Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Screwed again: What to do about the anti-bike news media keeps you puttin' with the best KALGARD Eastern & Ce ntral st ates factory re p. d istributors wan t ed. We will shi p wo rld wid e also. Plastic factory By Rex William Reese The recent Powder 'P u ff Nationals are an example of how the general news media pans motorcycling instead of gIVIng it serious consideration. The L.A. Times had an article in their View section titled, "M ot her is a Dirt-Rac ing Biker." T hat may have been fine for "human Interest;" but it treated the whole thi ng like a b unch of foof. KN BC sen t ou t reporter Ed Haa ker to cover the Na t ional, an d he did a bad job of it. He rep ort ed it in novelty fashion , all uding to the outlaw image, "but they d on 't have that h ere. " Film footage of hi s repo rt had ch auvinistic rather than sports oriented lo oks a t the races , includ ing so m e bad crashes as if to show everybody, "Some sport, huh? People cras h a nd half naked bodies walk a ro u n d. You w an t yo ur famil y h ere ?" T he case of th e U.S. GP at Carlsbad is a no ther examp le. S unday night a ft er th e race, I wat ch ed in vai n hopin g som e spor tcas te r o n any o f t he L.A. TV sta t io ns would say so m e th ing abo u t th e GP. Nothing. KT'I'V at the e nd o f its sp orts rep ort featured the station's annual fishing de rby . . Big Deal. They co uld have sho wn the on ly \\'o rld Championship Open Class MX in th is country. Monday, ne ither Stu Nahan n or Bryant Gumbel m enti oned a n y thi ng abou t the G P even in pa ssing. The Carlsbad GP will be sho wn in a month or so on ABC's WUie World of Sports , but it wiII have lost all its im p ac t because Cycle News will already have reported it w hile it was st ill news. Anybody who see s t he G P 'o n Wide World wi ll probably ca re less a bo u t what they wiII be seeing. Exit Gerrit Wolsink; hell o Miami Dolphins. S imilar' incidents of co n tem p t towa rds c o m pet itive mot orcycling even ts have take n place. Last year, a friend an d myself wondered why nobod y o n T V or the newsp ap er s was co er ing the ISDT in Massachusset ts , the premier motorcyclin g event in th e world th at America wa s ho sting for th e fir st time. Both of us called up KA BC to find o u t why. Af ter mu ch sh uffling around, bu ck passing, "h olds," and su ch. a n ass istan t in th e spor t s d ep artm ent came o ut and said tha t the ISoT was n' t be ing co vered be cause Stu Nahan didn 't lik e mot or c ycles . This is ridic u lo us! When Sadd1eback Park was hosting the U.S. round of th e World Trials Championship last year, the L.A. Times 'Wrote up a very inaccurate article on the up co m ing event. lt ha d looked like th e writer had t aken som e lo ose cl ip pi ngs and pasted t hem together. Then th ere a re th e cou n tless d ail y news writ e -up s that th e media (espec ially lo cal p ap ers) lo ve t o rev el in such as "Hundreds o f Bikers Invade Small T own" o r " Yo uth Killed o n Mot orcycle" or "New D.O .T. Study finds Motorc ycl es Dangero us ." Al mos t alwa ys th e headlin es are in bl a zin g lette rs . St o ri es a bo u t individuals kill ed o n b ik es always give th e rea der the impressio n that no t o nly was the individual in th e s tory irresponsible, but 'all bikers are irresponsi ble. If it 's a bike-car accident, it is never revealed that it co uld 've been th e ca r drive r s fault , as it is m ost of the t im e in th is so rt o f acciden t. Rarely d o es the press eve r report on th e m ore po sitiv e aspects of m otorcycling li ke Hell's Ang els do nating to ys or bl o od to th e Red . Cro ss, o r th e M.O.R. E. gas economy run, or t hat bikes are good sa fe, economical transportatio n wh en used pr operly . How come they do th a t ? Maybe be cause o f the o u tlaw ima ge th at dates hac k t o "The Wild One. " Or th at the biker is not cut o u t in th e pl astic Ameri ka n " im age. "They 're all lea th er ja ckets, drug using preverts wh o d on't even sa lute the n ag . I o ugh ta kn ow. I saw it on Mod Squad. " I was to ld by a spor ts writer fr om the local paper t ha t t he reason th ey didn 't have any motorcycle coverage was because no th ing was o rgan ized, there was n 't a ny lo cal inter est. He was full o f crap . What to d o. We mu st educate th ese slo bs. Write. pho ne, o r per sonall y visit yo ur local newspa pe r, radio sta tio n, ca ble o r br oadcast ch a nnel TV sta tion. U Write th e net wor ks , too. Ge t yo ur friends and their fr iend s to do it, too. De mand p ositive: news co verage. Rad io an d T V (especially ca ble T V) should be rel atively easy . Th ey 'r e usu al ly m o re t han h appy to take in li ttle it ems of in te res t . A nd if you wa nt to ge t so m e good cheap a d ve nis ing on yo ur MX, ask yo ur local ra dio sta ti on if it has a co m m unity bill board format , T hey either announc e i t themselves, o r you 're put behind a mi cr ophon e an d th ey tape your m essage. C abl e TV w ill a l most bend backwards to get a n y t h ing on the air, , especiall y if th e sta t io n in the a rea is new an d the y need some program material . G o t o th e station and as k for the program director and te ll him/he..... what y ou wan t. Regula r TV is harder because it is not as lo calized as ca ble TV. Ca ll up t he sports direct o r a nd e xplai n the merits of the even t yo u thi nk des erves covera ge. Wh e n yo u writ e th e networ ks, rememb er to wri te t o New York an d no t t o your loc al s ta tio n . Again. writ e to the sports director. To be sure, write th e program director, t o o. Point o u t to th em tha t wha t yo u would li ke to have covered would benefi t everybody across th e lan d . Now . every body o n your m ar k . se t, and go off to ge t t he sp orts people to put on so mething bett er tban the us ua l fare ·y o u see o n the sports pages da y after day . Do n't fo rge t th e feat ure ne ws ei t her; all so rts of good things ha p pen wi th m otorcy cles. T he ne ws m edia ca n resp ond to th e peoples' voice. Let's make it d o so n ow ! James Duffy , Network Vice President Herbert Granath, Sports Vice President ABC TV 1300 Ave. of the Americas New York , NY 10019 2 12/58 1-7777 Oscar Ka tz , Program Vice Preside nt Willia m C. :\lacPbaiJ, Spo rt s Vice Preside n t eBSTV 5 1 W. 52 nd Street New York, NY 1001 9 2 12/ 765-432 1 l\Iort Werner, Program Planning Sr. Vice President Carl Lindemann Jr., Sports Vi ce President . NBC TV 30 Ro cke feller Pla za New Yo rk, NY 1002 0 212 / 247-8300 . . ... ...... .. NORSTAR Products Choice of the Professionals E.C. & WALKER 509 Ind ust rial A venue . Bo y nton Bea ch , FL (305) 737-6917 o r 732-1890 Dealer program a vailabl e WHITTIER HONDA Mo to rcycle Ttail e rs Be ll Helmet s F ull Bore Prod ucts 14324 E. Whitt ier Shod. ( 2 1 3 1 698 ~065 Co mp lete stock of parts a nd accesso ries for street a nd d irt . oss~ 17

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