This Is Journalism?

    During the 2020 epidemic, I tried to bicycle as much as I could. One of my favorite routes took me around the UW Arboretum and back down State Street, so I saw State Street's deterioration that began with the George Floyd protests in May. The boarded-up storefronts, the graffiti, the city-sponsored murals covering businesses, the lack of people, it was all quite depressing and scary. By late summer, maybe half of the plywood board was down, both on the capital square and up State Street to the UW. Starting in September they went back up, culminating with the entire first floor of the capital boarded up as the November election approached. I was somewhat surprised at this, as I never saw anything in the local media. Within days, if not hours of Biden's election victory, the capitol boards were down. Again, no mention of this embarrassment for our beautiful and fun city.
    Then the Trump-inspired mob invaded the DC Capitol, and the boards went back up again, only this time it dominated the news. Every day the headlines and TV news led with the "sad" situation. My point is that the media had no interest in getting fire-bombed or castigated as "racist" by pointing out the defensive measures taken in anticipation of an anti-Trump riot, but kept the story on the front page, despite nothing happening, as long as the right-wing crazies could be blamed.
    Another example. Maybe you heard of the young biracial woman in Madison who made national news when she alleged she was set on fire when stopped at a traffic light by "Frat Boys." This was the lead story for days. Even Meghan Markle called to "help her heal." (There is something quite special about a princess consoling an oppressed person.) The crime was investigated by everyone from the local police to the FBI. Guess what? She made it up. She was so determined to be a victim that she set her face on fire. Once more, hardly anyone knows that. The story was quietly dropped.
    The same distortion applies to the Blake shooting in Kenosha. Wikipedia has the story pretty straight, as the officer was trying to prevent the twice-tased, knife-wielding guy from kidnapping one of the kids in the back seat. In the official report it states that the officer kept shooting until the guy dropped his knife. Does anyone know that? I'm not suggesting that the police handled this the right way, but isn't anyone concerned about the facts? Now more protests are planned, and they are getting plenty of publicity. Every mention of this tragedy starts with "The guy was shot seven times." Check out the 87 page Kenosha County DA's report.

   Is there a news source that has the guts to get these stories right, or are they all intimidated or politically pressured to take a specific point of view? I thought that journalists were supposed to try to tell the truth.

Wrapping it up

 We finished this challenge strong, with 610 miles logged this week (a record) for a total of 3,259 miles in ten weeks, some 493 miles beyond Burgess. Just for fun, I extended the route down the coast, and it looks like we end up just shy of Charleston, SC.  Or another way of looking at is that we could have started in Seattle and made it to Burgess in ten weeks. Thanks, everyone, for your terrific cycling. I know I did a lot more summer miles than I usually do, and I've enjoyed just about every minute of it. Here's to Nova Scotia or wherever we decide to go when we can actually get together. Cheers, Clem

Our last hurrah

 (Glenn, Keith and Clem, collectively, 48 miles) On the last day of our "biking holiday" based out of Glenn's cabin at Lindbergh Lake, we managed just 16 miles each, and no breakfast until 3 p.m. We had intended to bike to breakfast, decided to drive instead to the cafe, but they were so slammed we never did get in. We biked north around Echo Lake and by Jewel Basin, a well-known hiking area. Finally had breakfast in mid-afternoon as we were closing up the cabin. Big thanks to Glenn for the idyllic cabin home for the week!

Hungry Horse and Laughing Horse

 (Clem, Glenn, Keith, collectively, 144 miles)  Hungry Horse e is a little burg straddling busy Hwy 2. It was named after a coupla nags who broke loose from a pack string early in the winter of 1900 and were found in a snow bank, starving.  It’s also the home of the Hungry Horse News, the only Montana paper ever to win a Pulitzer Prize (for editor Mel Ruder’s coverage of a disastrous flood in 1965). We started out there in the up-and-down bike path leading to West Glacier, entered the park, then took the even hillier Camas  Road over to the North Fork of the Flathead River before turning around as the road from there ( to Canada if you turn right)

is gravel and dirt. Smoky skies cast a pall over the fall leaves but it was still a beautiful ride. On the way home we stopped at the Laughing Horse in Swan Lake and had a delicious restaurant meal al fresco.

Wednesday Ride

 (Art, 22). Are we in Burgess yet?  The champagne’s chilled and ready!

Swan Lake

 (Glenn, Keith, Clem, collectively, 159 miles) Today, we went 26.5 miles further north on Route 83, overlapping yesterday’s ride by 5 miles. Our end point was Swan Lake, where it began to look (despite the photo) that the smoke was beginning to lift, and indeed we were able to see a bit of the Swan Range to the East on the way back. 

Smoke and mirrors

 (Keith, Glenn, Clem, collectively, 99 miles) We arrived in Burgess mid-afternoon—that is, at that moment the six of us

had together pedaled 2,766 miles in two months and three days. In actual geography, the three of us biked from near Glenn’s cabin on Lindbergh Lake 16.5 miles north on Highway 83 then back again uphill through smoky air. The ride continues through Friday.