On Wednesday, the Washington Post published a piece that has since earned widespread ridicule on the Internet, where two reporters tried to pressure major video game companies into taking a stance on the Supreme Court’s impending overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Fox News reports, the Post’s video game reporters Nathan Grayson and Shannon Liao wrote an article titled “As Roe v. Wade repeal looms, video game industry stays mostly silent.” As the title suggests, most major game publishers have stayed out of the debate; only Bungie, the Sony-owned studio behind “Destiny 2,” has released a statement in support of “reproductive rights.”
The authors then note that numerous video game companies, after intense mob pressure, spoke out in support of Black Lives Matter in 2020, and then initially got behind the astroturfed “Stop Asian Hate” campaign in 2021.
“In both of those cases,” the article notes, “many big companies released statements, donated to charitable causes, updated internal policies and added in-game features to allow players to express their support.”
“The Washington Post contacted 20 major video game companies about whether they planned to make a statement regarding Roe’s potential repeal or provide employees with monetary aid in places where abortions would no longer be available,” the two reporters continued. “Only Microsoft and Activision Blizzard responded with statements.”
Critics quickly pounced on the article on social media, pointing out that the Post was trying to intimidate such companies into making statements on an issue that largely does not affect them.
“Washington Post wants to bully video game companies into taking a stance on abortion and provide $$ for employees to get abortions,” said radio host Jason Rantz. “This is activism journalism — and it’s disturbing.”
“Bullying people into political activism is what passes for journalism these days,” wrote RealClearInvestigations senior writer Mark Hemingway.
Others mocked the fact that the Post saw fit to turn their focus to video game companies, instead of other more important industries.
“Is the expectation that Mario should be the purveyor of your moral epistemology?” said journalist Zaid Jilani, in reference to the iconic character created by Nintendo, a Japanese company.
Radio host Dana Loesch mocked the article with her own parody headline, saying “As Roe v Wade repeal looms, the toilet cleaning industry, most notably Scrubbing Bubbles, stays mostly silent.”