TMX says: Nitro-glycerine to mass media

For those of you who don't already know, the premise of this particular part of the show is that three audience members are plucked from the crowd, given some safety kit, and then plonked on a bike controlled by a professional who performs a backflip. The crowd go wild and everyone who wasn't picked goes home wishing it was them...

I read something the other day every single person on earth is somehow connected by the friend of a friend of a friend. It was initially thought that there were six degrees of separation but now thanks to social media networks and whatnot the global average is down to just 3.57 degrees. 

With that in mind it's kind of bizarre that not one of us knows anyone who's been picked from a Nitro Circus crowd; it just doesn't add up. 

If my Facebook feed shows me that my online buddy likes a picture of a cat that their friend has shared, then surely an image of matey's mate's grinning mate posing with a stack of swag after being picked to take part in a Nitro Circus show is bound to appear at some point or other. 

So let's put two and two together here and assume that the randomly picked fans are actually planted professionals – gasp, shock horror, etc – then the Glasgow thing soon becomes a bit of a non-story. 

I mean, would the media really care that a paid professional has picked up a minor injury in their line of work? 

Okay, if it were a Premier League footballer who had cracked a nail then they'd probably be all over it but an extreme sports star breaking their jaw in a trick gone wrong... not a sniff!

A prime example of this total lack of interest would be the amount of mainstream media coverage Aussie Arenacross ace Daniel McCoy received after suffering a life-changing injury in the very same arena back in January. Cue vast amounts of tumbleweed on that one...

It annoys me that these trusted media outlets jump on a story and sensationalise the hell out of it in an attempt to gain some traffic without finding out any facts to figure out what's really gone on. 

Doubly disappointing is the fact that some of the local newspaper editors that I've contacted in the past to try and gain some positive editorial space for off-road sports have flat-out refused, but were more than happy to run the ‘Passenger breaks jaw as Nitro Circus motorbike stunt goes wrong' story on their websites. What complete douche bags! 

I think the moral of this story is that it's best to stick to a tried and tested source like TMX when it comes to getting your fix of off-road news - a product produced by passionate professionals that you can really trust in to deliver the truth about the things that really matter.