Media Watch
Streetsblog Basics
On Bicycle Coverage and Media Bias
Since I've been producing Streetfilms (at last count, 196 of them), rarely do I come across work in our field that I find monumentally enlightening, savvy, or high-caliber. But the latest blog post from David Hembrow's "A View from the Cycle Path..." contains an embedded video produced by Mark Wagenbuur that left me in awe. The video examines the media and public response to a road incident in the Netherlands between a reckless driver and the three cyclists he struck while they were stopped waiting for a traffic light. Please watch it through, it should be seen by everyone.
February 11, 2011
Victim’s Mother Shames CBS2 for Using Traffic Death to Bolster Carl Kruger
Last December, Sonia King lost her son Jason after a truck driver backed up illegally and ran over him while he was in the crosswalk on Madison Avenue at 81st Street, walking to work. The next month, she watched a Marcia Kramer segment on CBS2 about State Senator Carl Kruger's bid to ban walking while listening to music or talking on cell phones. The segment contained the following passage about her son's death:
February 10, 2011
Daily News to Cyclists: You Don’t Count
In today's Daily News, cartoonist Bill Bramhall continues the paper's recent assault on Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and the city's efforts to make biking safer. He manages to simultaneously imply that New Yorkers who bike are a freakish spectacle and that they don't exist.
February 8, 2011
In Attack on Sadik-Khan, the Daily News Can’t Get Its Facts Straight
It looks like the Daily News could use some fact checkers for their weekend editorials.
February 7, 2011
CBS2 Must Stop Reporting While Driving
The local news promo you're watching was broadcast on CBS2 last week to tout their "amazing new technology" -- Mobile2. What is Mobile2? According to the promo, it's "a fleet of units covering the entire Tri-State area" so that viewers at home can literally get the windshield perspective on what's going on outside.
January 31, 2011
Conflict-Hungry Press Ignoring New Yorkers With Street Safety Expertise
The latest bike story ricocheting around the local media is Mayor Bloomberg's reaction to a crowd in the Rockaways that reportedly booed the mention of bike lanes. David Seifman at the Post ran with it yesterday. Adam Lisberg at the Daily News picked up on it today. And NY1 managed to work it into a story about today's blizzard.
January 27, 2011
Some Great Story Ideas for New York Post Reporter John Doyle
Cross-posted from Naparstek.com
January 26, 2011
Response to NYC Traffic Violence Rooted in Ignorance
Even with New York City pedestrian deaths dropping in recent years, there’s no end in sight to the horror from driver-caused deaths, and little letup in police fecklessness and politicians’ and media grandstanding on traffic dangers.
January 25, 2011
Markowitz on PPW Data: It’s a Vast Biking Conspiracy
It's hard to know what to say after viewing this CBS2/Marcia Kramer segment. Watch Marty Markowitz allege that bike counts on Prospect Park West were inflated because advocates got tipped off by DOT about when the counts would happen, then biked over to use the new lane on those days. Your jaw may drop.
January 24, 2011
A Response to the Post’s Bike Coverage (and a Marcia Kramer Sighting)
Streetsblog editor emeritus Aaron Naparstek gave us a heads up about some letter writing to the Post he did earlier today. He also sends word -- and a photo -- that Marcia Kramer was out on Prospect Park West this afternoon in preparation for her next piece on the improving safety of NYC streets. Aaron says he did get some time on camera, on his cargo bike with son Saul (who's almost four, if memory serves). Sounds like great TV to me -- we'll see if they make the final cut.
January 21, 2011