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Sunrise smashing cyclists
Hi all, just wondering if anyone has caught some of Sunrise this morning and the opinionated view Kochie has on cyclists. He is giving us an absolute flogging on the national TV show cause he can't stand the law breakers in our community. Neither can I, but I also can't stand a person like him in his position grouping us all in the same category. It will probably not help at all but here is an email I just sent in to the team. I tried not to make it personal but I think Kochie is a deadset DH (you'd think that would mean down hill on a cycling web site but not this time 
) and I couldn't help my self
"Kochie, as an avid cyclist that has been run off the road several times by impatient or disrespectful car drivers I would like to thank you for showing your true intellect and understanding in branding all cyclists with the same brush. Great use of your position to bring all cyclists down to the law breaking society we are and divide the various road users even further. I agree there are those out there that blatantly disobey the rules but of all the bike haters out there I thought you would be one that could raise yourself above the us v them debate and concentrate on how, as a community we can share the roads better. Sadly I was mistaken. Hats off to Mel though for showing greater maturity"
This is the link to the sunrise web page if anyone else would like to join the debate
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There is no getting around the fact that he has a lot of viewers and therefore the ability to slightly influence public opinion but at least the overwhelming feeling whenever his name arises is that Kochie is a moron. One of the most annoying people on television, the only reason that he is still there is that he is offset by Mel and some of the others who are quite likeable.
Yeah, I caught some of Kochie's rant, nothing original or new. Just the same old argument about making cyclists pay a rego fee so that the drivers will have to show some repect. Yeah right, as if that will stop collisions. And then he was going on about the streets in 'colonial' Sydney are too narrow for an extra lane for cycling, but he wasn't offering any alternative solutions to the traffic problems, just bagging out Clover Moore.
And then ironically, after an ad-break they did the traffic report, telling everybody how slow it was getting inti the City today!?!?
Hmmmm, morning TV.
I wonder how Mark Beretta would have taken Koch's rant, as he is an avid cyclist and has actively promoted riding on the show and in magazines.
I am certain he would hold a different opinion.... if one of his children were a cyclist
Which laws was he ranting on about?
Lemme guess... running red lights. Any others? (probably not)
Ah Koshi. He tries so hard to have a personality... But he's still and accountant at heart...
Considering that most of inner Sydney was built when the horse and cart, and later the bicycle were King, he has a point. There isn't room for bike lanes and cars.
I think that's Clover's whole idea. LOL!
Same old BS TV rhetoric to try and boost ratings!
by stating unpopular opinions!
Letter sent to FreeTV Australia complaints.
"Comments made by Mr David Koch of the Sunrise programme were offensive to people who cycle in general and implied that those people are involved in criminal, law breaking behaviours.
Surley this type of commentary does not meet broadcasting standards."
Was it anything to do with this?
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw-act/ci...
Kochie decided that all bike riders are a pack of law breaking peanuts and we should have to pay registration fees if we want to ride on the roads. He didn't like the idea of bike riders getting special priveliges. Now I understand why he moved away from Adelaide...he wanted to come to a place where he didn't have to share the roads with bike riders
It's Koch's comment to the effect "....cyclists deserve to die...." that really annoyed me.
I switched over to NINE's morning program immediately and I won't go back to Sunrise now.
I wrote a letter of complaint at the FreeTV Australia website.......you might consider doing the same?.
http://www.freetv.com.au/Content_Common/OnlineCo...
It's time that idiots like David Koch were made accountable for their stupid comments.
How about we start a campaign to get Kochie on a bike!! Should be easy to get Mark Berreta on side. Start an e mail campaign now. The link to send an e mail to Sunrise is in the lead article above.
Whilst there is no excuse for running red lights where there are clearly cars waiting or the lights change in rotation, the sad fact is that our traffic systems is not set up to deal with bikes.
Example 1, the bottom of Parriwi Road - the lights do not change based on the weight/magnetic field of a bike so your options are to wait for a car (which are few and far between at those lights in peak hour), get off your bike, go to the pedestrian crossing and walk across (I am not a pedestrian) or wait for cars to trigger the lights coming out of the parking lot at Middle Harbour Yacht Club and run the red light so that you cross with them.
Example 2, the lights at the end of Kenneth Road where it joins with Pittwater Road - at 5:45 AM there are usually no cars around and lights do not change for bikes. There are rarely cars coming along Pittwater Road so the only option is to run the red light.
I will state that I do not condone running a red light at intersections where there are cars that will trigger the lights anyway or where the lights change in rotation but nor am I going to sit at a red light that will not change in the hope that a car comes along. In these cases the traffic system has failed and I am going to safely do I what I need to continue my commute.
I was coming into town at 6am the other morning. I was on one of the green cycle paths by Pyrmont Bridge Hotel. As I was coming down the path the road traffic light turned green, as did the pedestrian crossing light. There is a red arrow for cars turning left on this intersection and as the green man was on the turning light was red. However there is a bike light that was red because I hadn't set it off. So I looked behind me and saw no cars coming so sped up to cross. As I was just about to cross I heard a car speeding up and glanced around - saw it coming around the corner - the arrow light was still red so I assumed he wouldn't turn. He came screaming around the corner about as fast as you can tooting the horn pretty much trying to run me down. I was out of the way by then but stopped and a bit of a yelling match ensued. I was annoyed at myself for stooping to his level because people like this aren't ever going to see reason. However as the bike light was red I guess I could have been in the wrong. Any thoughts?
I just got an apology of sorts in the mail from the Channel 7.
Anyone else?
What did it say?
That's not an apology
"The Seven Network is deeply committed to producing high quality programmes"
They should be committed for producing this crap.
That FWit was voted most hated TV personality by Triple M Listeners.
I think he is a character who people love to hate, and he is happy to he hated as that is his role in media. What a way to make a career. To be the ugly boring stick who sits next to Mel. Playing a role to prop up the pretty one. I think Channel 7 has taken the title from 10 as main entertainment for the lower socioeconomic people in Australia. It's straw clutching stuff as the free to air commercial TV empire slides further from anything that could even once possibly been 'quality'. It shifted from 'possibly acceptable quality' around 10-15 years ago?
Haha, that's a ripper. So lets pull apart what that really means.
One definition of quality is "consistently performing as expected", another is "Quality is the suitability of procedures, processes and systems in relation to the strategic objectives"
The strategic objective of free to air tv is bums on seats in front of the box, which they take and sell to advertisers to keep the money flowing in the door.
So "quality programming" from their perspective is whatever helps get them the best ratings the most cost-effectively. Might be total rubbish from our perspective (recent Olympics coverage springs to mind), but if gets people emotionally involved and glued to their TV, that's what makes it "quality" for Channel 7.
I gave up on commercial network morning news to avoid David Koch and all those like him. I hate the way over the years they present tragedy. They are like leeches feeding off disasters. They play very melancolic music and over dramatise things which in my view is very negative. Sure they probably do some very good things as well but I don't like the style. I also saw that bit on cycling and i just thought - yep I need to swtich off this guy. I hope we all swtich off and put a big dent in the ratings.
I have recently switched over to ABC Breakfast News or listen to 702am in favor of a more down to earth news report. (go Adam Spencer)!!!
These are my own personal opinions but I would be interested in what other feel.
morning television and commercial radio has been brain damage material since I was a wee tacker, and that's a very long time.
I struggled to see how it could possibly have gotten worse, yet somehow it has.
Love the ABC. When I used to drive to work, the radio dial was superglued to Radio National.
Norman Swan is awesome.