Historical Perspective: 1980s "60 Minutes" segment on D&D

[Dane]

Haven't had a chance to watch the Youtube links, so I can't remember exactly what's done with them, but generally the 60 minutes style is:

Take an issue going on, and tell the viewers about it, taking no "stand" one way or the other.

Interview key players in said issue, and let them respond to what the big questions are.

Then make no comment on the interview, just show the interview and let the viewers determine their own thoughts.

This does not describe the 60 minutes that I know and love.

60 Minutes has always used selective editing to strongly imply things that are not true, while technically sticking to the rules of fair journalism. They pretty much were the first to use the practice to such widespread success, though they have certainly been copied a lot since. Keep those videos in mind, anytime a news program talks about a controversial subject where you don't personally know much.

That's more like it.

The video above is still a typical example of the way 60 Minutes spreads FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt), with very little concern for journalistic integrity. The formula works. They get viewers.

I wonder what a 60 Minutes investigation on D&D would look like today...

 

[Obryn]

The video above is still a typical example of the way 60 Minutes spreads FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt), with very little concern for journalistic integrity. The formula works. They get viewers.

Yep.

More or less, they pretend not to take a stand - but the editing makes it clear what they really think. Their questions are pretty insane too.

"I know you had good intentions making the game, but given that a lot of people have this convincing evidence it's harmful, don't you think you should reconsider?" When there's nothing other than weak anecdotal evidence and a crazy letter from a cop.

I mean, the narrative of that clip is...

"These guys made D&D. One is a lawyer, and one is kinda arrogant. This poor lady lost her son because of D&D, and look at all these other D&D-related crimes! TSR has even threatened to sue to keep the truth coming out! See how sad she is, and how much more you like her than the people from TSR? Oh, and here's a guy who will tell you very seriously about people summoning demons with the books, and we won't present any evidence of how silly that is - we'll let you reach your OWN conclusions."

I played through the satanism scares of the early 80's. My parents were always supportive, thank goodness.

-O

 

[The Little Raven]

That's more like it.

I believe they were also the program that started the dubious process of re-recording the interviewer and their questions after recording the interviewee and their answers, so they can reframe things out of context.

 

[Ranger REG]

60 Minutes has always used selective editing to strongly imply things that are not true, while technically sticking to the rules of fair journalism. They pretty much were the first to use the practice to such widespread success, though they have certainly been copied a lot since. Keep those videos in mind, anytime a news program talks about a controversial subject where you don't personally know much.

So, that's what it called.

I've always wondered what is the term for a journalistic piece that have a writer's agenda behind it.

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

Man, no wonder I'm so screwed up.

Seriously, I remember having to deal with this crap at school from my teachers, and then coming home and getting it from my parents. Luckily, they never forbid me from playing outright, rather opting for gently nudging me away from it (I think they were hoping I would wise up on my own...silly parents!)

 

[That One Guy]

Oh man. That is LOL-tastic. LOL for sarcasm. But, seriously... People are stupid. It's funny... I've had people ask me if the game causes suicide and stuff. People my age. I'm in my early twenties. Soouhh... yeah. I do dig Gygax's attitude. There's just this sense of him being unamused with how stupid people are.

I'll admit I did think some truly childish and silly things, but when opposed to the segments... maybe not so much. 48 hour marathons? Holy crap that is impressive. Honestly, there are few things that one does for 48 hours that should not be... ya' know... considered obsessive. If a person does nothing else for that long probably has problems outside of dice rollin'. But also... I'll admit that a small part of me was slightly jealous. That would have to be a crazy epic campaign. A shallow response, I know... but I thought it.

Also, I am unaware of anyone actually summoning demons w/ D&D ever. A small part of me had to go, "They actually watched that? That's... kinda' cool."

I know... not the most mature responses, but that sort of terrible junk is the worst kind of entertainment pervasive in broadcast still. It just... sickens and offends me. Not as much as when people actually believe it. But close.

 

[WayneLigon]

That was indeed a blast from the past; thanks for finding that. It was right at the beginning of the 'Satanic Panic' era. It was literally like a disease, mutating and generalizing away from specifics like D&D to some beleiving in continent-wide conspiracies.

Thankfully, it's mostly a matter for kooks now, even in the former bastions of the faithful.

 

[Dykstrav]

Seriously, I remember having to deal with this crap at school from my teachers, and then coming home and getting it from my parents.

That's the boat I was in. The thing in my situation is that I knew my father was an ultra-conservative Christian, so when I started playing D&D, I actually brought the books to him and asked his approval. He said that it was cool.

A few months later, I was woken up very early one Saturday morning because my father had arranged for the minister to come over and have words with me about D&D. As the ENWorld rules specifically restrict discussions about religion, I'll omit the specifics of that discussion. Suffice to say that I was expected to come before the church and publicly renounce D&D and thank the people that had been praying for my soul (that requested action never happened, by the way). To this day, my playing D&D has been this huge deal because my father still likes to pretend that my D&D hobby kept him from being elected to a deaconship within his church, so he still tells the story about his defiant Satanist son behind my back at family events and the like...

Personally, I think it speaks volumes that the recent tragedy at Wizards of the Coast and Microsoft haven't been exploited by people like Patricia Pulling. They know that they just can't be taken seriously any more.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

As a teen, I spent a lot of time working to convince my parents – my mother more than my father – that playing RPGs was not going to send me off the deep end, into a spiral of black magic and murder.

Some years later, she contracted cancer. While going through treatment for the cancer, she waited until a day I was a junior college and work to collect all my gaming books she could get her hands on, and then she burned them. She blamed the “evil” associated with the books for giving her cancer. After discovering she burned $250+ worth of my gaming books, for a long time I kept my gaming books locked in the trunk of my car.

People believe what they want to believe, independent of facts and truth. They usually want to believe something that lays the blame for their troubles not on simple chance or their own culpability, but own whatever they feel to be the most vulnerable to attack. In their emotional landscape, this justifies whatever they do to something they can damage. Attempting to use reason or be reasonable with these people will fail.

That family must have been mid to high level adventures to have survived that encounter.

That made me laugh. But then a preacher of a church I attended in my teens once swore he saw a center piece on a table in a business office levitate, proof positive of evil in the vicinity.

Edit: According to a story that ran on yahoo.com News some days ago, the issue parents are most concerned about these days is not alcohol, drugs, gangs, sex or real violence, but is violent video games. The more things change…

(Maybe this is a social dissatisfaction on the part of parent because the “baby sitters” do not match preconceived notions.)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I started gaming in '77, so I too got to play through the Satanic Panic.

A couple of years after that, I discovered hard rock & metal.

Did I mention that I'm black and Catholic? My mom almost went NUTS on me at first- fortunately I was able to show her that I was still a good & practicing Catholic, and just as importantly, that D&D and Traveller, and Champions were just games.

Some of my other relatives, though...WHEW!