Memo to the Toronto Star: Beware of Somalis Bearing Gifts

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck
"My information is that there is another copy of it," Doolittle said on the Dean Blundell Show on 102.1 The Edge. "Actually, there's at least one other copy, there might be two other copies," Doolittle said. "One is out of the city, and one is somewhere else."

I wonder if copyright issues are going to come into this story.

As far as the resignations go, Ford has been very professional about them, as he should be.

"Principle"? OK. I think these people might possibly not want to be caught up in the current goings on. They may think that Ford is going down and might not want to be tarred along with him.

Rats leave a sinking ship on principle too. The principle is self preservation.

I wonder if this is related.

www.680news.com...

reply to post by boncho

Time will tell. The person arrested has the surname Zekarias, which is not necessarily Somali.

This story (the subject of the thread) is odd in that a leading paper, The Toronto Star seems to have been led into publishing something that they would not have published, the alleged "illegal commodity" smoking incident involving Toronto's Mayor, in response to a story broken on a "tabloid" style website, gawker.com.

When you go to gawker, not only do you find out all kinds of things about the Ford family of the 1980s but you are treated to the assumption that Canada has a "national crack smoking habit".

Gawker is a "tab".

Hollywood celebrities have outlined the modus operandi of tabloids very clearly. It is alleged that they routinely make up stories out of whole cloth, elaborate them to the point of forcing a celebrity to deny them and threaten to sue unless the story is withdrawn, at which point the tabloid protests, withdraws and apologizes. All of which makes up a "story cycle" designed to guarantee sales at the news stand or traffic on the website.

Only God and the tabloids create something out of nothing.

The Toronto Star, like a teenager demonstrating his peenie to his girlfriend for the very first time, shot its load prematurely, prompted by the very questionable editorial impulses of a tabloid website and are now locked into the tabloid "story cycle".

Editors at the Star would appear to have "blown it".

Routine editorial discretion in force at the Star, professional caution actually, common sense prudence that had been withholding publication of this story until the crucial piece of evidence, the actual video of the Mayor consuming an illegal commodity came into the Star's possession, was tossed out the window because some tabloid was running another blazing rumour that happened to overlap the as yet only "potential" story the Star was investigating and withholding, as any truly professional, legitimate newspaper would.

If they don't get this video and if the video does not show what the Star says it shows, then a very important news outlet in Toronto can no longer be trusted.

I would have more confidence in the Star's story and am amazed that Star editors did not insist that the reporters who say they saw the video produce a screenshot of the Mayor with an illegal commodity smoking implement in his mouth, rather than one of him standing around at a private party looking "overly refreshed", as David Letterman would comically put it.

Is it time for an editorial "sit down" at the Star with the publisher, for a reminder of just where the foul lines are on the playing field?


Edit:

As of last update on gawker, the video purchasing fund is up to $145,000.00 and confidence at the tabloid website is beginning to sag.

gawker.com...

If you are considering contributing, you should be aware that our confidence that we can get a deal done has, on account of the foregoing, diminished since we came up with this idea. This doesn't mean that it won't happen, or that we won't get a call in ten minutes, or that the publication of this post won't spur the owner of the video to reach out and re-affirm his interest in selling it. But this is where we are at.

Fans of Shakespeare who are familiar with his famous tragedy, Othello The Moor of Venice, have a rare treat in store for them.

Simply go to the following link and read The Toronto Star's editorial for today.

Somehow, and I don't know how they did it, the Star has recruited Iago the Machiavellian architect of Othello's doom, to do a summation of where things stand with Mayor Ford The Boor of Toronto.

OK, Iago didn't actually write this editorial. Maybe it's just the style and attitude of Iago that I see in the writing. The visible invisibility of a "motiveless malignity" is omnipresent in the tale.

www.thestar.com...

Am I wrong? I don't think so. Reading the editorial, one would think that the Star played no part in these matters and bears no responsibility for the state in which local government finds itself. That is hardly the case.

Originally posted by ipsedixit
Reading the editorial, one would think that the Star played no part in these matters and bears no responsibility for the state in which local government finds itself. That is hardly the case.

I believe they call that 'killing the messenger'. It ain't Shakespeare...but it's a legitimate fit. This isn't over...I can wait.

How much longer can you wait? At what point does the "put up or shut up" rule come into effect? The likely end to all this is not a crack smoking mayor video but a humiliating libel suit.

Originally posted by Orwells Ghost
How much longer can you wait? At what point does the "put up or shut up" rule come into effect? The likely end to all this is not a crack smoking mayor video but a humiliating libel suit.

For all of Ford's (continuing) bluster about being maliciously harassed by the Star, he has yet to file any suit. So bring it on!

reply to post by JohnnyCanuck


Yeah, that baffles my mind too. Were I a man of Rob Ford's means, I would be suing the **** out of the Toronto Star right about now. They've certainly done damage to his reputation through their as of yet unsubstantiated allegations.

So I'll reiterate: at what point do you think The Toronto Star has to deliver on this video? If it never turns up should they be held accountable for irresponsible reporting? One could easily make the case that they've done more damage to the city of Toronto than Mayor Ford ever has.

Originally posted by Orwells Ghost
reply to post by JohnnyCanuck

 

Yeah, that baffles my mind too. Were I a man of Rob Ford's means, I would be suing the **** out of the Toronto Star right about now. They've certainly done damage to his reputation through their as of yet unsubstantiated allegations.

So I'll reiterate: at what point do you think The Toronto Star has to deliver on this video? If it never turns up should they be held accountable for irresponsible reporting? One could easily make the case that they've done more damage to the city of Toronto than Mayor Ford ever has.

