Media, Motorcycle & Politics

VON Dr. Wolf SiegertZUM Mittwoch Letzte Bearbeitung: 11. Januar 2006 um 09 Uhr 14 Minuten

 

In den letzten Tagen wurden im Rahmen einer Anfrage eine Reihe von Recherchen und Untersuchungen über die Rolle der Politik im Zusammenhang mit der Digitalisierung der Medien im Allgemeinen und des Kinos im besonderen durchgeführt. Arbeitstitel: "Jenseits von Reagan".

Foto: Ric Francis / AP
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks at a news conference and displays his injured lip Monday.
Es gelten die Regeln des Urheberrechts all rights reserved

Auch wenn diese Arbeit sich auf europäische respektive bundesdeutsche Verhältnisse bezog, kam auch unweigerlich die Rolle und die politische Funktion des Gouverneurs des Staates Kalifornien, Arnold Schwarzenegger ins Blickfeld der Monitore.

Und damit eine unten zitierte Geschichte [1], die für sich selber spricht:

Herr Schwarzenegger, der sich daran zu erinnern glaubt, während seiner Militärzeit in Österreich eine Erlaubnis zum Fahren eines Motorrades gehabt zu haben, war während einer sonntäglichen Spritztour mit seinem 12-jährigen Sohn im Beiwagen in einen Motorradunfall verwickelt. Sein Sohn war dabei mit dem Schrecken davon gekommen, er dagegen musste - mit angeblich 15 Stichen - genäht werden.

Doch lesen Sie selbst: die auf Associated Press Material basierende Geschichte von Kate Folmar aus der
San Jose Mercury News vom 10. Februar 2006:

SACRAMENTO - When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger got into a motorcycle accident Sunday near his West Los Angeles home that left him with a fat lip and 15 stitches, he was driving illegally. Unless he wasn’t.

The Los Angeles Police Department determined Tuesday that Schwarzenegger should have had a motorcycle designation on his license to operate the vehicle — an assertion that the state Department of Motor Vehicles promptly disputed.

The accident occurred when a car backed out in front of the governor, who was tugging his 12-year-old son, Patrick, along in a sidecar along a winding canyon road. Both Schwarzenegger and his son were wearing helmets. His son was not injured.

``He does have a driver’s license, but that license is not specified for a motorcycle. It is not an M-endorsed driver’s license,’’ said LAPD Officer Sara Faden. ``It’s an infraction. In technical terms, it’s illegal.’’

She said the absence of a motorcycle designation was noted when the governor collided with a driver pulling out of her driveway.

No one was cited in the accident because police did not see it happen, Faden said. The matter has been referred to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office to determine whether to file charges.

But the state Department of Motor Vehicles believes the governor was in the clear, said spokesman Mike Miller. ``According to the DMV, the governor obeyed the law,’’ he said.

The dispute involves different sections of the state vehicle code.

The LAPD based its finding on a section that defines a motorcycle as a vehicle having ``not more than three wheels in contact with the ground’’ regardless of the presence of a sidecar.

The DMV relied on a different section stating that regular, or Class C, licenses do ``not include a two-wheel motorcycle or a two-wheel motor-driven cycle.’’ As such, the California Motorcycle Handbook states that people with Class C licenses may drive ``a motorcycle with a sidecar attached, a three-wheel motorcycle, or a motorized scooter.’’ An M1 license is required for two-wheeled vehicles, it states.

Based on previous information, Schwarzenegger’s press secretary, Margita Thompson, had said that the governor’s regular license was sufficient for his Sunday jaunt because the presence of a sidecar made the governor’s motorcycle a three-wheeled vehicle.

``It doesn’t matter about LAPD’s change in interpretation because the governor said he needs to get the proper certification,’’ Thompson said Tuesday.

An action hero in the movies, Schwarzenegger is known for riding motorcycles — usually of the two-wheeled Harley Davidson variety.

The governor rode a motorcycle in the Terminator films. He likes to cruise down Pacific Coast Highway with pal Tom Arnold on weekends. Schwarzenegger hopped on a motorcycle to film a recent anti-piracy public service announcement with action hero Jackie Chan unveiled in Hong Kong. He even posed astride a motorcycle, dressed in Prada, with wife Maria Shriver for a Vanity Fair cover in 2004.

At his budget unveiling Tuesday, Schwarzenegger sported a jagged cut over his lip along with a gray suit and terra cotta-hued tie. He told reporters that not getting the proper motorcycle certification was an oversight that he would remedy.

``I just never really got one,’’ he said. ``Never thought about it. I had one, like I said,’’ during his military service in Austria.

In classic Schwarzenegger style, he used the accident as fodder for a joke about his much-debated move to the political center this year.

``If I sound a little funny, it’s because I have stitched up lips here,’’ he said. ``A car pulled out in front of me — it was right there in front — and I just couldn’t make a decision which way to go. I knew if I turned left that the Republicans will get mad, and I knew if I turned right my wife will get mad. So I just crashed right into the car, this was the safer thing to do.’’

To get a motorcycle endorsement, a rider must pass a Department of Motor Vehicle skills test or take a motorcycle training course from a program approved by the California Highway Patrol, the Associated Press reported.

Driving a motorcycle without the proper license, according to the Associated Press, is an infraction that can result in fines ranging from $100 to $250 or more.

Es gelten die Regeln des Urheberrechts all rights reserved

Anmerkungen

[1allein an diesem Tag sind in der US-Presse zu diesem Thema laut dem Google-BETA-News-Counter 942 Artikel veröffentlicht worden


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