Channel 7 news tonight

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Joel Mayes
Had a story on the `Hell Ride', very anti-bicycle they followed the ride in a chopper and show
footage of cars driving on the wrong side of the road to over take then cutting in front of the
cyclist with a voice over talking about how these ``mad cyclist'' are forcing drivers to drive
dangerously(!) by taking up lanes on the road, also showed footage of the bunch going through a T-
junction with traffic lights with a voice over about cyclist running red lights, even though the
colour of the light wasn't visible in the footage.

--
| Joel Mayes | /~\ ASCII Ribbon campaign Accordionist | \_/ stop HTML mail and news Musician | / \
| Music Teacher |

G'day Joel,

I did the 'hell ride' on Saturday. Everybody was concerned when the channel 7 chopper followed the whole ride, that it was going to be another negative story on cyclists. I did't see 7 news, (does anyone) but nothing they do surprises me. I'd like to thank those 'critical mass' morons for getting this type of story back on the agenda!......BTW, the 'Hell Ride' was extremely well behaved...I got dropped early, but a few mates held on & they didn't recall ANY red lights being run........so what are we going to do about it?.....I vote we all boycott channel 7....shouldn't be too hard...since they lost the footy I don't think I've watched any of their offerings anyway (LOL),

cheers,

Hitchy

Joel Mayes <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Had a story on the `Hell Ride', very anti-bicycle they followed the ride in a chopper and show
footage of cars driving on the wrong side of the road to over take then cutting in front of the
cyclist with a voice over talking about how these ``mad cyclist'' are forcing drivers to drive
dangerously(!) by taking up lanes on the road, also showed footage of the bunch going through a
T-junction with traffic lights with a voice over about cyclist running red lights, even though the
colour of the light wasn't visible in the footage.

Selective editing, a common trait for this slop. The T intersection was terrible. You had know way
of knowing if the bunch did have a green light.

But. Gotta admit, the footage of 5-6 wide cyclists and into the second lane didn't look to flash,
with cars trying get past.

Beautiful moment at the shocking spot around Charman Rd where the road becomes one lane. A big one
is going to happen there one day.

Quoted message said:

but a few mates held on & they didn't recall ANY red lights being run

They were all YELLOW officer, all 56* of them stu 🙂

*(thats a rough count from an old melways)

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Stu
>but a few mates held on & they didn't recall ANY red lights being run
They were all YELLOW officer, all 56* of them stu 🙂

*(thats a rough count from an old melways)

g'day,

You wouldn't be bucking for a job at 7 by any chance would you Stu?....you obviously weren't there on Sat anyway, (& I do appreciate the comment is tongue in cheek!)......it would seem to me that following the whole 1 & 1/2 hours of the hell ride to get 2 mins worth of footage might be overkill......wonder what a chopper costs to fly for that long.....the whole story reminds me of the old show by the 'panel' guys, "Frontline".....you know, think of a story, put your own skew on it....then go find some selectively edited footage to prove your point.....just as well it was on 7 though....If it had of been on a station with some viewers.......,

cheers,

Hitchy

Couldn't believe that they cut off that police office right at the end of the story. He said something about drivers having to start respecting cyclists. I bet he had a lot more to say than that. They didn't explore that side of things at all and just put a token sentence in there as if that would add balance to the whole story.

On 29 Feb 2004 11:37:19 GMT, Joel Mayes <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Had a story on the `Hell Ride', very anti-bicycle they followed the ride in a chopper and show
footage of cars driving on the wrong side of the road to over take then cutting in front of the
cyclist with a voice over talking about how these ``mad cyclist'' are forcing drivers to drive
dangerously(!) by taking up lanes on the road, also showed footage of the bunch going through a T-
junction with traffic lights with a voice over about cyclist running red lights, even though the
colour of the light wasn't visible in the footage.

Reminds me of the channel 9 footage not long ago where the voice-over talked about running a red at
a pedestrian crossing (complete with pedestrian starting to cross and jumping back in fright), when
you could see that the light was red for the pedestrian who was a channel 9 employee.

Funny thing is that one of the journos at 7 is a keen cyclist/triathlete.

--
Regards. Richard.

"Hitchy" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Stu said:

Quoted message said:

but a few mates held on & they didn't recall ANY red lights being run

They were all YELLOW officer, all 56* of them stu 🙂 *(thats a rough count from an old
melways)

2 mins worth of footage

Quoted message said:

might be overkill......wonder what a chopper costs to fly for that long.....

<snip>

Maybe they were hoping for some carnage for their show... I mean News.

That might be Jennifer Adams - I saw her in Cafe Racer one Saturday morning all decked out in
cycling gear...

Hitchy <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Joel Mayes wrote:

[snip]>

Quoted message said:

I did the 'hell ride' on Saturday. Everybody was concerned when the channel 7 chopper followed
the whole ride, that it was going to be another negative story on cyclists. I did't see 7 news,
(does anyone) but nothing they do surprises me. I'd like to thank those 'critical mass' morons
for getting this type of story back on the agenda!......BTW, the 'Hell Ride' was extremely well
behaved...I got dropped early, but a few mates held on & they didn't recall ANY red lights
being run........so what are we going to do about it?.....I vote we all boycott channel
7....shouldn't be too hard...since they lost the footy I don't think I've watched any of their
offerings anyway (LOL),

They had footage of the ride going into Frankston (I think) as the bunch spreads across the lanes as
guys try to get a better position for the hills. It was very selective editing, but there was no
doubt the bunch was taking up two lanes and holding a line of cars up behind it in the second lane.
This was more the crux of the storey, in that the Hell Ride rarely rides just two a breast and
commonly will take up more than one lane.

And in my expereince, on a big day, this happens often. And it seems, this, more than anything,
pisses motorists off, forcing them to take risks to go around.

