Today’s Toronto Sun cover was too bizarre to ignore - the headline reminded me of the nursery rhyme Peter Piper.
Except not quite as catchy, or thoughtful, or clever…
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
Today is a day that I thought would never come - I was both shocked and delighted to learn that the Toronto Sun took the side of cyclists on this morning’s cover.
This website has long criticized the Toronto Sun for its lack of objective reporting towards cyclists’ concerns, so today is a day that all cyclists should rejoice.
Unfortunately most Toronto Sun readers were livid that this was printed in their newspaper let alone made the cover.
Here are a few quotes from the comments that generally captures the sentiment expressed by the majority of the commenters:
They should revert to car lanes in the winter, these sanctomonious assholes on their bikes think they can run red lights, smash cars and get away with it with no consequences.
Time to get bikes to pay for their private lanes with a bike tax and licensing and plating as well as registration of all riders above the age of 16
Since you need to pass a test, pay for a plate/sticker, and have insurance to drive a car, WHY NOT for a bike? If these self absorbed idiots on bikes [not labelling ALLof them!] want the same [or in some cases MORE] rights as motorists then WHY shouldn't they pay for them? Make is mandatory to pass a "bike test" to ride in the city, issue a bike "permit" and force them to follow the same laws as motorists do. You CANT have it BOTH ways! If you want the benefits you should also have the responsibility, maybe then you would EARN the respect you seem to feel your ENTITLED to now!
Give the guy a break. And everybody's so upset about this - where are all the supposed bikes that were "inconvenienced" because of it? Not one bike in the picture! This is laughable.
Cyclists are lane-splitting between cars all the time anyway, most have no regard for the drivers around them. Please everyone stop worrying about bike lanes.
Support the damn cop! I've been cycling for years in town and every time I see a vehicle in the cyclists lane, I go around them. I don't whine or cry or publicly embarrass a person who is sworn to protect. Here's an article; "Sun Photographer Gets Paid To Hurt The Reputation Of A Person Who Would Die For Him"
Yet again the SUN has it in for the emergency workers in this city,(Police, FIre, EMS) maybe the sun staff should try getting shot at, running into a buring (sic) building or saving a life.
Did the editor of the Sun get a ticket on the way to work?? How in the world is this front page news. I love the sun and you guys are normally on the ball in my eyes. But this is a strike against you. Tommorows (sic) front page news will be "police makes a rolling stop at stop sign". lol Again this is not news at all, let alone front page?? It was'nt (sic) even a slow news day either...Odd
Maybe we as motorists will start to care about bike lanes and respect their space, when MOST and yes MOST cyclists get off their bikes when crossing at crosswalks, stop at stop signs, stop at red lights, not cut in and out of traffic, stop for pedestrians PROPERLY using a crosswalk.....etc etc etc.
Hey cyclists fall under the same rules of the road as car does. When we are in a car and something is blocking our way we go around it.....CYCLISTS GO AROUND THE COP CAR !!!!!!! When it is safe to do so of course.
The Sun should be embarassed for making this a story, never mind the front page. I would like to know what other newspaper publishers think of this being the lead story. Disgusting.
Here’s an excerpt from my latest article on The Urban Country that happens to relate to the Toronto Sun:
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Last week a Toronto Sun video rubbed me the wrong way. For once, it wasn’t solely the result of poor reporting - it had more to do with irresponsibility of the Toronto Police Service for ignoring the real problem on our streets.
The video consists of a report by Toronto Sun reporter Chris Doucette on the death of a 65-year-old pedestrian who was killed last Tuesday in North York while crossing Greenwood Village Road near Bathurst and Steeles.
Here are some points pulled from the video:
- Police are urging pedestrians to be more careful when crossing the street
- The city has seen 40 fatalities on our streets - 26 were pedestrians - 16 of those were seniors
- Police released a top 10 list of dangerous intersections in our city
- Pedestrians need to realize their life is at risk every time they cross the street
- There are some things pedestrians can do to increase their odds of reaching the other side safely
- Make yourself visible, wear bright clothes and make eye contact with drivers when crossing
Although I think it’s good to remind pedestrians to be cautious when crossing the road, there is nonetheless a gaping hole in the logic used by the Toronto Police Service.
There is absolutely no mention whatsoever in this report that calls for drivers to be more cautious when entering these dangerous intersections.
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View the full article here
I have been absent for a while, so I thought I would check back in on the Toronto Sun to see what my favourite newspaper has been up to lately.
It appears the Sun has been testing out some new layouts on their cover page.
This one features vertical banners across the right side of the cover. I don’t ever recall seeing this style of cover before.
Can’t
say
I’m
a
big
fan
of
it
This cover uses the primary photo as the background. I have seen this one before – it looks “PAN-TASTIC”.
Not…
This cover uses the typical Sun cover layout with a top banner.
Boring…
I enjoyed this cover – especially the part where they put “I AM” in quotes, and added “A KILLER” on the end.
When you quote someone saying “I AM”, you could almost add anything to the end.
On March 19th of this year, someone started an anonymous twitter account called “TOSunshineGirl”. The poster tweeted about the Sunshine Girl’s physical appearance - sometimes pointing out repulsive tattoos or observing bruises.
On September 2nd - after 311 tweets - the anonymous twitterer presumably decided to call it quits.
In honour of the TOSunshineGirl twitterer, I wanted to share an observation I made on a recent Sunshine Girl.
Friday’s Sunshine Girl Sarah was shafted by the Toronto Sun staff. The Sun is featuring an extremely unappealing photo of Sarah in the link to her Sunshine Girl video (See screenshot below).
