Originally Posted by
BengeBoy
I wouldn't assume that Ryan misrepresented himself.
It's entirely possible that he told the reporter: "My intention was to ride from LA to DC. I rode from LA to the start of the Trans America trail, rode part of the way out into the California desert, , caught a ride to Phoenix to regroup, and have ridden the rest of the way since then."
Which the media will then shorten to, "He's riding from LA to Washington."
I don't think it's fair to hold him accountable for every short-cut the press takes in explaining his story. His own website makes it clear he caught a ride part of the way.
I think even a casual observer, if they focused on every detail of his trip, would still walk away saying "he's riding from LA to DC."
After giving it some thought I think you might be right. He could have interrupted the questions and made a correction. But maybe he did not hear the intro and we should give him the benefit of the doubt.
The talking heads probably looked at his maps and the first paragraph of his website. These should be reflected to show where he hitched a ride, so that people not reading deep into the site will see the true story.
This story is probably one of the greatest self promotion / human interest stories in a very long time. It most certainly will get the attention of Obama and the press at the other end. Let's wait till then to see if he give the full story.
It would have really been a fantastic human interest story had he actually rode from the door of Obama's old college to the "door" of Obama's inauguration. Ryan can no longer make that claim. With just a little more planning, he could have easily done it, judging by his current performance.
And yes I liked some of the questions too. Especially the one about the tent. What did they expect him to do? Haul and Airstream trailer behind his bike?
Ryan is not doing anything differently then thousand, maybe even millions of bike tourers and hikers do every year with the tent. I can't figure why they were so amazed.