Media Watch

I wish I could say I was surprised that the Times published Ginia Bellafante's collection of stereotypes and gripes about bike-share in the Sunday edition. But it's exactly the kind of shallow kvetchfest I've come to expect when the Times tries to encapsulate the state of bike-related public policy. Mostly I'm just embarrassed, as a New Yorker and a journalist, that the most prestigious newspaper in our city keeps publishing stuff like this.

Given the Post's unequivocal hatred of people who ride bicycles, you'd think Col Allan's tabloid would applaud DOT for assigning a small number of employees to encourage cyclists to ride in the direction of traffic and stop for pedestrians. Instead, the Post today attacked the "Street Safety Manager" program as a waste of taxpayer money, even as the same story insisted that cyclists are out-of-control maniacs.

So yesterday the Daily News published an opinion piece on bike-share that framed it not as a new option for New Yorkers to get around, but as another tense, dangerous showdown in the eternal confrontation between bikes and cars. Yawn.

To read the Daily News analysis of 2012 summons data, you'd think NYPD has reckless driving completely under control. While the story throws out a lot of purportedly high figures, as usual the tabloid's perspective is distorted by the windshield.

In case you missed it, after years of bashing the city's efforts to make walking and cycling less dangerous, the editors of the New York Post have decided they care about children's safety. But in its Saturday editorial persecuting the crossing guard who was not present when 6-year-old Amar Diarrassouba was fatally struck by a truck driver, the Post chose not to acknowledge that if police and prosecutors were doing their jobs, the NYPD crossing guard program would not be necessary in the first place.

A 7-year-old boy was killed by a truck driver this morning while walking to school in East Harlem. While no charges were filed against the driver, police and media are focused on the actions of a crossing guard, who was reportedly on a break when the crash occurred.

Three pedestrians were killed in separate crashes in Manhattan and Brooklyn last night.