Any minute now, someone will steal your car and drive it recklessly through crowded city streets on the way to an abandoned warehouse, where it will inevitably blow up in an epic shootout involving missile launchers and strippers. I'm not joking. That is a scenario from Grand Theft Auto IV, which recently set the record for the highest-grossing first week of sales for a video game — more than $500-million. According to politicians like Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and New York City's Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the growing popularity of the game poses a clear and present danger to American society.

Critics warn that anyone who plays the game will end up doing in the real world exactly what they do in the virtual world. In other words, watch out for a run on missile launchers and vigilante strippers.

My incredulous tone aside, I really don't see this issue as a joke. Frequently voiced claims about the entertainment media's deleterious influence on society reveal a pattern of human contempt and social hostility that is beginning to grow deep roots in our culture.

I'm not wagging my finger at the more than six million people in this country who are playing Grand Theft Auto IV, however. I'm pointing my finger at those people, particularly politicians, who continue to harp on the supposed social dangers of video games, and explicit media content in general. There are some very troubling ethical blind spots inherent in media-effects claims. We need a more socially aware form of ethical reasoning capable of framing our critical responses to media content.