Ever wonder why politicians tend to use video games as scapegoats for society's ills?  The answer to that question is a very long multi-part essay, but here's the condensed version: money.  Other large entertainment industries have enjoyed the privileges that come with donating lots and lots of money to political campaigns which (as you can imagine) include staying out of the line of fire on censorship crusades.  Lash out against, say, movies and all that sweet Hollywood money dries up.  Why would a politician bite the hand that feeds him or her?  it's more financially sound to go after the gaming industry which up until now did not have an organized political action committee.  With news that the industry is forming such a committee comes word from the prying watchdogs groups that they plan to shout long and hard about which politicians accept money from Big Gaming.

The news that the videogame industry plans to make campaign donations to politicians has gotten conservative watchdog group Parents Television Council ready to "expose" any legislator who accepts the donation. "Any public servant who cashes a check from the video game industry will be exposed by the PTC as taking a stand against families, and his or her actions will be communicated to constituents in his or her congressional district," said PTC president Tim Winter in a statement earlier this week.

Legal financial donations are already done "in the sunshine", as it were.  Records of who donated money to which campaign are already recorded and made available to the public.  Ideally the PTC plans to badmouth any politician who accepts a donation, but these kinds of things work both ways.  Let the PTC shake its angry fist at the sky and announce all the names it wants.  That'll make it easier for gamers to know just which campaigns to support.  Better yet, since these kinds of donations are public record, what's to stop someone from "exposing" politicians who accept money from groups like the PTC?