It’s a shame too because she’s pretty cute in most of her other photos and in the video.
Here’s a more appropriate photo that the Sun editors should have chosen:
Photo by lynac
The Toronto Sun once again has proven its ignorance toward gridlock issues in Toronto. Mike Strobel’s column this morning argues that we should be timing our traffic lights to improve traffic flow but not for TTC vehicles or bicycles.
What Mr. Strobel fails to comprehend is that any modest improvement in traffic flow on Toronto’s streets will be met by an equal amount of new cars on the road. This is the same reason that adding more lanes to Toronto highways will only make gridlock worse.
It’s simple: the demand for roads will always exceed the capacity (in Toronto) - that is a reality.
Strobel refers to Hamilton’s timed lights working well to keep traffic flowing. Of course it works well in Hamilton because there are less cars. In Toronto there are millions of people who take the GO train, TTC or bike to work. At any given moment any of these people could easily jump in their car and take it to work – if traffic flow was improved.
This is simply not the case in Hamilton. Some day in the future Hamilton demand will exceed the capacity of road space, but until then timed lights will work well.
Furthermore, Strobel also fails to understand that timed traffic lights can only work on one-way streets. Toronto has very few one-way streets, so converting the two-way streets would be necessary to even make his suggestion possible. The last thing I’d want to see is King street or Queen street turn into a Richmond or Adelaide. It would remove all liveability from these streets.
This is the problem with simpleton media like the Toronto Sun. You can’t expect any kind of analysis from some of the writers – only emotional drivel. That’s why the Sun thinks there is a war on cars, but the truth is that investment in bicycle infrastructure and public transit is the only way to reduce gridlock.
You need to provide people an alternative to driving, otherwise our roads will always be over-capacity.
By the way Mike, cyclists and pedestrians are paying for the roads that you drive on.
James D. Schwartz is the Editor of theurbancountry.com, a lifestyle website with a focus on sustainability.
Today’s Toronto Sun cover reads like a promotional brochure from a prominent multinational oil corporation. Bikes are bad, and investing in “Green” technology is fruitless.
In the “BIKE BLITZ” by-line, it reads “Cops crack down on rogue cyclists”. Rogue cyclists? Are you kidding me? 49 of the tickets to “rogue” cyclists were written for not having a working bell. Another 40 of those tickets were given to people without proper reflecting lights – that hardly sounds “rogue” to me.
In the main headline “GREEN GONE WRONG”, the conclusion of the article is that it’s not worth it to invest in solar panels. Never mind the environmental benefits that you get from producing solar energy, if there is no economic benefit then people shouldn’t invest.
It’s comical that the Toronto Sun inserts disclaimers into articles just to make an outrageous story. In this particular article the disclaimer reads: “Some of that, they acknowledge, has been their responsibility. They realize they've had trouble filling out some of their forms -- not knowing whether they were an embedded generator or a load customer. And Mary notes that when Peter gets excited his voice does tend to rise a bit.”
For every step forward we take, newspapers like the Toronto Sun put us two steps back. Good thing the only people who take this tabloid newspaper seriously are a small batch of right-wing nuts who are already hopelessly ignorant on the environmental issues of today.
On September 17th we surmised that a raw photo of cleavage on the Toronto Sun cover page was the result of a slow news day.
Well it must be another slow news day. Or not. Perhaps a conversation took place in the newsroom this morning:
Newsroom Employee: “Slow News day?”
Newsroom Editor: “Nope. Hot chick”
Newsroom Employee: “Oh, good point”
And so another day goes by in the newsroom of the Toronto Sun. Free advertising for Facebook (again) and a little bit of cleavage. That’s how newspapers are sold in 2009.
On Thursday’s Toronto Sun cover, the Sun tried to make a news story about Councillor Sandra Bussin’s phone call into John Tory’s radio show where she only identified herself as “Sandra from Toronto”.
Bussen defended outgoing Mayor David Miller but when asked repeatedly by John Tory if she works for the city, she responded “no”.
Is this seriously front page newsworthy? She called the radio station to defend the Mayor. Who cares if she wasn’t forthcoming that she’s a Councillor? Councillors are human and they are also citizens of the City of Toronto. She has every right to defend David Miller.
However, if I were her I’d be more pissed off about the photo they published on the cover than the article itself.
It seriously looks like the photo was taken while she was in the middle of a number two. Poor Sandra.
Yesterday, an anonymous Toronto Sun Sucks commenter pointed out the bizarre headline on the September 26th Toronto Sun cover – printed the day after Mayor David Miller announced that he wouldn’t seek re-election next year.
The cover reads “HIS GONER”. The commenter mockingly ponders “What about his goner? Is there something wrong with his goner? Did you mean “HE’S A GONER”? Because that’s not what you wrote down on the FRONT PAGE OF YOUR NEWSPAPER.”
Toronto Sun Sucks shares this reader’s viewpoint on the September 26th cover. I spent a fair portion of my day on Saturday wondering why on earth they would choose such a poor headline that wouldn’t make sense to the average person.
Let me explain though why the Sun went with this headline. You see, the Toronto Sun has a kennel in their basement where they keep a rabid canine that goes by the alias “Sue-Ann Levy”. When the Sun doesn’t feed her properly, she becomes very hostile and mean.
Levy commonly refers to the Mayor as “HIS BLONDNESS” in her articles. The September 26th headline was a poorly-conceived reference to HIS BLONDNESS. Now that Miller won’t be seeking re-election, the Sun is referring to him as “HIS GONER” (updated: rhyming with “His Honour” as pointed out by our readers). I know, I know - even with the explanation it’s still a silly headline.
But would you expect anything different from the Toronto Sun?
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