{"id":164490006,"date":"2010-03-19T19:40:06","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T19:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=164490006"},"modified":"2010-03-19T19:40:06","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T19:40:06","slug":"kornheiser-versus-lance-who-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=164490006","title":{"rendered":"Kornheiser versus Lance: Who Wins?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Short version: Kornheiser has profited by advocating violence toward cyclists and that’s not right.]
\nBy Andy Clarke President, League of American Bicyclists
\nFor the umpteenth time in the last five years, a radio show host who is paid to be controversial decides that picking on cyclists would be funny. He makes all the usual comments about spandex, and cyclists being in the way, and not belonging on the road. Then he crosses the line and says that \u201ctapping\u201d a cyclist from behind is OK. You know the drill. Except this time, the commentator in nationally syndicated bad boy Tony Kornheiser, the radio station is ESPN, and his remarks got the attention of a certain Lance Armstrong.
\nNot surprisingly, Lance gets pissed off and tweets his millions of followers to share their outrage. He calls Kornheiser to put him straight. That\u2019s what we all want to do. We are all thinking \u201cHow could anyone be so stupid and say that, even if they think they are just being funny.\u201d We want to go on the show and put the record straight. Get an apology. Remind people we\u2019ve got a right to the road. Ask for some respect out there. All credit to Lance for doing that and for getting the apology; I heard he did a great job (listen here). We\u2019ve been on the phone with the station managers since it happened last Friday \u2013 Lance clearly has pull!
\nMy anxiety is this. Kornheiser got all the attention he wanted and so did the show. That\u2019s what he\u2019s paid to do. He got Lance Armstrong on his show \u2013 how cool is that? With a little controversy thrown in for good measure. We\u2019ve learned from numerous previous incidents \u2013 one as recently as two weeks ago in the Raleigh area \u2013 that the only way to deal with this kind of nonsense in the longer term is with the station managers and owners directly. Five years ago, Clear Channel instituted a strong disciplinary policy on this topic after a series of horrible incidents on their stations, and it worked. Since then we\u2019ve done battle with Entercomm \u2013 local Boston retailers Landry\u2019s set them straight \u2013 and others. Some of the \u201cpersonalities\u201d have been taken off the air and disciplined.
\nI probably would have encouraged Lance to call the ESPN owners to say he wouldn\u2019t appear on their networks again until Kornheiser not only apologized but also was taken off the air and made to do some PSAs and public appearances (maybe even in spandex\u2026) at local charity bike events; maybe until ESPN agreed to sponsor Bike to Work Day or a Safe Routes to School initiative\u2026 As plenty of people have said, if he gets two weeks off the air for criticizing a colleague\u2019s fashion sense, surely exhorting people to potentially kill cyclists ought to generate some kind of meaningful punishment. More meaningful than getting to chat with one of the greatest sports personalities on the planet.
\nCredit to WashCycle for being all over this story.
\n
\nhttps:\/\/www.bikeleague.org\/blog\/2010\/03\/kornheiser-versus-lance-who-wins\/<\/a>oldId.20100319194006669<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Short version: Kornheiser has profited by advocating violence toward cyclists and that’s not right.] By Andy Clarke President, League of American Bicyclists For the umpteenth time in the last five years, a radio show host who is paid to be controversial decides that picking on cyclists would be funny. He makes all the usual comments … <\/p>\n

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