In anarticlepublished Saturday, The Sun solidified its commitment toblaming games for everythingby repackaging an article about rickets in children with a contrived anti-gaming slant. The first article, which ran only one day prior, stated that doctors are seeing a rise in rickets in children due to a vitamin D deficiency.
Above: Theoriginal article
The Sun then took some liberties with the story in order to run the sensationalist headline “Game addict kids hit by 'extinct' bone disease,” as seen here:
Above: Thesecond article
The laughable article only mentions the title-subject video games once, but includes a picture of a slack-jawed youth slowing dying as he fiddles with anold controller.
Similar research from Newcastle Universitywas releasedin January, and it was similarlymisreported by Metro. The doctors behind thatreport were contacted for statementsby Gamesbrief, with hilarious results.
"The average age of a child with rickets is around 20 months old: too young to use a keyboard and mouse!" wrote Professor Simon Pearce.He went on to clarify that, while playing outside less is afactor in vitamin D deficiency (which sure, could be the result of too much TV or gaming), overuse of sunblock and lack of sunlight in the UK are also contributors, and thus food supplementation is recommended.
Dr. Timothy Cheethamput it bluntly, "[we] do not say that gaming causes rickets."
This case is nearly identical. Doctors say that lackof sunlight can lead to rickets, soa sensationalist media outlet reports that videogames cause rickets. Brilliant.
Of course, by pointing this out, we're giving them more traffic and exposure - sorry.But we'renot just doing that, we're also having a laugh at their expense. Isn't that honorable enough? Oh, and by the way, the stuff about The Sun's "anti-game agenda" is a joke -we don't claim to have insider insight into the paper's agenda for the same reason wedon't claim that bunny rabbits cause brain tumors.
Anyway,the facepalm is over,so we cannow go back to forgetting that The Sun exists.
[Source:CVG]
Nov 15, 2010