You might want to ask the members of Ford's inner circle about that. Those that aren't being ushered out or quitting are now starting to publicly admit they believe in the video's existence. If they've lost Holyday, the end games have started. Pass that popcorn, willya? I'll grab us another couple of cold ones.

reply to post by Orwells Ghost

Right on.

I think the Star was worried that people in Toronto might start to think that gawker.com knew more about what was going on in Toronto than the Star did. I think they had something of a brain cramp and forgot that gawker and the Star are in two different businesses, or were, until this story came along.

Here's the Star's story in a nutshell,

"Three of our reporter's saw a video of the Mayor smoking an illegal commodity on somebody's cell phone. We don't have a copy of the video. The Mayor denies the allegations. Uh . . . the Mayor's brother sold hashish in the 1980s, the Mayor got drunk at a party, the Mayor caressed the beutox of a lady at a party, the Mayor catches up on his office work while driving, the Mayor is vulgar, the Mayor gets perks for his football team . . . we don't like the Mayor's policies and the very worst thing of all, the Mayor makes Torontonians look like normal people instead of beings from Planet Rosedale.

This is intolerable and the Mayor can't be impeached. The law should be changed so we don't have to put up with this cost cutter anymore."

reply to post by JohnnyCanuck


Haha yeah, the entertainment value of this fiasco is high for sure; many beers will be downed. Holyday saying he believed in the tapes existence was a huge blow to Ford, no doubt about it; that man has to be the most trusted name in municipal politics around here. That said, he did indicate that the only reason he believes in the tapes existence is because Toronto Star journalist Robyn Doolittle told him it did, and he believes her. Not exactly proof ya know? The Star really needs this tape to show up if they want to retain some credibility and not become a tabloid. Jounalistic integrity and all those other absurd notions etc etc..

reply to post by ipsedixit


That's what really upsets me about the whole thing. The Star clearly has a political agenda, and that just rubs me the wrong way. Maybe I'm old school, idealistic, naive, or just an idiot, but I think that major print publications need to remain objective and report on the facts; not only is it a civic virtue in any free nation, it's what the print media can use to separate themselves from the online amateur journalism that is destroying the industry. They really need to leave the sensationalist nonsense to the internet blog machine instead of going with the lowest common denominator approach.

Originally posted by Orwells Ghost
The Star really needs this tape to show up if they want to retain some credibility and not become a tabloid. Jounalistic integrity and all those other absurd notions etc etc.

...as the wagons begin to circle:

Emails and telephone records in Mayor Rob Ford’s office are in danger of disappearing, the Star has learned. The electronic records, which may reveal knowledge of discussions of the video scandal, were ordered destroyed this week. Sources say people who were told to delete the records are balking at the order. The Star

You know, if it walks like a duck, etc, etc.

I can wait.

reply to post by JohnnyCanuck


Well that's certainly interesting, though one has to wonder if the source might be a tad biased.
I'd love a peek at both City Hall's emails as well as the Star's. I'm pretty sure that would ensure the demise of both the municipal government and the newspaper.

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck

Sources say people who were told to delete the records are balking at the order. The Star

You know, if it walks like a duck, etc, etc.

All we are getting from the Mayor's critics is innuendo. For example, from your linked story:

One source the Star spoke to was alarmed at the potential loss of “evidence of attempts” to locate and retrieve a video of Ford smoking crack coc aine and making homophobic and racial slurs.

If there were anything to this person's apprehensions, wouldn't the logical thing be to approach the ex officials of the Mayor's office and ask them if they were involved in trying to obtain the missing video?

If I were the Mayor, trying to conduct city business amid the current distractions I would be directing my staff to try to obtain the video. Anyone would under the circumstances, even if he were completely innocent of the Star's allegations.

Chuck Berry walks like a duck during performances. Not everything that walks like a duck is a duck.

reply to post by Orwells Ghost

I'd like gawker to publish the names of people who have contributed to their buy the video fund. It would be very interesting to see who is on that list.

Originally posted by ipsedixit
If there were anything to this person's apprehensions, wouldn't the logical thing be to approach the ex officials of the Mayor's office and ask them if they were involved in trying to obtain the missing video?

You tell me...

A source confirmed to the Sun that David Price, Ford’s director of logistics and operations, contacted Towhey on the evening of May 17 — the day after Gawker’s video story — to say he was “doing some investigating” and found, through his sources, the Dixon Rd. address and unit number where the video might be found.

Towhey ordered Price not to give the information to the mayor. According to the source, the feeling was that someone thought the video was “worth a lot of money” and Towhey didn’t want the mayor implicated in any situation arising from the video.

Price believed the video had been around for a while but it took some time to “monetize it," the source said. He told Towhey it may have been the reason why one of the guys in the photo — published in reports about the video — was killed. In the photo, Ford appears side-by-side with Smith who was gunned down outside a downtown nightclub.

Towhey went on to alert Toronto Police about the conversation, offered to give a statement and provided Price’s contact information. It isn’t clear if Price has spoken to police.

The next day, Towhey went to Toronto Police headquarters to give a statement. Days later he was fired as Ford’s chief of staff. Toronto SUN

Originally posted by ipsedixit

Chuck Berry walks like a duck during performances. Not everything that walks like a duck is a duck.

Lol! Hilarious, can I use this in this?

reply to post by JohnnyCanuck

And your point is?

2nd.

Originally posted by ipsedixit
reply to post by JohnnyCanuck

 

And your point is?

2nd.

That the ex-officials do have a tale to tell...as reported by the Sun, I might add. Looks like the digital shredders are in place at City Hall to remove any supporting evidence. These are not the actions of an innocent man. But weep for Ford if you wish...gnash your teeth in indignation at the harsh cruelties being heaped on him. The Ford Nation is loyal to its leader.