MetaChat - Mainstream press uses tragedy for cheap game headline

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05 January 2007

Mainstream press uses tragedy for cheap game headline →[More:]
Seven-year-old kid dies from electrocution when unplugging his Gameboy charger, apparently while wet from the pool. The Sun reports it as a 'computer game fanatic' 'killed by Gameboy'.

I love journalists.

post by: chrismear at: 07:57 | 15 comments

A British tabloid isn't considered "mainstream press" in most of the world.

posted by BoringPostcards 05 January | 08:26

Well, most of the other ones did it as well.

posted by chrismear 05 January | 08:32

"Boy, 7, killed after plugging in Game Boy" looks like an accurate headline to me.

posted by BoringPostcards 05 January | 08:42

I hate you, and your calm rational response to events.

posted by chrismear 05 January | 09:14

I blame the parents, Jamie Oliver and Rockstar Games.
Oh - And immigrants.

posted by seanyboy 05 January | 09:25

I blame Hybrid Cars,
the growth of celebrity culture,
Both Islam and Islamaphobia.
I blame Have a Go Heros, the culture of blame,
I blame television and the internet.

I blame mums, whacked out of their gourds
on the cheap meals they got from Iceland,
the return of celebrity big brother,
cheap air travel,
multi faith schools, slap happy
chavs and Diamond Ice.

posted by seanyboy 05 January | 09:30

That link is a gaming site. They seem to take exception to any mention of the GameBoy in the headline, even though it did happen to be the object the boy was plugging or unplugging. I'm with BoringPostcards on this one... the simple mentioning of the GameBoy does not amount to a "cheap game headline".

And do we really know whether the boy was a fanatic or not? Maybe that was accurate. I mean, most kids seem pretty inseperable from their GameBoys.

I blame spong.com for overreacting to the overreaction.

posted by Doohickie 05 January | 09:47

I'm on the fence about this one. Spong.com brings up the point: would they have written, "Boy, 7, killed after plugging in lamp"? No, they would have written, "Boy, 7, electrocuted while vacationing in Thailand" or whatever.

posted by muddgirl 05 January | 09:52

A GameBoy once robbed me at knife point. Frankly I'm sick of all these game systems coming to our country and taking all our jobs. Why don't they go back to where they came from?

posted by Capn 05 January | 10:23

Priorities, man! What happened to the GameBoy?!!

posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 05 January | 10:34

would they have written, "Boy, 7, killed after plugging in lamp"? No, they would have written, "Boy, 7, electrocuted while vacationing in Thailand" or whatever.

It would probably be, "Boy, 7, electrocuted by lamp." That seems like a fine headline. What makes you think nobody would write a headline like that?

posted by BoringPostcards 05 January | 11:04

Sorry, but the game website people are the ones that look like hysterical prats here, not the Sun (and I say that as someone from Merseyside).

I'm actually surprised the tabloids didn't spin it as ANOTHER THAI HOTEL DEATH TRAP with a bit of casual racism thrown in, though, after that family got gassed last year.

posted by jack_mo 05 January | 11:12

Child Killed by Gameboy is not much of a story.

Child Killed by Ladyboy on the other hand....

posted by dodgygeezer 05 January | 11:36

DON'T TOUCH IT!

posted by essexjan 05 January | 13:27

Pup killed by laptop. (Warning, sad photo)

Burn all laptops, I say. It's the only way the puppies will ever be safe.

posted by essexjan 05 January | 13:29

← Heh. || Looks good enough to eat! →

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