Friends informed me that I was on Media Watch last night!
Luckily both a video and transcript are up online.
A number of weeks ago, I was incensed to read about the misinformation that the Daily Telegraph is putting up about cycling, combined with their endless vendetta against Clover Moore.
I find it unbelievable that such a mainstream and widely read newspaper blatantly lies. Their ‘facts’ on cycling are not even distorted. They are just wrong. It seems perhaps that they may not even care much about bikes anyways. They’ve just found an issue that they can exploit among their readership and use in a political way.
Is there anywhere else in the world with such an anti-bike sentiment? Cyclists are killed by drivers here on a regular basis, harassed and bullied. Most countries and people think cycling is a great thing: great for the environment, great for people’s health, great for cities and communities.
I love my adopted country of Australia… but not the shitty attitude about cycling.
Meanwhile, I’m amused that a tweet of mine made it on national TV. That’s the way the world seems to communicate these days, by tweets and public opinions. I’m not particularly active on twitter either. I just felt passionate about the issue… It’s also a bit strange as I copied most of the tweet from someone named Gerry Gaffney.
He wrote:
Nice to see #onyerbike trend today in response to the @dailytelegraph‘s hysterical, ill-researched and biased headline article.
So, I thought I’d keep the trend going by tweeting:
@dailytelegraph‘s hysterical, biased headline article creates a dangerous climate for cyclists in Sydney.
onyerbike
Just the right combination of words, obviously, to catch Media Watch’s attention!
Check out the transcript from Media Watch’s 23 Sept 13 story on the Daily Telegraph’s campaign against cycling and Clover Moore.