by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
November 26, 2004
Last Monday, on the 41st anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a video game called JFK Reloaded was released for sale. Players are able to view the late president’s motorcade from the vantage point of the 6th story window of the Texas Schoolbook Depository where Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy. The object of the game is to shoot at the street below and try to replicate the shots that Oswald was believed to have made. The game’s manufacturer told the associated Press that he believes that Oswald acted alone and that the sequence of the shots that the lone assassin made was extremely difficult but not impossible. The game allows people to try and debunk all the conspiracy theories that indicated Lee Harvey Oswald could not have been the only gunman.
Naturally, the media paid a lot of attention to the game’s debut. The news articles all quoted representatives of Senator Edward Kennedy or other family members giving their views about how “despicable” they thought the game was. The Canadian media covered the news in the same way that the american media covered it.
What was interesting about the Canadian media’s coverage was the comparison between the Kennedy and the antics that former Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish performed on the CBC’s This Hour has 22 Minutes. Parrish was given a George W. Bush action figure that she proceeded to stomp on, after which she was given a pen and asked if it were a pin, where would she stick it. Parrish opined that she would put it where it would do the least damage and then proceeded to stick it in the doll’s head. at the insistence of the fake 22 Minutesreporter, Parrish then inflicted the last, and probably the worst indignity upon the doll; she kissed it on the lips.
Interestingly enough, the Canadian media that was so quick to point out how “despicable” a video game is when it portrays violence against a president who is nothing more than a historical figure, they expressed absolutely no concern for the family of the still living Bush. While the Parrish incident was covered from the point of view of her actions, the aspect of the fake violence to Bush, similar to fake violence of the JFK video game, was never an issue.
If the Canadian media, especially the CBC that’s taking kudos for its production of This Hour has 22 Minutes, were so concerned about what Ted Kennedy and the rest of the clan think about violence, you would think they be interested in what those close to President Bush think of the Stompin’ Carolyn Parrish incident. But they don’t. as far as they were concerned, Carolyn did good.