Poor Journalists Love Click-Bait (A response to The Young Turks)

Was that title inflammatory?  Oh, I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have made a title that was so deliberately made to increase clicks.  But I was just so inspired by a recent video that I saw on The Young Turks YouTube channel.  Indeed, this video saw fit to do nothing but exploit a current online trend to get clicks.  The same way as The Drudge Report or The Mary Sue does.  Oh yeah, I am putting this publication with them.  Why?  Because, to be honest with, I am seeing that The Young Turks were always like this.  I used to watch and enjoy their coverage.  I think that Ana Kasparian is the last vestige of anything approaching objectivity on their network.  The rest are a bunch of self-righteous, bourgeois liberals who, as Carlin once said, “think the only thing wrong with the world is there aren’t enough bicycle paths.”  Oh, and that insulting anything having to do with Islam is wrong.  And that all women and black people need them and their ilk to stand up for them.  In other words – sexist, racist, unbelievably condescending-left wing of this country.  And these people report the news.

In the past, I have gone after Fox News and conservative media for how bad it is.  I still do, from time to time.  But let’s go after someone more on my side of the fence.  Granted, I am not on the same extreme-left side of the spectrum.  But I am on the left.  I know, shocking.  One of the first defenses that these people have when confronted by an opposing view is to say that someone is conservative.  Hey Cenk, if you ever see this – Find proof that I’m conservative.  I dare ya.  Or rather, have your unpaid interns find it.  When’s the last time that you did real research?  You gotta rehearse your schtick for the camera.

A recent video on their network, entitled, “Gaming Losers Hate Women,” (yes, that’s the caliber of “journalism” that we’re dealing with here) decided to find a study that is absolute garbage and then use it to justify click-bait.  I’ll share the video, then we’ll talk about it.

First off – Halo 3?  Not even the Master Chief Collection version, either.  The Xbox 360 one.  That’s their “source?”  Wow.  Right out of the gate with bad science.  Now, don’t get me wrong – just because the game is old doesn’t mean it doesn’t have people playing.  Look at how big Team Fortress 2 is.  The old version of Tribes still has dedicated players.  But do you honestly believe that a game that outdated is a good source to use for a study that isn’t old?

Next, to head off people making this point – yes, there are PLENTY of guys online who troll women who get online.  I am up front about that.  Shitty people exist in every medium.  Why, just look what the social justice crowd is up to these days.  Shitty people are in every community.  But if you think that the shitty people represent the majority, and your only evidence is this ONE study that looks at an outdated game that can’t have a lot of players on it, then you are out of your mind.

And I just love that little way that you say that not only are the guys who are rude to women, but that they also are nice to the guys who win.  Are you shitting me?  This is why it’s not good to make click-bait videos about one study.  Because then you miss out on things.  See, if they had done their study on the most recent Call of Duty game, they might have seen a different picture.  Like the ENDLESS shit-talking that goes on in online gaming.  It never stops!  That’s the nature of the beast.  You know where the term tea-bagging came from?  The first Halo and what people would do in multiplayer.  Online gaming, especially competitive FPS games, are the most smack-talk-ridden places one can go.  That’s just how it works.  Ana, you can argue about how our culture pushes things all you want, but it helps to have your facts straight.  Online gaming is about shit-talking and being a dick.  Skill is rewarded, but the term “camper” exists for a reason.  “Noob” exists for a reason.  Online shit-talking is the backbone of many a games’ chat.  It has ALWAYS been like this.  Another thing that the people who wrote this study that you did your story on failed to notice.

I was glad to see the lady they brought in to comment on this was able to see this more objectively.  That was a step in the right direction.  But, did anyone notice how nothing of any merit was really talked about here?  Cenk clearly didn’t know thing-one about this medium.  His little “doing this” and making it look like he was playing with a controller was juvenile, but it showed that he had no investment in this.  Kasparian and her instant need to get on the culture that she believes creates this was a sign that she had no connection to it.

Not one person associated with this, aside from the lady they had from Nerd Alert, seemed to give two shits about this.  So why talk about it?  Why go out of their way to make a story that they KNEW was going to invite gamer traffic?  I’ll tell you – for the same reason that Nightline decided to make a hit-piece about GamerGate, that they later admitted was nothing but click-bait.  For the same reason that The Mary Sue makes any article at all.  They wanted to get clicks.  This is what journalism has become.  The Fifth Estate is nothing but click-bait and a growing sense of ennui as our media has resigned itself to – let’s just capitalize on controversy!  Because that’s where the REAL quality of news is, right?  Whether it be Cenk and his half-assed attempt to make 2nd Amendment debates into a race issue, or NPR doing an unboxing video (I shit you not, it really happened.  And they even said in the story that they were doing this because it was popular.  Unreal), this is what journalism has stooped to.

Turks, this is just pathetic..  This is a new low, and that’s coming from me.  You have stooped to the bottom of the barrel, just so you can keep the income flowing in.  Honestly, how you all can look at yourselves in the mirror and think, “yeah, this is totally the person I want to be” is beyond me.

Until next time, a quote,

“If there is one mental vice, indeed, which sets off the American people from all other folks who walk the earth, it is that of assuming that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that ninety-nine percent of them are wrong.”  -H.L. Mencken

Peace out,

Maverick