Lance Armstrong & Kornheiser make up, plan jaunty bicycle outing

A truce has been called in the war between cyclists and motorists, with Lance Armstrong making an amicable appearance on Tony Kornheiser’s show this morning and accepting an apology from the ESPN radio host. Here’s the backstory on what Kornheiser originally said, and how Armstrong and his millions (literally) of Twitter followers responded. For his part, Kornhesier promised that he would “never go on a rant like that again. That’s over.” The two agreed to go on a cycling outing someday (laugh track), and share a beer (Lance’s will be handed to him by a fan as he rides by). Of course, the interesting part of this is not so much Kornheiser’s comments, but rather the reaction to them.

Kornheiser apologists say that those who listen to his radio show regularly realize that he was just playing a part when he advocated bumping cyclists off the road with automobiles. It was Kornheiser as both Statler and Waldorf, ranting from the balcony at the world below. It’s the bloggers and his non-listeners who don’t understand that he was just trying to be funny.
Now, I can emphasize here a bit. Readers who aren’t familiar with sports blogs stumble into Out of Bounds all the time — often from the stark, uber-political landscape of MSNBC.com — and have no idea where they are. They’re shocked that I’m writing about Tiger Woods sex toys … that’s not journalism! It’s like Queen Victoria accidentally walking into Harrah’s.
But here’s the difference. Tiger Woods sex toys never killed anyone (that I know of). Cyclists are killed by automobiles all the time. If comedy is rooted in truth, then Kornheiser’s attempt to be funny is rooted in ignorance. Bad joke, Tony. It fell flat. And that’s coming from a fan.
And here’s another thing: If Kornheiser is allowed to play the part of Disgruntled Old Man, then why can’t Armstrong play the part of Crusading Cyclist? He has just as much right to his indignation as Kornheiser has to his. Let the people listen and decide for themselves who is the big dope.
According to Tony himself, it was him.
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Lance Armstrong and Tony Kornheiser no longer hate each other [USA Today]