Rob Ford's Toronto

[Bebop17]

Both Fords were invited to submit complaints. That's it. If they choose to make a complaint, they would then participate in the hearing... otherwise it will probably just be the OPC, the two newspapers, and the two people who made the complaints. They aren't demanding that they come clean - just inviting them to submit a complaint. Given how publicly they Fords have denounced the investigative reporting of both papers, and journalists in general, it seems appropriate that the OPC is giving them a final shot to formally make an official complaint before they finalize the participants in the hearing. It seems like exactly the kind of thing the Fords would want to do, doesn't it?

It does, prima facie. As an aside, does anyone know if these hearings are open to the public?

 

[Ex-Montreal Girl]

This isn't how I understand the letters sent to the Fords by the OPC, although I do think the Star has been a bit disingenuous in their characterization of this as an oportunity for the Fords to refute the allegations. The Star article states that the OPC letters invite the Fords to submit their own complaints, which would then give them standing to express their views on how the Star and the Globe did not meet the standards of good reporting in articles about them. That's quite different than asking the Fords to demonstrate that the articles were not true, and as others have already said, it seems entirely reasonable to offer the Fords an opportunity to speak to the issue of how and why they feel that reporting about them has been unfair.

From the OPC website new release. Emphasis is mine:

... the following points will be addressed:

(a) In relation to the Toronto Star article:
- Did the article deal with a matter that is in the public interest?
- Were adequate efforts made to verify the allegations?
- Was Mr. Rob Ford given adequate notice of the allegations and a reasonable opportunity to respond, and did the newspaper include that response in its reporting?

(b) In relation to the Globe and Mail article:

- Did the article deal with a matter that is in the public interest?
- Were adequate efforts made to verify the allegations?
- Was Mr. Doug Ford given adequate notice of the allegations and a reasonable opportunity to respond and did the newspaper include that response in its reporting?
- Was it appropriate for the newspaper to include references to other members of the Ford family?

The risk here is to the newspapers' sources. Anybody who can't see that is missing the whole point, and revealing a pro-Ford bias.

The papers will be forced to answer questions such as -- and I am just hypothesizing here -- who informed you of the existence of the video in the first place? How did you validate that person's identity? With whom did you double and triple check the stories about Doug Ford dealing hash? Who were your sources? How did you know they were reliable? Etc.

From the OPC website, emphasis mine:

The Council provides an efficient and effective way for the public to deal with issues of concern without launching legal proceedings, which can become lengthy and costly.


In reaching its decisions, the Council considers appropriate journalistic practices, including fairness and accuracy, as well as issues of ethical concerns, sources utilized, decisions by the Courts and the news organization’s own guidelines and codes of conduct.

It's worth reminding people that neither the National Post nor the Sun are members of the OPC because, IMO, they don't want anybody to challenge their often defamatory and shoddy opinion columns without launching horrendously expensive libel suits.

The Fords said something about not wanting to go up against the Thomson empire because they couldn't afford it, didn't they? They could have complained to the OPC had they chosen to -- and hmmmm, they did not -- without being themselves "on trial" and instead forcing the Star and the Globe to justify their reportage and even tip their sources. Instead they resort to dumping all over the media, the Star in particular.

Now, Ford Nation fans have charged in, and the Ford brothers won't be able to control the process or what is said.

DUMB.

As a result, the OPC is forced to invite the Fords to submit so that third parties don't muddy the waters and make matters worse. The Fords, at this point, would do well to stay away so they can say they have no control over their supporters.

ETA: And yes the hearings are open to the public.

The complaint against the Toronto Star will be heard starting at 10 a.m. and the complaint against the Globe and Mail will be held starting at 1 p.m. The hearings at Ryerson will be held at the Sears Atrium, third floor of the George Vari Engineering and Computer Centre, 245 Church Street. Parking is located on the west side of Church, north of Dundas.

Better get there early.

 

[evvabeing]

Like food, we need good reporting to survive: Mallick
Whether it’s Rob Ford or Edward Snowden, recent events show that good reporting is under attack

what strikes me is a common attitude floating in the ether: that secret information must not be reported. Citizens — including in Canada, a most secretive country — must not know about who governs us, how they behave and how they keep us under surveillance so that we may be quickly pulled in on a hook.

Opposing reporting is like opposing food. We need food the same way we need information about where and how we live, globally, nationally and locally. Those intolerant of lactose and gluten may not like traditional milk or bread. But we still need and like food.

Without reporting, we fail as a democracy.

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/comm...e_need_good_reporting_to_survive_mallick.html

 

[evvabeing]

When the stories broke on Saturday, the mayor himself was silent, as has become customary, while his brother Doug dismissed the reports as malicious fiction, as has also become customary.

And so we tuned in to the Ford brothers’ Sunday radio program to hear something—if not the truth we might feel we are owed, then at least an explanation. Broadcasting live from the CNE, the program offered a heavy dose of Doug Ford as, for half the program, Rob was stuck in traffic after a family trip to Niagara. Or so brother Doug said. There’s no reason to doubt the story except for its source, whose increasing unreliability as a narrator became immediately evident.

[...]

It’s not really a surprise at this point, especially after seeing the Fords wrestle with an imaginary gravy train, crow about fantastical efficiencies, and invent definitions for “conflict of interest.” And they ask us to believe that the darker stories—the crack video, the troubling associations—are the result of the imaginations of other folks. That is, if they ever address such stories at all.

