Fox News points to video games, Fortnite for spat of shootings

Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Published 05/08/2019

Cable news network Fox News continues to spread anti-gaming propaganda, this time going a step further and blaming video games for mass shootings happening around the United States.

Just as the gaming community thought comparing playing Fortnite to the usage of heroin was as disrespectful as Fox News’ editorial on gaming could get, the news provider strikes again. This time saying it’s games that are to blame for the recent mass shooting in El Paso.

Another tragic shooting took place in El Paso, Texas, in which over twenty people were killed. The tragedy was caused by a domestic extremist. Just a few hours later, another shooting took place in Dayton, Ohio.

And while some Americans are trying to emphasize the importance of gun control and improving citizens’ mental health, others have decided to blame multiplayer shooting games. Fox News, together with some influencers on social media, are helping to spread the hate towards the gaming community and Fortnite in particular.

During the Fox News broadcast about the shootings, journalists and guests shared how shooter games teach players that killing a person has no consequences, which they claimed leads dehumanizing in society, adding that the shooter must have played “something like Fortnite” for hours before thinking that a massive slaughter would be fun.

“What’s changed in this country? We’ve always had guns, we’ve always had evil. And I see a video game industry that teaches young people to kill,” said Dan Patrick, current lieutenant governor of Texas.

This seems to entirely ignore the fact that video games are popular across the entire world, yet such regular mass shootings in a first-world country are specific to the United States. The gaming community turned its collective ire on social media towards Fox News’ ignorance and the need to turn the blame away from the real issues at stake.

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