Fox News Report "Motorcycle Daredevils" 11/5

[jer271]

  maybe!

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

My response:

I was fairly appalled with and highly insulted by this report on sportbikes that Fox aired last night.

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=1393921&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

There are numerous things about the report that I would like to take issue with:

1) The two riders you featured were lying through their teeth.  Neither of those featured bikes will be going 160 mph or completing a 9 second quarter mile.  There are bikes that will easily achieve those performance goals, but neither of the two gentlemen you interviewed happened to be riding one.  The pair bragged and told lies, while Fox fed it all to the public as fact.

2)  The only footage you had of riders going fast  and racing was shot at an AMA professional motorcycle race, legally held on a closed racing course.  As a racer myself, I seriously take offense at your network using footage of our sport in a negative way.  I'm sure that if you'd used NASCAR footage in a story about teen auto deaths, you'd be choking on a large lawsuit right now, as well as having offended every NASCAR fan in the country.  As fans and participants in the sport of motorcycle racing, do we deserve less consideration simply because our numbers are fewer?

3)  While I feel for the mother who lost her son, the video she shot was of riders stunting, not racing one another.  In fact, the only racing shown in your whole feature was being done legally by paid professionals!

4)  You stated that motorcycle deaths are up each year.  You forgot to mention that motorcycle registrations are up every year as well.  Your story focused on "SPORTBIKES!"  Somehow you failed to mention that Harley Davidson riders make up the majority of the motorcycling community, and didn't say a word about how Harley Davidson riders are much less likely than sportbike riders to wear serious safety gear or a helmet.  Harley people happen to get killed in motorcycle crashes fairly regularly too.  But I doubt you're any more anxious to take on Harley Davidson than you are NASCAR.

5)  You interviewed a State Trooper who complained that sportbikes could go 240 mph on the highway.  In truth, even the best racing bikes in the world can't achieve such high speeds.  You would have to go to the Bonneville Salt Flats before you found bikes specialized enough to run such speeds.  Again, with an obviously misinformed cop spouting inaccuracies, you presented it all to your audience as fact.

My opinions and statements are not uninformed.  If a lifetime of involvement with the sport of motorcycling I've won legally sanctioned amateur races and championships, crewed for two professional race teams, taught high performance riding at the racetrack for the country's largest track time provider, written articles and book about a variety of motorcycle-related topics, and spent a great deal of time working on charity projects like Toys For Tots and others.  Sportbikes are the type of motorcycle that I favor, and I take great personal offense at your stereotyping an entire genre of the motorcycle world in order to write a biased and sensational piece whipped up to generate ratings.  This is not responsible journalism.  Why not change your network's name to "Fox Enquirer?"  Perhaps you could feature a half-bat, half-Elvis doing wheelies down the Dan Ryan on a UFO in your next report?

It is my opinion that you created this piece as shock journalism, strictly to garner points during the November sweeps, and with no regard for truth.  If you want to use stereotyping of all the members in a specific group as a method to generate ratings, why don't you use a sexual, racial or gender stereotype instead?  You'll get sued, but I'd bet your ratings will be through the roof.

Chris Onwiler

[grasshopper]

WOW! This thread is heavy. 

[funsizeracing]

K3,
+1!

[spyderchick]

Perhaps you could feature a half-bat, half-Elvis doing wheelies down the Dan Ryan on a UFO in your next report?

That footage was used on FOX News, you have to have cable or Dish to see it. 

The NHTSA statistics actually show that the largest growing number of motorcycle injuries and deaths are among the over 40 group, riding 1000cc and over bikes. Yup, Harley ridin' folk.

