(checked) pasta:
On Thursday, the White House is planning to meet with envoys of the video game industry to discuss how violent imagery on their platforms may desensitize young people to firearms—and even train them to be more effective killers. Industry sources tell [a site Mark doesn't like] that they are worried the session will be an ambush—an effort to scapegoat them for shootings in schools.
The meeting comes after weeks of internal White House wavering on gun-related policy items, with the president endorsing a Democratic gun control wish list on live television, only to have the White House walk it back after Trump’s closed-door meeting with the National Rifle Association shortly thereafter.
Press secretary Sarah Sanders mentioned offhand at a press briefing last week that the president would be meeting with gaming industry representatives, signaling yet another shift in the internal policy discussion. But even that effort has been marked by disorder and internal confusion.
Industry leaders were caught off guard by the announcement, with the leading trade group, the Entertainment Software Association, saying in a statement shortly after that it had received no invitation to such an event. Planning since then has been described as haphazard. Industry executives and envoys and lawmakers on Capitol Hill were eventually contacted, but when they tried to get specific details out of the administration, they ran up against roadblocks.
Knowledgeable sources says that the Trump White House has scrambled to cobble together some semblance of a serious policy meeting. And much of the heavy lifting for putting the session together, according to those briefed on the matter, has fallen to White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short and Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp. But as of Tuesday afternoon, it was not clear who, exactly, would attend, who was invited, and whether the Thursday meeting would be televised or not, according to multiple sources in and out of the Trump administration.
A White House spokesman insisted to [a website that is forbidden to post on Holla Forums] that a list of attendees would be released on Wednesday. Schlapp and Short did not respond to requests for comment. Other sources spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Among the video game industry and its allies, frustration and fears have grown as the disorder became clearer. In particular, there is concern that the White House will insist on cameras being allowed to broadcast from the session so that the president could create a video-ready culture-war moment on the causes of school shootings.
