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Before I picked up Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity, the only thing I knew about John Stossel was that he was a TV journalist who had a moustache I could trust. The Stossel-stache has a virile, early Sam Elliot feel, while Geraldo (a moustache you can’t trust) has the density of a late John Astin. Of course, the Stossel-stache could blossom into a full Stalin if he isn’t careful.
Stossel’s book is a myth-buster–a hard-hitting look at conventional wisdom and why that conventional wisdom is wrong. Stossel looks at everyday fallacies and tells us what the facts really are. Within the first hundred pages, I learned that gas prices are a bargain (pg. 21), polygamy isn’t cruel to women (pg. 46), and price gouging saves lives (pg. 58). I was thrilled to see Stossel take on the myth that violent video games create violent kids on page 196.
I wondered what tool Stossel would use to break this myth: would he look at studies, conduct his own research, or talk with professionals? No. Stossel writes that the truth is, “Experts get TV coverage by claiming games cause violence.” Not quite what I was hoping for. Anyway, Stossel sets his sights on one expert in particular, Dave Grossman.
I haven’t seen an I Hate Dave Grossman shirt, so I think it’s safe to say that he’s off the average gamer’s radar. Grossman is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel with a background in military science and psychology. He made his bones with On Killing, a 1995 book about “the psychological cost of learning to kill in war and society.” After the 1997 school shooting in Paducah, Kentucky, Grossman came to national attention with his theory that Michael Carneal, the shooter, was trained to kill by video games. It’s an interesting theory, but it’s one that Stossel doesn’t explore or attempt to counter.
In an interview excerpt, Stossel steers the question away from video games to professional wrestling (a topic close to Stossel), which ends with Grossman awkwardly comparing professional wrestling to pornography. Stossel later returns to Grossman after talking with a group of kids who think Grossman is full of shit and Grossman says, “Who are you going to believe? The kid? Or the surgeon general?”
The Surgeon General? Maybe Grossman has a point. But Stossel finds out that one of the Surgeon General’s sources is Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. Stossel also finds members of Congress quoting Grossman and a quick reading could lead one to believe that there’s just one guy out there saying that video games=bad–and we know that’s not that case.
Stossel has the chance to actually say something. But he doesn’t. Stossel presents an ad hominem argument, billing Grossman’s expertise as showboating, and he ends with a libertarian plea to let parents be parents. It’s a nice shell game, John, but it doesn’t help. You want to paint someone as a clueless self-promoter, then head to Miami. If you want to discredit Grossman, then use . . . um . . . facts.
You warn us on page one that the media won’t check stories out and give us objective truth, but to actually see it play out is disappointing. Is John Stossel still a moustache I can trust? I’m just not sure–and telling me that I can marry my cousin (pg. 198) doesn’t help.