Billy Penn gets a D for biased reporting
You had to read to the 19th paragraph to find a single line about opposition to the barriers, from the Friends of Pine and Spruce.
Another day, another case of press malfeasance.
This time, a misdemeanor, laid on the Billy Penn news site attached to WHYY.
In a pufflicity release dressed up as a news story, BP reporter Nick Kariuki invests 23 paragraphs to a story about how the Philly Bike Action group staged a demonstration supporting the supposed benefits of concrete barriers in bike lanes.
It took him until the 19th paragraph to write a single line about opposition to the barriers, from the Friends of Pine and Spruce, which has sued the city to stop some of the changes. The story mentions the lawsuit, and that is it.
While three barrier proponents were widely quoted through the story, not a single quote from any opponent was published. Nor was any sought, as far as anyone can tell. No line saying “the FOPS group declined comment.”
That bare mention of FOPS saved this story from an F for being incomplete. It now rates a D with an admonition from the Stu-niversity that there is more than one side to a story, and while you don’t have to give each side equal attention, you do have to be fair in news reporting.
So the anti side was short-changed. It was bias, whether accidental or intentional.
What was published was the hard-to-believe observation that passing motorists honked their horns in support of the hoped-for barricaded bike lanes. “Drivers honked their horns — happily,” the story says.
That’s as believable as vegetarians cheering a pig roast.
Did I mention Philly Bike Action was giving out free eats at the demonstration?
You have to read very carefully to understand what was actually being sold.
The bike cult had a cardboard facsimile of “what the concrete barriers could look like.”
Could.
The barriers shown “were modelled off the ones installed on Moyamensing Avenue by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.”
But PennDOT will not install barriers on bike lanes. That’s up to the city, and the city has not yet officially decided, but I am told by a City Hall source they will be parking blocks, such as the type you see in parking lots.
Like this:
So what Philly Bike Action said wasn’t accurate, but who cares?
I emailed the mayor’s press office asking about the size of barriers and who would install them. The press office said I should ask Streets, which I did, but received no answer before deadline. (The city’s past practice demanded all media queries be funneled through the mayor’s office, a/k/a slo-mo.)
One thing the barriers are supposed to do is keep motorists from using the bike lane as a passing lane. Unless the barriers are placed end to end, like dominoes, with no breaks, they will not stop cars from getting into the bike lane.
The bike cult has made a fetish out of the tragic death of Dr. Barbara Friedes, who was killed in a bike lane in the 1800 block of Spruce.
She was killed, in the bike lane, by a drunk driver doing 60 mph. Neither the PBA nor the proposed city barrier would have stopped an automobile going that speed.
But who cares?
