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Rob Ford's Toronto

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Paranoid? Immature? Out of control? What's their problem?

National Post: Toronto Councillor Doug Ford says media has ‘burned’ bridge, city reporters are ‘bunch of pricks’

One day after the mayor and his brother lambasted the Toronto media for being “pathological liars” and “sucky little kids”, Councillor Doug Ford brushed past the object of his ire at city hall.

“All you guys have burned your bridge so I have no comments,” Mr. Ford told reporters, as they asked him to explain remarks he made on the Fords’ Newstalk 1010 show on Sunday. “At least I’m accurate,” Mr. Ford shot back. “I don’t have the time of day for you guys. I have the time of day for the taxpayers and reducing the size and cost of government and saving the taxpayers money,” he said, then muttered under his breath “bunch of pricks” as he walked through the glass paned door to the councillors’ offices.

“They have this sense of entitlement, the media. That they can go in and write the stories. And let me say something folks, when you go back at the media, man, they’re like a bunch of little sucky little kids,” said Councillor Ford. “They whine and cry and moan and they sensationalize and they lie through their teeth.”

“They’re pathological liars,” added Mayor Ford. “That’s what drives me nuts.” He complained that after talking about his Chicago trade mission for an hour, Newstalk 1010 “put on advertising about expenses”, apparently referring to a news item by the radio station about the cost of the trip.
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The term "slow motion trainwreck" repeatedly comes to mind, and the "fireworks" (as Doug put it) never cease. I'm reminded of Chief Wiggum upon the discovery of Krusty's faked-death plane crash:

"Ok folks, show's over... Nothing to see here... Show's OH MY GOD! A horrible plane crash! Hey everybody, get a load of this flaming wreckage!"
 
By having businesses pay for expenses, trips, etc., without touching the city expense accounts, leaves councillors (and mayor) open for influence peddling. A no, no.

Influence peddling is defined as "the practice of using one's influence with persons in authority to obtain favours or preferential treatment for another, usually in return for payment." Having a business for your city trip sounds like "influence peddling" to me. Of course, if the business is your own business, you are influencing yourself. However, if you don't have your own business...
 
The brother's Frod have their own radio show (which is media) where they trash-talk councillors and generally use it as a platform for expressing their slogans and one-dimensional thoughts (if one can call them that). That alone makes them hypocrites for knocking other media people who cover their actions.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
They sure did, this was posted two pages back -

http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/170491736.html
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Y'know something: for the Fords, it may be a blessing in disguise that this was about the extent of their Chicago-media coverage.

Because, consider this: yeah, Ford Nation may paint domestic media criticism as so much typically Soviet-Canuckistani lefty-sensationalist cruelty and sour grapes. But in fact, I'd argue that their Toronto critics have actually been quite "wimpy". Being Canuckistanis, we're prone to reserve, and decorum. For the most part, we've eased away from fat-jokes-for-the-sake-of-fat-jokes, because we know that such cheap namecalling is counterproductive. We've sought to be gentle (relatively speaking). We've exercised mercy.

By comparison, US media is merciless. Re jokes at a political leader's expanse (sic), we may pull our punches re Rob Ford; but the late-night US talkers certainly don't pull their punches re Gov. Chris Christie.

With that in mind, imagine what would've happened if Toronto's Tommy Boy Mayor Visiting The Windy City did become a US media fixation--there's absolutely no way he'd have escaped being the butt of jokes that'd make we of Toronto The Good blush. He'd go from laughing stock to giga-laughing stock--some late-nighter would call him "Pink Slime", and it'd stick.

And I wouldn't even *want* to know what'd come next--though trust me: it wouldn't be pretty. After all, to be even more cruelly ridiculed by the US media they'd hope would be "on-side"...
 
Riverdale Rink Rat said:
I'm enjoying the Ford train wreck immensely. A goodly number of 'friends of friends' were huge Miller haters and it looks good on them as they realize competence is necessary, even if you're not a fan of the specific politics.
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I'm enjoying the train wreck too, for some crazy reason. I think what really cemented it for me was the pic of Ford on the airport ferry, looking like he's experiencing acid reflux in the worst way. There is no way the Fords can be enjoying their term as Mayortwin.
 
TonyV said:
I'm enjoying the train wreck too, for some crazy reason. I think what really cemented it for me was the pic of Ford on the airport ferry, looking like he's experiencing acid reflux in the worst way. There is no way the Fords can be enjoying their term as Mayortwin.
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Maybe the longer this goes on the better. City Council seems to be doing a good job of taking over the real work while Ford demonstrates to Torontonians their error in voting for a candidate who ran on not being your typical politician. 4 years of Ford being Ford will probably lead to a more in depth scrutiny of candidates running for office.

...although 2 seems to have been enough for most people. If this goes on longer, I can't imagine how we won't have people with pitchforks and axes in Nathan Phillips Square between now and 2014.
 
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MetroMan said:
Maybe the longer this goes on the better. City Council seems to be doing a good job of taking over the real work while Ford demonstrates to Torontonians their error in voting for an candidate who ran on not being your typical politician. 4 years of Ford being Ford will probably lead to a more in depth scrutiny of candidates running for office.
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Not feeling as optimistic about Ford being tossed from office by Justice Hackland?
 
Sorry, I edited my post just as you made yours to reflect that he may be out soon anyway. I'm fairly confident that Justice Hackland will find Ford guilty but I'm concerned with the precedent this will set and how he may not want to kick Ford from office. I'd give it a 60:40 odds of Ford losing his job versus the Judge finding him a way out.

We'll find out soon enough -- this week apparently.
 
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