ebikes are only getting the same scrutiny now as single speed/fixed/hipster bikes did after the Charlie Alliston case
Fair point.
The scrutiny is perfectly valid of course. What I object to though is the prejudiced bias that comes through within this scrutiny, and especially the pervasive use of inflammatory language.
They use it as a way of drip-feeding hatred into the reader's subconscious. This is not a new phenomenon of course, nor one restricted to UK journalism, nor to the right-wing press. But for me the Mail always seems particularly full of this nastiness.
'Silent killer', 'knocked violently to the ground', 'e-bikes have...brought mayhem and a growing toll of injury and death', 'a real danger', 'the rise of the e-bike is potentially bad news for our streets', 'a new giant breed of bikes now on our streets...particularly threatening', 'an invasion', 'deadly risk', 'the laws which govern - or fail to govern - cyclists in Britain', 'the silent new machines can be just as deadly ad the cars they are intended to replace'.
I mean, come on!!?
Maybe it's just me that's weak-minded, but if I didn't know what an e-bike was and didn't have cyclists for friends I'd quite possibly come away from that thinking that anyone riding a bike was an irresponsible street-anarchist and e-bikes were some kind of conveyance of Armageddon - an uncontrollable hybrid of a motorbike and a t-800 android!