Sometimes it’s harder to tell what is more disturbing: the inconvenient personal stories Rob and Doug refuse to address when we demand the truth, or the convenient political fictions they hope we’ll accept as true when they do talk. Or perhaps the truly disturbing thing is how accustomed we’ve become to both.

http://www.thegridto.com/city/politics/sometimes-a-ford-notion/

 

[Bebop17]

And yes the hearings are open to the public.

Better get there early.

*starts gathering up All The Popcorn*

and hello from another ex-Montreal girl

 

[evvabeing]

@ThatDudeMcfly - ROB FORD (PARODY SONG)

[video=youtube;lFBkcoSUAKU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFBkcoSUAKU[/video]

 

[W. K. Lis]

Why worry about The Star or The Globe And Mail? With Twitter, Youtube, Flickr, and other websites, anyone with a smartphone or digital camera is what the Ford brothers should be worried about. It wasn't any print media that followed Rob Ford during The Taste of The Danforth, it was someone with a smartphone camera.

 

[evvabeing]

As a result, the OPC is forced to invite the Fords to submit so that third parties don't muddy the waters and make matters worse. The Fords, at this point, would do well to stay away so they can say they have no control over their supporters.

ETA: And yes the hearings are open to the public.

Better get there early.

The Globe will defend its use of anonymous sources for an investigative piece by Greg McArthur and Shannon Kari that looked into Mayor Rob Ford's family's alleged drug dealings, the newspaper's public editor Sylvia Stead told J-Source. Stead said she plans to attend the hearing along with one of the editors who oversaw the investigation.

The Star has been called to respond to complaints about an article the newspaper ran about a video that allegedly showed Ford smoking crack.

That article was written by city hall reporter Robyn Doolittle and investigative reporter Kevin Donovan. Public editor Kathy English told J-Source The Star will be represented at the hearing by Donovan as well as editor Michael Cooke.

"The thrust of the response is that the Star has reported responsibly in the public interest on the mayor of Toronto," she said in an email.

The mayor's press secretary was not aware of the upcoming hearings when J-Source contacted him on Monday.

http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/2013/08/21/RobFordPressHearing/

 

[guitarchitect]

The mayor's press secretary was not aware of the upcoming hearings when J-Source contacted him on Monday.

Someone mentioned something about amateur hour?

 

[PinkLucy]

Someone needs to tell him to join this forum so he can keep up with what his boss is doing

 

[christiesplits]

Someone mentioned something about amateur hour?

His whole office is in shambles I am not really surprised.

 

[evvabeing]

how did rob not know what a cronut burger was? seems right up his alley. and i love that he heard something beer related instead...

Cronut Burgers were sold freely through the weekend — and was even offered to Mayor Rob Ford during his Sunday afternoon radio broadcast from the fair.

(The mayor initially interpreted the name as “Corona Burger” and then gave it to one of his adoring fans to eat instead.)

http://o.canada.com/2013/08/21/cronut-scandal-cne/

 

[Ex-Montreal Girl]

Why worry about The Star or The Globe And Mail? With Twitter, Youtube, Flickr, and other websites, anyone with a smartphone or digital camera is what the Ford brothers should be worried about. It wasn't any print media that followed Rob Ford during The Taste of The Danforth, it was someone with a smartphone camera.

And it was a smartphone that *allegedly* caught him *allegedly* smoking *allegedly* crack.

 

[evvabeing]

we would be naïve to think that the wheels of justice don’t turn differently for police accused of unlawful conduct or, for that matter, people in positions of power.

Take the police’s handling of the other politically-charged matter dominating headlines these days, those crack cocaine allegations swirling around our mayor, Rob Ford.

There, the chief’s reluctance to address the allegations in a meaningful way publicly, has raised doubts. What’s already known of the mayor’s keeping company with gun and drug runners, for example, should have been enough to cause his removal – at least until the cloud hanging over his head cleared.

However, save for whatever the city’s major news orgs have been able to uncover, it’s unclear just where the investigation, if there is an investigation, is headed. There were some assurances offered this week.

[...]

Besides adding the most explosuve pieces to the crack story puzzle since it broke in mid-May, the Star’s most recent revelations are noteworthy for another very important reason. It seems the cops are actually investigating attempts by Lisi and the mayor’s head of logistics, David Price, to retrieve the crack tape the mayor claims doesn’t exist.

Those attempts may or may not be related to a shooting incident at the Dixon high-rises in the city’s northwest end, a home invasion at the Windsor address of another of the mayor’s high school friends where the alleged video may have been shot, and a stabbing incident at the Don jail.

The Star’s latest revelations offer some confidence cops are on the Ford case. But Ford still occupies the mayor’s chair. The question has to be asked why.

http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=194008

 

[evvabeing]

this exchange felt worth sharing...

https://twitter.com/enzodimatteo/status/368738855580471296 (emphasis added)

Enzo DiMatteo ‏@enzodimatteo 17 Aug

What is it with our mayor and Italian thugs still living in their moms basement? http://bit.ly/14I5RJj

Marla Waltman ‏@marlawd 17 Aug

Excellent Q “@enzodimatteo: What is it with our mayor and Italian thugs still living in their moms basement? http://bit.ly/14I5RJj ” #TOpoli

Jack Patterson ‏@JacPatterson 17 Aug

@marlawd @enzodimatteo Story gets ever juicier..Where will it lead, I wonder? And will it even make any différence?

Enzo DiMatteo ‏@enzodimatteo

@JacPatterson @marlawd It leads to handcuffs is where it leads. On whose wrists is the question. The dancing girls are next I imagine.