Rob Ford's Toronto

Holy Crapola, its total madness of people constantly degrading the Mayor....im worried that sooner or later one of these many anti-Ford nutters will try to physically hurt him.
Hatred leads to Violence

/\ Drama queen /\

The CBC issues an email quoted in a Toronto Star story. On Thursday they were standing by their sources, the email statement is somewhat ambiguous. Nothing on the CBC website that I can find.

canmark said:

Ford wasn't sure if Mary Walsh was a lady or a man in drag.

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Ah ... the truth comes out. Ford thought the person doing the interview was a man in a dress? No wonder he was so terrified.

cgguy said:

The story unfolded perfectly short of Rob backing his SUV over a CBC cameraman.

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Why would any CBC people be present? 22 Minutes is done by a private company. Why are you assuming the person with the camera is male?

nfitz said:

Why would any CBC people be present? 22 Minutes is done by a private company. Why are you assuming the person with the camera is male?

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Ford did refer to the camera person as a "big guy" so I think "cameraman" is a fair assumption.

Automation Gallery said:

Holy Crapola, its total madness of people constantly degrading the Mayor....im worried that sooner or later one of these many anti-Ford nutters will try to physically hurt him.
Hatred leads to Violence

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You only saw that coming *now*?!? I saw that possibility coming over a year ago, even before he was elected--indeed, I saw the possibility ahead of a lot of his left-of-centre opposition, who thought he'd just be another Mel Lastman/Larry O'Brien-like blowhard bumbler, or else that Toronto was simply not "that" kind of city and Canada not "that" kind of country where madness such as assassinations can conceivably happen. And, really--I saw it all through the macabreness of Rob Ford's being. That he *wasn't* just another Harris, Harper, Mayor Mel or what have you. That something here was careening to an inevitable grotesque conclusion.

Basically, you sound like the kind of person who doesn't realize that a guy's about to point a pistol to your head, and that the pistol is loaded--simply because you haven't encountered a guy pointing a pistol to your head before. (Yes, it's a generally understandable circumstance. Same reason we go "yeah, yeah, I know, let's go on already" when the airplane attendants demonstrate the safety devices pre-flight.)

Automation Gallery said:

Holy Mary mother of god ...now the cops are corrupted and on Fords side..lol
Who the heck can you trust now-a-days.

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It's quite probable that he's telling the truth, but still, it's well established that cops often lie through their teeth. It's usually when they're protecting their own though. And it's also well established that Ford has gone on worse tirades.

I know that for some reason Rob Ford can do no wrong in your eyes, but even if Bill Blair is telling the truth Ford reacted entirely inappropriately by calling 911. Multiple times.

I tried to reverse engineer a narrative that makes sense and explains all the weird stuff that happened over the past week. It goes like this:

Mary Walsh tries to interview Rob Ford in his driveway. After initially looking like he might (warily) play along, he grows concerned that Walsh might be a man in drag, and that this might be some sort Pride-related thing meant to embarrass him. He retreats into his house and calls 911 three times before leaving for city hall.

The 911 tapes, while not as lewd and accusatory as indicated in the initial CBC report, are likely still kind of funny to listen to, as they involve an exasperated mayor talking about his being menaced by a potential drag queen and a camera crew. And so stories -- and MAYBE the tapes themselves? -- begin circulating amongst 911 and TPS employees about the 911 calls, and the legend grows from there. Eventually word gets to CBC, who opts to run the story.

Conclusions:

- Rob Ford handled this whole comedy interview situation very badly.
- CBC should not have run the story like they did without hearing the damned tape. That's irresponsible.
- 22 Minutes is not a very funny show and this Marg character is tiresome.
- This is not a particular example of media bias, except in the sense that it reveals the same bias toward the lascivious and the profane that the media has had since they started printing news on paper.
- There is probably something to be read into the fact that so many people -- even people who support the mayor -- were able to believe that the mayor MIGHT have said what CBC's sources alleged he did. But let's stay away from that.
- Rob Ford has proposed and will propose a lot of bad policies.

I think your summary is probably pretty close, much of it is how it plays out in my mind too. I don't agree that CBC should have heard the tapes first, if they had multiple sources claiming to have heard them, collaborated and then double checked the sources as they claim that they did, I think that they reported responsibly. "This Hour..." has it moments, I do like Marg, she makes me laugh my butt off - always has. Unless CBC is determined to chase this story and hold their position, which appears they are not - or unless someone leaks the tapes, it's pretty much a dead story.

So, let's move onto the next Ford f*ckup.....

I'm surprised nobody posted this yet, but Keith Olberman has singled out Rob Ford for "worst person in the world":

http://current.com/shows/countdown/videos/worst-persons-glenn-beck-wonderland-party-and-rob-ford

I expected the Ford trainwreck to reach national audiences, but I never thought it would be reported internationally.

