{"id":168172882,"date":"2010-05-01T10:41:22","date_gmt":"2010-05-01T10:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=168172882"},"modified":"2010-05-01T10:41:22","modified_gmt":"2010-05-01T10:41:22","slug":"road-rights-kornheiser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=168172882","title":{"rendered":"Road Rights- Kornheiser"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bob Mionske
\n…
\nBut what if the character\u2019s wrath is directed at a group that has historically been the target of violence? Suppose, for example, that the character expresses his dislike of …
\nReasonable people would rightly be appalled by such offensive and dangerous hate speech masquerading as entertainment, and would expect that the personality be removed from the air, and even that the station be disciplined by the FCC\u2014particularly if the station had done nothing to prevent the foray into this type of humor, or winked at the jokes afterward.
\nAnd yet, as we all know, every now and then, some radio personality goes on a tear about cyclists, and inevitably, tells listeners to lob drinks at them, door them, and of course, run them down. Now, if the radio personality was ranting about Little Leaguers, the incongruity of the rant might seem humorous to some. But Little Leaguers aren\u2019t subjected to threatened or actual acts of violence every day; cyclists are.
\nDaily, cyclists have drinks lobbed at them, have doors maliciously opened by passing motorists, are run off the road, and even run down, simply because they are on a bike. Sometimes, they\u2019re even \u201cjust tapped,\u201d as ESPN\u2019s Tony Kornheiser recently urged . Perhaps the most common threat of violence against cyclists is one we\u2019re all too familiar with\u2014the buzz, where the driver passes within inches of us at high speed. Occasionally, a driver may truly have miscalculated the distance, or just plain didn\u2019t see the cyclist. More often, I believe, the driver is intentionally threatening the cyclist. You can be sure it\u2019s intentional when the driver checks his rear-view mirror for your reaction. In fact, I\u2019m convinced that some \u201caccidents\u201d are buzzes gone awry\u2014the driver intended to scare the cyclist, but didn\u2019t expect that the close pass would result in a collision. And New Zealand police say that drivers are intentionally targeting cyclists. I\u2019m convinced that\u2019s a problem that\u2019s not just limited to New Zealand (or Australia). It happens here too.
\nSo the violence is real, and virtually every cyclist has experienced some aspect of it. This is why entertainment stirring anti-cyclist hatred and urging violence against cyclists is akin to hate speech urging violence against groups that are actually subject to real violence, rather than humor that wasn\u2019t meant to be taken seriously.
\n…
\nSo what was it that triggered Kornheiser\u2019s murderous rant?(( A bicycle lane.
\nYes, a bicycle lane. Recently, Washington D.C. announced a plan to extend bicycle lanes currently existing on 15th Street to Pennsylvania Avenue, and along Pennsylvania Avenue, from the White House to the Capitol. Because of this, Kornheiser urged ESPN listeners to go out and murder cyclists at random. Or at least, give them \u201ca tap.\u201d
\nNever mind that the physically separated lanes that Washington is installing keep cyclists out of the way of drivers, and vice versa. Never mind that the random cyclists who would be the victims of the violence Kornheiser was advocating had nothing to do with the bicycle lanes in the first place. Never mind the fact that cyclists are just people\u2014friends, neighbors, family\u2014trying to get somewhere safely, just like everybody else. Facts and logic have never dissuaded the irrational rageaholics who attack cyclists, and they had no place in Kornheiser\u2019s reasoning either.
\n…
\n
\nhttps:\/\/www.bicyclelaw.com\/road-rights\/a.cfm\/road-rights-kornheiser<\/a>oldId.20100501104122517<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Mionske … But what if the character\u2019s wrath is directed at a group that has historically been the target of violence? Suppose, for example, that the character expresses his dislike of … Reasonable people would rightly be appalled by such offensive and dangerous hate speech masquerading as entertainment, and would expect that the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Road Rights- Kornheiser”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168172882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168172882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=168172882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168172882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=168172882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=168172882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=168172882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}