[dc996duc]

Helemt law is a must, plus real riding school ,with real instructor and real test is also a must (as it is in europe,for cars and bikes).
i agree this footage was *****  ,inacurate, bunch of lies .
i remenber passing my motorcycle licence in VA..i did a stop and go, a u trun and thas it..i was on a harley heritage...a guy on a brand new 750 cc made the inspector beleivs that his bike couldn t made the u turn btw the cones because not enough steering angle...she beleived him and gave him his licence....
i worked few weeks at a local dealer, some parents (rich), come to  buy with their 18 y old kids m a 1000 gsxr, ..... when i mention abt track days or school on the track for the kid to learn his bike and his ability they look at me like i m crazy by mentionning the word "race track" . and then they cry .. because he is stunting on the street and blame the motorcycle...
anyway...i m getting pissed already...

[jer271]

should email this thread to the news so they know the real opinions of "racers"

[Dario808]

Dear Fox and Mark Saxenmeyer

I found the clip Daredevil Bikers to be poorly researched and sensationalistic.  Using facts that were not checked and oversimplifying the facts you chose to use makes me wonder where else you have chosen to violate the Journalist's Code of Ethics.  Here is a link to that code of ethics.  Perhaps you should try reading it.  Http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp?  Perhaps you could choose to be more overt in your decision to prioritize truth so far below ratings in the future.

Dario J Hartmann


they are just like cockroaches and leaches

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

Saxonmeyer's response to me:
chris,

thanks for writing. i appreciate you taking the time to
do so. my thoughts:

*it was about sport biking only, not harley davidson
riders.

*we said that speed bikers were inspired by the pros,
not that illegal speeding/racing was the same thing.

*the young speeders in birmingham were in fact racing
each other -- non stop.

*just becasue there are more motorcycle riders doesn't
mean that should be an exuse for more deaths.

*i'm sorry you feel the need to question my
journalistic integrity. as a reporter with 17 years
experience and 17 emmy awards to match, i stand by my
story.

we appreciate your viewership.

mark saxenmeyer

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

My reply to his response:
Nice collection of awards.  I'm sure you deserved them.  But what you've done in the past has absolutely nothing to do with the work you did on this story.  This story was pieced together, full of inaccuracies, sensational, and prejudiced.
In your reply, you ignored my mention of the pair you interviewed lying through their teeth, the cop stating with authority things that flat weren't possible, and the way that you presented all this as fact.  That is irresponsible journalism in my opinion.
You used footage of legal, professional racing and blamed it for inspiring street speeders.  You could have just as easily done a piece on handgun violence while showing film of soldiers fighting in Iraq and blamed the soldiers for inspiring violence among inner-city youths.  (But that surely would have raised the ire of veterans groups.)  I just don't see where this piece was anything but a sensationalized and prejudiced slander of the sportbike riding community as a whole.
Oh, and though you weren't doing a piece about Harleys, you might be interested to know that one of the two thugs you interviewed was riding  either a customized Harley Davidson, or a Harley clone built from custom aftermarket parts.  Yet he was speaking with authority about the sportbike scene.  His pal was aboard a Suzuki from the mid-eighties that was built before the current crop of machines which offer the performance that you were trying to decry.
The video clip you used from the woman who lost her son was of a pair of riders doing side-by-side wheelies.  A bike can not deliver maximum acceleration while being balanced on the rear tire, therefore my assessment is that those riders were stunting, not racing.  Furthermore, they were doing it in Birmingham.  You couldn't have filmed local lawbreakers if you were going to cast dispersion on the local scene?
For a far more damning yet honest and fair assessment of the negative impact of sportbikes, check out the two-part piece that your Fox colleagues in Atlanta recently did on mountain road racers.  I was horrified and ashamed by the conduct I witnessed as I watched their piece, but not offended.  The Atlanta broadcasters went out of their way to point out that it was a few riders ruining it for everybody, something that you failed to mention.
It seems to me that the reporters in Atlanta did the research, found credible interviewees, were careful not to make blanket accusations, and overall turned in an unpleasant yet unimpeachable story.  You did not equal their effort.  I'm pretty sure you won't be winning an Emmy for this piece....

[loc_dogg]

Bravo K3!!

[grasshopper]

  :cheers:That there is some good reading Chris.