And to those who defend Ford (which on this forum is basically down to just AG and spider) and whine about how the media spend too much time covering him, well, watching Rob Ford implode is incredibly popular and newspapers and TV can make a ton of money off him. Every Rob Ford article on the G&M seems to generate about 1,000 comments minimum - a recent one had 3,250 comments (most articles generate about 300 tops). I bet the This Hour Has 22 Minutes episode had the highest ratings for that show in years.

The only media outlet that still seems to be defending Ford is the Sun and, if they want to miss out on this cash cow, that's their prerogative.

Hipster Duck would have it that the last two standing supporters of Mayor Ford on this thread are me and AG, maybe so. A lot of thoughtful people have left this thread in despair of finding rational minds with which to discuss Ford’s deficiencies and they are legion. The underlying problem is that most of the remaining contributors refuse to accept that Ford won the election fair and square, sorry but that is the fact, like it or not. Better luck next time, but improving your luck will probably respond better to a more positive plan than a 3 year lynching party.

I voted for Rob Ford’s agenda, he came with the package. I accepted his lack of gravitas and other social graces because the alternatives were simply beyond the pale. Mr. Ford did not disappoint, his mishandling of Gay Pride was unacceptable as were many other examples that this thread is all too eager to point out but he is what he is and there is no room for feigned surprise or indignation.

Comparing Mr. Ford to Mr. Miller is all but impossible because they are almost different species. Mr. Ford was elected largely because he was not Mr. Miller, the latter read the hand writing on the wall and wisely chose not to run again.

Please note that I am not offering my opinions on agendas, I could compile a long list of Mr. Miller’s actions that I felt were not right for Toronto but doing so here and now would make me no better than those who are gleefully vilifying me and my opinions

spider said:

The underlying problem is that most of the remaining contributors refuse to accept that Ford won the election fair and square, sorry but that is the fact, like it or not. Better luck next time, but improving your luck will probably respond better to a more positive plan than a 3 year lynching party.

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I'm not saying that this is right or wrong, but the 3 year lynching party is what a lot of people want. That was my point about the media circus surrounding Rob Ford. Any article that reports about Rob Ford's antics in a negative light is bound to have a large number of hits and generate a lot of ad revenue. A paper's ideology plays some part in it, but not much, since even the centrist Globe and Mail and the right-of-centre National Post tend to have columnists who write overwhelmingly negative stories about Ford and his latest shenanigans.

There is no chance that the media and people who follow it will work constructively with Ford for a "more positive plan" (whatever that means). For starters, that is not the job of the media; secondly, Ford has shown no willingness himself to work constructively with others, least of all people who oppose him. I think the 22 Minutes incident, and his swearing on the phone to 911 dispatchers largely illustrates this. Ford is no longer considered by many to be a legitimate politican - he is not someone that people expect to govern or lead. He won't even be criticized in a manner deserving of a politician, but basically is consigned to being a walking pinata for the rest of his term. Even if he has policies or ideas, they won't be treated as anything except a target for character defamation. And, you know what? In the embarassing way he has handled every challenge that came his way, that's really more his fault than ours or the media's.

I voted for Rob Ford’s agenda, he came with the package. I accepted his lack of gravitas and other social graces because the alternatives were simply beyond the pale. Mr. Ford did not disappoint, his mishandling of Gay Pride was unacceptable as were many other examples that this thread is all too eager to point out but he is what he is and there is no room for feigned surprise or indignation.

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Nobody who even followed city politics casually is at all surprised by Rob Ford's outbursts given his "colourful" history in council. But even if I were inclined to vote for a person with a personality disorder, I would want to look more closely at his platform. His election platform of getting the city's fiscal house in order by cutting "gravy" -the simple frills of city hall - without cutting services was incredibly naive. If you bought this hook, line and sinker, you didn't do your due diligence.

spider said:

A lot of thoughtful people have left this thread in despair of finding rational minds with which to discuss Ford’s deficiencies and they are legion. The underlying problem is that most of the remaining contributors refuse to accept that Ford won the election fair and square, sorry but that is the fact, like it or not. Better luck next time, but improving your luck will probably respond better to a more positive plan than a 3 year lynching party.

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Somehow, this strategically-marginalizing "thoughtful people" vs "remaining contributors" argument reminds me of Peter Worthington types arguing how in the art world, "thoughtful people" willing to uphold "genuinely popular" artists such as Robert Bateman or George McLean over the conceptualist gobbledygook AGO curators (and scarcely anyone else) seem to prefer are hounded out of the joint holus bolus...

My remarks were restricted to the conduct of members posting on this thread, the media was not included nor should they be unless they are contributing to this thread anonymously. Please stay on message.

With the possible exception of Matt, who may be achieving some influence with his well-written and carefully studied observations of City Hall, the people posting comments on a message board here have very little impact on how Mayor Rob Ford's Toronto unfolds. The actions of the media will however shape future events, and therefore are central to the discussion here. Making the discussion about the conduct of members posting on this thread seems the opposite of staying on message.