talking, 3, 12 or 300 hours before? According to the Daily Mail, videogames rather than a serious and underlying mental health condition are the reasons a man killed a 65 year old woman. Also note how the article mentions the “violent crime spree” that is GTA IV, but then details in horrific detail the atrocities committed by Mr. Callaghan.

In a scene of unimaginable horror, Callaghan, who did not know his victim, struck her six times on the head with the axe, chopped off a finger and repeatedly stabbed her in the back, stomach and leg.

So fucking unimaginable that they’d better publish it in such graphic detail. Don’t you dare play a game where you can have sex or commit violent acts, but it’s fine for you to read how many times he bludgeoned her with an axe. And it’s not just the Mail. The Daily Express, The Sun and the Mirror all publish articles suggesting videogames led to Mrs. Robertson’s death, while the BBC makes no mention of them.

This article is another example of bad journalism in our national press and videogames being blamed for causing murder. This demonisation happened to both television and comic books, because people need something to blame. They need something to focus the fear and anger towards and right now it’s videogames. Tabloids such as The Mail live off fear, they create it by printing stories about the “flood” of immigrants invading our country or suggesting that people die because they’re gay. It is in a sense propaganda and if you say something enough times, people will accept it as fact.

The article blatantly and cynically glazes over the fact that Mr. Callaghan’s schizophrenia was a more probable cause for his awful behaviour. He, like the majority of teenagers plays videogames, but that doesn’t mean that he killed somebody because of them. He killed somebody because he has schizophrenia.

But let’s not forgot the real problem here, The Daily Mail and Chris Brooke have used the tragic death of this woman to push their agenda on videogames. Never mind that they completely misunderstand the issues, they’ve taken the awful death of this woman and manipulated it, to ensure basically; hits.

Note: I haven’t linked to the Daily Mail’s story to ensure they don’t get any clicks from this post.