BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2010/03/lance-armstrong-thinks-tony-kornheiser-is-an-idiot/1

http://the-pedal-pusher.com/2010/03/lance-thinks-tony-kornheiser-is-an-idiot/

Tony Kornheiser, just coming back from a two-week suspension.

"I need some press, some controversy. How can I get my name out, and move away from being the guy who comments on women's clothing instead of sports?"

Jagoff.

this is the best line: Why do these people think that these roads were built for bicycles?

uhhh. i guess i didn't realize that the car predated the horse and buggy.

If you listen to the recording, the other people on the show were kind of enabling him by laughing and agreeing with him. It's not funny.

Kornheiser's job is to be controversial, sadly. Everything I've read says that he is a horrible sports commentator, so he's got to do something else to be marketable. Of course, this is a sad commentary on the state of media that it's just as good to say controversial things as it is to be a good reporter.

I agree with Dan's sentiment.

If you're really upset by this, you can also contact advertisers on ESPN and ESPN radio, they carry a lot of weight.

+1 for dmtroyer

I don't watch TV, so I don't know. Are there any bike products folks that advertise on ESPN?

"Sports" in the US is the activity of sitting on the couch watching TV, with chips and beer. So, I doubt if there is much bike advertising, but I'm guessing that during the Tour de France, there could be some.

Thanks for posting this, someone actually worthy of vehement sarcasm and believe it they got an email full and shall continue to receive them.

wow, the more I think about this the more I am upset. Any celebrity inciting, if not justifying, violence towards any group of people is despicable.

I think I'll ride down butler and just punch those old guys riding those rascals right in the head, they're in my way, WTF, they think those sidewalks are built for them, they're for riding bikes.

Reddan and Bjanaszek got it right...

I suspect there's a standard list for mass-media types to fall back on when they need to stir some controversy and up their readers or viewers, or at least increase the emails and comments they get. "Anti-cycling rant" is on there along with "vague misogynist sentiments" and "your favorite sports team sucks," etc.

Aside from that, Kornheiser is an idiot. Monday night football is so much better without him.

I'd agree with dmtroyer's suggestion re: advertisers. Contacting ESPN, even if to gripe, means he gets another tick in the contact database that is used to SELL advertising.

Contacting advertisers to complain, on the other hand, doesn't benefit him in any way.

He basically just put a hit out against his own car in whatever shit town he resides in.

Karma is a bitch Tony. I have a feeling that his comments will have minimal impact outside of the cycling community (boy do I hope I'm wrong). One can only guess at the public's reaction if he had advocated this hateful action against any other group such as women, children, the handicapped or minorities. Then there would be a public outcry that would have this d-bag speed-dialing Don Imus.

Gee whiz, I wonder how Dick's Sporting Goods would feel if they knew this Kornholer was advocating running people off the roads on those horrible little bikes they sell. Dear me!

http://espnmediazone.com/press_releases/2007_12_dec/20071206_ESPNTheWeekendPresentedbyDicksSportingGoodsFeb29Mar22008.htm

Does anybody know anybody?

I'd swear there's an entire Dick's Sporting Goods cycling team that does local charity events. Got, like, management types on the team, too.

Nike, Gatorade... it isn't hard to think of other advertisers to contact.

There *was* a Dick's Sporting Goods cycling team.

I've forwarded this to some of what remains of it.

quoted from http://bikeleague.org

The League began as the League of American Wheelmen (LAW) in 1880... The League of American Wheelmen is credited with getting paved roads in this country before the reign of the automobile.

from http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/automobile.htm

The first automobile to be produced in quantity was the 1901 Curved Dash Oldsmobile... Ford began producing his Model T in 1908.

This is plain f**king scary. People actually listen to this guy.

Next helmet I get (which is soon) is getting a helmet cam. Any "tap" I live through will get prosecuted. Any "tap" I don't will be prosecuted by my estate.

I just learned from this that Lance Armstrong has

22,458,006 twitter followers. !!

Oi, if they decide to get rolling, there's not an umbrella in the world that can protect this "TK" from a shtstorm like that.

@stu: that's a really good idea. I don't know anything about helmet cams*, but would be really interested if anyone does, or has links to post.

*how much do you have to spend to get a decent one?

*any good brands to look for?