You should consider the risk vs gain of such a ride, and consider the three ambulances, the dozen
riders down, the broken hip and collarbones of last Tuesday's Nth road ride.

Jess said:

That might be Jennifer Adams - I saw her in Cafe Racer one Saturday morning all decked out in
cycling gear...

If you were responding to my post above, I was thinking of Jonathon Creek. Rides a very nice
looking Wilier.

Channel 7 (Melb) used to do news. So they got rid of their news editor.

--
Regards. Richard.

"rickster" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hitchy <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Joel Mayes wrote:

[...]

Quoted message said:

And in my expereince, on a big day, this happens often. And it seems, this, more than anything,
pisses motorists off, forcing them to take risks to go around.

Not just motorists! I don't do a lot if cycling and have very little experience with bunches like
this. My only experience was bad. I went in the Sydney to the 'Gong last year. I was appalled to see
(in a nice casual ride like that) bunches of flash looking riders going down the 2nd of two lanes so
they could get past all us "slow" riders.

I guess the pack mentality (we are a large group, we are invincible) is in us all, and I can
understand how it would feel to be part of the pack but I have to ask - is it really worth it?

Brian.

Brian Watson said:

Not just motorists! I don't do a lot if cycling and have very little experience with bunches like
this. My only experience was bad. I went in the Sydney to the 'Gong last year. I was appalled to
see (in a nice casual ride like that) bunches of flash looking riders going down the 2nd of two
lanes so they could get past all us "slow" riders.

You put enough humans in one place, you're going to get the usual proportion of [censored], be they
cyclists (flash-looking or otherwise), motorists, or Channel 7 news executives.

&roo

Joel Mayes said:

Had a story on the `Hell Ride', very anti-bicycle they followed the ride in a chopper and show
footage of cars driving on the wrong side of the road to over take then cutting in front of the
cyclist with a voice over talking about how these ``mad cyclist'' are forcing drivers to drive
dangerously(!) by taking up lanes on the road, also showed footage of the bunch going through a
T-junction with traffic lights with a voice over about cyclist running red lights, even though the
colour of the light wasn't visible in the footage.

The riders should get a group together, sue them for slander. Must be something about inciting
hatred that could be thrown in there too.

Apart from thousands in a settlement, a nice apology and prime-time retraction could be satisfying.

-kt

Joel Mayes said:

Had a story on the `Hell Ride', very anti-bicycle they followed the

Heh... Should have called it the "Heck Ride"; then no-one would be upset 😉

-kt

Quoted message said:

You should consider the risk vs gain of such a ride, and consider the

Quoted message said:

three ambulances, the dozen riders down, the broken hip and

Quoted message said:

collarbones of last Tuesday's Nth road ride

What [censored]. There was no correlation between cars, lanes, drivers and last Tuesday's accident. Dozen
riders down is [censored] too. That accident had nothing to do with the issue being discussed. That's what
causes a lot of the frustrations between bikes and cars - people throwing in red herrings!

"rickster" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

And in my expereince, on a big day, this happens often. And it seems, this, more than anything,
pisses motorists off, forcing them to take risks to go around.

Nothing FORCES anyone to take risks. They choose to do so.

They wouldn't do it if it was a slow car/tractor/truck in front of them. So why MUST they squeeze
past just because it's a human powered vehicle?

---
Cheers

PeterC

[Rushing headlong: out of control - and there ain't no stopping]
[and there's nothing you can do about it at all]

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Peter Cremasco
Nothing FORCES anyone to take risks. They choose to do so.

They wouldn't do it if it was a slow car/tractor/truck in front of them. So why MUST they squeeze
past just because it's a human powered vehicle?
[/B]

This is all too common everywhere. Motorists overtake cyclists in the most ridiculous places, where they would never consider overtaking other "vehicles". I have taken to riding in the centre of the lane for two reasons:

1) The LHS is where all the patches, holes, broken glass, stones, frayed tarmac edges, soft shoulders etc. etc. exist (not a safe place to be).

2) Stupid motorists are less inclined to squeeze past in stupid places - they just get [censored] that they have to use the brake or take their foot off the accelerator.

BTW a previous post suggested that the news reporter/ editor might apologise for a biased story. In your dreams. Apparently there is no compulsion for reports to be unbiased or balanced under the voluntary code.

Michael Day <[email hidden]> wrote in message [email hidden]

[...]

Quoted message said:

What [censored]. There was no correlation between cars, lanes, drivers and last Tuesday's accident.
Dozen riders down is [censored] too. That accident had nothing to do with the issue being discussed.
That's what causes a lot of the frustrations between bikes and cars - people throwing in red
herrings!

What happened?

--

"I'm proud that I live in a country where witnessing two hours of bloody, barbarous torture in
gloating detail is considered indicia of religious piety, whereas a mere second gazing upon a
woman's breast is cause for outraged apoplexy." Betty Bowers,
bettybowers.commelgibsonpassion.htmlOpen ↗

"Michael Day" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

You should consider the risk vs gain of such a ride, and consider the

Quoted message said:

three ambulances, the dozen riders down, the broken hip and

Quoted message said:

collarbones of last Tuesday's Nth road ride

What [censored]. There was no correlation between cars, lanes, drivers and last Tuesday's accident.
Dozen riders down is [censored] too. That accident had nothing to do with the issue being discussed.
That's what causes a lot of the frustrations between bikes and cars - people throwing in red
herrings!

I'm pointing out the risk of big bunch rides compared to the gain they give you. At no point did I
suggest a correlation/connection between the accident and traffic. Big bunch rides are much more
dangerous than riding in a small group and I question the benefit of being in one.

And it looked like about 12 riders to me, but in the half light, maybe it was less.