Editor’s note: KGUN9’s video would not embed in the page. You can watch it here.
KGUN9 produced a follow up to yesterday’s story, which many said was biased against cyclists and contained no quotes from bike riders.
I called the reporter and news director to express my frustration as a journalist with yesterday’s piece because cyclists weren’t represented in the story and because of the reporter’s editorializing. I also offered to speak with them for any future story they were going to do about cycling.
I also spoke with the news director, who said he couldn’t comment on the story and the language used without speaking to his corporate office. He did, however, point me to the comment he left on the online version.
“In reference to some of the comments below… after watching the story, if anyone still thinks the cyclist caught on video was not a “butthead”, then this is the place to say so. But we tend to call things like we see them at KGUN9, and that’s our call in this instance.”
They decided to follow up with the cyclists perspective this time around.
As it turns out, “Big Al, there traffic pal” thought he caught cyclists breaking the law by riding two abreast while one of them wasn’t in the bike lane.
The Oro Valley Police Department educated the reporters that their actions were actually legal and if the traffic van had tried passing them without giving them enough room, the news crew could have been cited.
To get the cyclists point of view, they stopped by a party I was attending to speak with me.
The reporters asked about the video of the rider who was holding on to the car and, “what our beef is with Tucson drivers.”
Rather than add fuel to the fire and sensationalize the story I hoped to add a calm and rational voice to the discussion.
Hopefully I accomplished that.
You can read the online version of their story here: Cyclists Spin Road Debate in their Favor
The reporters were requesting video of motorists behaving badly, BB left a link to his YouTube page with just that. You can check that out here.
What do you think?
I just finished reading the KGUN9 follow up. It still seems pretty biased and mostly defensive. If the news director is going to defend the “moron” and “butthead” comment then KGUN9 has gone the way of cable news. If you can call editorializing and sensationalizing news and journalism. I thought your comments to reporters were good. Adding fuel to the fire won’t help.
The follow up was a s bad as the initial story. LAME.
“Cyclists Spin Road Debate in Their Favor”, really? That’s not a followup, that’s an editorial slam.
That said, I watched some of the videos of bad drivers and I gotta say, either I’m not riding enough or I haven’t had the luck some of you’ve had with cars.
Does the new article include words such as “dude,” “moron”, or “butthead?”
Oh my gosh, BB’s videos are really horrifying. My dad had a road rage incident like his happen. People wonder why I’m a little scared to ride by myself.
The first piece explained that bikes have to follow the same laws as cars. The second video doesn’t mention anything on how cars should coexist with bikes.
They should send a camera crew with under cover police checking on the 3 foot rule.