A lot of people I know have this one and love it

http://www.rei.com/product/794062 (I have seen it for well under 200)

I was also looking into: http://www2.oregonscientific.com/cat-Outdoor-sub-Action-Cams-prod-ATC3K-Waterproof-Action-Cam.html

Here's one for Scott and staff, now that I've had a couple of minutes to calm down.

What of a message from Bike-Pgh to all local law enforcement departments to be a little more careful in police reports about car/bicycle accidents, esp. hit-and-runs. I don't think a public pronouncement would do as much good.

This really does make me afraid to get out on the road, given the amount of idiocy that "talk radio" is already putting in people's heads on non-bicycle topics.

And seriously, this jerk needs to be put on a bicycle, himself, to get around. Permanently.

Apparently Lance and Tony Kornheiser talked on the phone:

...just off the phone w/ Tony Kornheiser who's very sorry 4 his comments re: cyclists. Going on the show 2morrow 2 discuss this w/ him.

via Twitter

... and the audio from that day (that was available earlier today) has been removed from the espn980.com website.

This really does make me afraid to get out on the road, given the amount of idiocy that "talk radio" is already putting in people's heads on non-bicycle topics.

I'm guessing that Kornheiser doesn't have the same sort of zombie following as, say, Mr. Limbaugh. He is primarily an entertainer, and doesn't seem to project himself as some sort of Pied Piper. That said, I don't think your fears are necessarily unfounded.

This has played out like most other publicity stunts:

1. Make grandiose, offensive statement in a public forum.

2. Drive lots of traffic to said forum

3. Apologize

4. ???

5. Profit

audio is up on youtube for now... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7wnBoWOfAU

Lance shouldn't bother going on this dude's show. He is playing right into the host's publicity stunt.

If Lance can go on the air and tell this clown he was way out of line, and present the case that bikes have rights on the road in a public forum that is unaccustomed to hearing such a thing (i.e. suv drivin sports talk listenin white males ages 30-55), it will flip the conversation 180 degrees, to cyclists advantage. If that can happen, I don't care if it's a publicity stunt.

Sure, I'd like this asshat to be mopping floors in the ESPN basement as much as anyone, but if Lance can flip this thing, GO LANCE. Awesome.

I don't think it was part of any big plan and he was just talking about what was on his mind that morning. Based on the calls he got he's not the only one who is annoyed.

Hoping that Lance can explain clearly the reasons people ride their bikes the way they do and that it doesn't devolve into talking about his racing career.

I'm hardly an LA fan, but given the sort of culture he's attempted to create with Mellow Johnny's, he seems to get that the bicycle is about more than just racing.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cyclist-against-Tony-Kornheiser/384935697816

my first reaction... (and saw the post above); was to get "LA" on the case. As much as I don't care for Lance, I will admit he's got pull.

As much as I don't care for Lance, I will admit he's got pull.

I'm torn. On the one hand, hey, it's one of the only professional cyclists that most Americans would even recognize, getting air time to talk about cyclists' rights. On the other hand, what chance would the Kornheiser jagoff have had of getting a big name on his show WITHOUT this kind of controversy? It feels like he's being rewarded for talking smack with a nice fat ratings boost.

Not that I listen to the guy...it's entirely possible that he has high-profile sports figures on all the time, and I don't know what I'm talking about...

Being that he is a mainstream sports commentator, I'm pretty confident that getting Lance Armstrong on a radio show wasn't even on this assmonkey's radar.

Tony started his show today with a little disclaimer along the lines of "Now listeners, you have to understand this show is about comedy, about entertainment and we sometimes say shocking things." Oh good, it's all better now. Lance is supposed to be on at 11am.

Have you ever seen the Clinton interview with Chris Matthews? Clinton, at one point, very powerfully and succintly critiques Matthews performance during the 90's. Names dates and quotes and such. I would not have wanted to be in Matthews shoes then for anything.

I hope Kornheiser gets an idea of what it would be like to have the Tour de France ride down your throat.

It was pretty much what I expected.. Lance kinda took the easy road.. "we all have to work together".

There were a couple good points made, but none memorable enough to stand out.. except the the statistic lance said.. 40 years ago, 40% of kids biked to school, now its 3%.. 40 years ago .. childhood obesity was 14%.. I dont rememebr what he said it is now, but it was way higher.

