Bust the bias against
bicycles!
And bias against all nonmotorized and alternative
transportation modes.
Can you believe this
crapola?
The ad disappeared the next day (above),
April 23rd, 1998. A copy remains:
While investigating police bias
against bicycles, I found this most ironic
web ad (above). This kind of
image, showing a pedestrian run over by a car,
which presumes an
automobile-superiorist attitude of its audience, is highly offensive. One
could make the case
that it is hate speech.
The article was called,
"S.F. bike riders say their complaints are too often
ignored", By Anastasia Hendrix, SF Examiner, February 27th,
1998. How ironic! (On the second
try I got a basketball-coopting ad instead).
Perhaps you'd like to
send a complaint
send thanks
to the
sfgate website and the papers who's stories are used to
sell
advertisements there, or fill out their feedback form?
Subtle bias: scope and solidarity
errors.
The following article on
Transit Man
was much appreciated but neglected to mention Transit Man's dedication to
preserving the
Transbay
Terminal
(without which he shall perish!) and his championing
of the rights of all people to travel--whether by bike, bus, or train. The
title says it all:
The Apostle of Pedal Power, Scott Winokur, SF
Examiner, April 21st, 1998. Naturally, the article came up on
the sfgate.com website with this ad:
No taste--but what do you expect from GM, a
corporation larger than most countries, the corporation largely responsible
for killing the cable cars?
Interestingly, the columnist reported on
the pirate radio show, Bicycle Liberation Radio, but only in the general
sense--saying he couldn't tune it in, but not giving the call number (104.1
FM) for Free Radio Berkeley. A
month ago, the Examiner rather scrambled the information for this show,
which has aired after Critical Masses around the Bay Area--every Friday
night from 9 PM to midnight--for over three years now. (And
the Examiner is a relatively good paper on bike issues!). You can
call the studio to go on the air at (510) 594-8082, any time of the day or
night. People have been known to get it in the Mission, at Pt. San
Quentin, in Alameda, and beyond. Run a copper wire up a tree from your
antenna if you have trouble getting the station. Why bother? Because this
is very open media, which allows self-correction of bias through debate,
dialogue, and listener input, much more than any mass medias source (which
are by and large owned and manipulated by only a handfull of massive
corporations at this point). And, there are no
commercials.
FREE RADIO HAS JUST BEEN FORCED OFF THE AIR BY
AN INJUNCTION. ARGH!
Then there was the spam
attack by a Marin autodealership's hired ad company.
They dared to
spam perhaps several thousand people on Bay Area bicycle
email
lists.
This
message was one activist's response to that offensive spam, sent to MarinInfiniti@autotown.com.
Of course, the perennial favorite
for exposing media bias against bicyclists
is the e-media site: http://www.e-media.com/cm.
Discussions of a car
commercial resulting from this page...
Remember July 25th, 1997?
A documentary is
now available which exposes the lies, corruption,
and police violence of that day.
One news broadcast on the
Monday following, on KGO-7,
featured a description of the home cities of
riders (falsely)
arrested. Only about 50% were from San Francisco. The
implication
seemed to be that they were outside agitators. Funny, the
daily
car critical mass has an even higher percentage of
(actual)
troublemakers from outside cities.
Then
there was Berkeley Mass,
July 9th, 1993, when
approximately 75 cyclists were arrested on
the University Overpass
(declared off limits to bikes) in Berkeley after many of them had toured
the I-80 (un)freeway for two exits. The Berkeley Voice ran a ridiculous
police-report-verbatim story. The chronicle had a little inside-cover
column. No teevee coverage. (To be fair, that was when the mass was
rather anti-press in general, and there had been no planning--as far as I
know!--to do the action so no press
was aware).
The
take-over of I-80 coincided with the onset of the $355 Million dollar
widening of the (un)freeway in violation of two environmental laws. It was
a very fun experience but for the arrest and illegal, indefinite
impoundment of bicycles without receipt (many of the nicer bikes dispeared
in custody). A zine, The Bicycle Terrorist (hopefully soon to be on
the web) was born of this era. Zines, as you may know, are a grassroots
antidote to mass media bias and control of
information.
Reclaim the Streets!
On international street party day, May 16th, 1998, Berkeley, California joined over twenty cities worldwide in protest of globalization and spontaneous celebration of public space.
Over 700 people took the streets for hours in a joyous celebration and public space reclamation.
Strange how
the mass televised media failed to capture the images of televisions smashing, cars overturned, bonfires to the heavens, dancing to DJ music, flame juggling, kids drawing with chalk down the center line, and a circle of couches around a tree found in a dumpster lounging at the center of a major intersection on a Saturday night. Perhaps the fact that the television news' mainstay (televisions and cars) were under attack had something to do with it? (It's not like they didn't know about it).
For more information, see this page.
Ad(d) yours here..
Soon to come (we hope):
suggestions to journalists on how to
report fairly on bicycles, and other
forms of transportation. We wouldn't
point out the problem without trying
to offer a cure, would we? It's
an auto-addicted, auto-dominated world out
there folks. Clarity is
important and we can help people achieve it. Note
that this site neglects
to analyze yet many serious forms of bias in the
media as it is a very
new site.
Highly recommended: ADBUSTERS!
Send your suggestions for media items to expose to Jason Meggs. Hats off to the
Bicycle
Civil Liberties Union (BCLU). Relatedly, check out ARC.