Culture crusaders: who's who in Trump's gun violence roundtable

As Donald Trump convenes a meeting on Thursday to address violence in video games, in the wake of last month's Florida school shooting, those in attendance will include a group that argues the Muppets drink too much, and another committed to exposing strident liberal bias on television. The president's round table at the White House will be the latest in a series of discussions on school safety after a gunman left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman high school in Parkland on 14 February. And although representatives of the mainstream Entertainment Software Association and executives from other gaming parent companies are slated to attend, they will be seated across from a bevy of culture crusaders who have sought to tie mass shootings to violence in video games and movies – despite decades of research failing to produce such a link. In attendance will be retired Lt Col Dave Grossman, the author of Assassination Generation: Video Games, Aggression, and the Psychology of Killing, a book that purports to "reveal how violent video games have ushered in a new era of mass homicide". Grossman characterizes himself as an expert in "killology". Also present will be Melissa Henson, an advocate from the Parents Television Council, a group that has stood in staunch opposition to depictions of or allusions to sex and violence in entertainment.