I'm really offended by all this. Laughing or not, they're threatening the lives of cyclists.

Long ago I learned the difference between intent and effect. Their intent is to entertain. Their effect is to change how people think, and to do that in a way that endangers us.

Yes, this is a free country. Yes, we have free speech. But if public opinion is a purchasable commodity, and I believe it is, then what Nike and Gatorade are purchasing is the idea that it is OK and even desirable to run cyclists off the road.

I agree that the real clout is with the advertisers. I've written two angry letters to ESPN980 management but the chance of those being responded to is close to nil, I wager.

Does anyone have a list of ESPN advertisers and contact information already? especially ones specific to the kornheiser show?

Any advertiser should be made ashamed of associating themselves with ESPN in general, especially the kornheiser show, in light of this.

And you know some drivers feel this way, and feel solidarity and encouragement now to "tap" us. So it seems now there is a definite market for helmet cams and video recorders. Anyone have a recommendation for a compact, long battery life, video loop recorder that can record events in the 30 seconds prior to a crash?

No need for a 30 second loop and some circuitry to (possibly) detect a crash. Memory is so cheap, you will run out of battery before you can record to the capacity of any of the helmet cams. May as well just record your whole commute and delete it (while you charge the battery) once you get home. Besides, you may record something you want that didn't involve YOU crashing. Say a car ran some other guy over, and you caught the events on video. Or someone threw a bottle at you but didn't cause you to actually crash. It would still would be nice to have that little bit of "film".

Here is the thread on helmet cams from about 9 months back: http://bike-pgh.org/bbpress/topic/helmet-handle-bar-cameras

I think even shaming advertisers is a dead end, marketing people look at how much attention something gets, rather than the content or quality of the thing, i.e., the old "there's no such thing as bad publicity".

The only thing that will work is, somebody with some attorneys, the LAB or someone, needs to step and say "if any cyclist gets tapped by a car, injured, or killed, we are going to directly correlate their actions with your broadcast". Bam.

I agree with dwillen on the cam.. just record your whole trip.. most of those cams have a battery life of about 2 hours.. Just run it your whole commute.. like turning on your lights or whatever.. if nothing interesting happens, then delete the file.

The folks at Deadspin (always ready to poke fun at Mr. Kornheiser) have weighed in, including an apparent email sent to Clear Channel prohibiting the discussion of cycling on the air.

you can listen to lance on the show here

and if it is any solace, you can hear the fear that has been put into Tony over the last 24 hours and I believe he genuinely regrets the laugh he had with his buddies yesterday at cyclists' expense.

I was in school 40 years ago, and I doubt what Lance says about 40% of students riding to school. I'm trying to recall if there was ever anyone besides me (and it was rare for me).

In a phone interview, Lance had to "play nice" -Kornheier's people run the sound levels.

Lance missed a great opportunity when Kornheiser mentioned that his daughter biked to work - "Tony, how would you feel if a guy in an SUV took her out?"

Mick

Yeha I dont know about his stats, but they sound impressive. I biked to school, and I know the schools have several big bikeracks and that there were always bikes there.. dont know about 40% tho.

The folks at Deadspin (always ready to poke fun at Mr. Kornheiser) have weighed in, including an apparent email sent to Clear Channel prohibiting the discussion of cycling on the air.

At first I thought that might be a "The Onion" type joke, but I'm guessing it's true.

Clear Channel wouldn't want to be on the a side that is crearly wrong. On the other hand, they are mainstream media. They don't do things that could irritate their extreme corporate right-wing, automobile-hawking masters.

I bet, if one had access to Clear Channel's files, you would find similar memo's about reporting on inherent safety flaws in SUVs as well.

Mick

Re; Mick, clear channel really doesn't want to alienate those suv drivers especially since the only place radio is even viable any more is in cars.

I assure you that clear channel does not give half a shit about anything. They actually own over 80% of all media in the U.S. last I heard.

Clear channel is the enemy of mankind.

dmtroyer posted a link to the audio for Kornheiser's insincerely apologetic interview with Lance Armstrong.

I found it easier to locate that audio here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFGz2n2tX88

Lance does a good job of giving the cyclist's perspective, and calling for cyclists and car drivers to share the road and get along. But I agree he let this bigoted, sensationalist idiot Kornheiser off the hook too easily. It's a shame that Korn is getting publicity from this.