Toronto Star takes the weekend off, forgets to hound Rob Ford

[Locutus]

:lol:

Something weird happened at the Toronto Star over the weekend. They suddenly shut up about Rob Ford. After devoting most of its Friday front page, two inside pages, and editorial and a fairly disgusting editorial cartoon to its tiff with Toronto’s mayor, there was nothing over the weekend beyond a brief news (yes, actual news) item noting that Ford’s request to buy some land next to his house would go to a hearing of the conservation authority that owns the land.

So what happened? Scandal of the century one day; not worth mentioning the next. Not even a single fat joke. Did some adults break into the editorial playpen at The Star and suggest the editors get a life? Did someone read the letters from readers suggesting they were unimpressed? Here are some samples:

I have been a subscriber for a number of years to your product. Your intellectual, ethical and moral downward spiral over the past few years makes me hesitate to call you a newspaper. Newspapers used to report the news and verify the facts to earn an enviable reputation in their profession. The now commonplace tactic of parsing the content to suit your own agenda renders most content as infotainment rather than actual news. This latest carpet bombing-styled episode with Rob Ford has really gone too far. The word puerile comes to mind. So do the words disingenuous, disgusted and disenfranchised. That is how I feel about your defence of your tabloid. People tend to react that way when their intelligence is so blatantly insulted.
While I am certainly no fan of Rob Ford, you’ve actually made me feel sorry for him and angry with you.
Grow up.

*****
I used to think the Star published stories with integrity. Ever since Rob Ford was elected, the paper started its campaign to hate him. I don’t ever recall as many negative stories against one mayor as you do about Ford. You are becoming a paparazzi tabloid newspaper when it comes to Ford. Enough is enough. Stop instigating stories and start reporting the news.

*****
Criticize the mayor all day long if you choose. But stop going to his house. You’re harassing him, and it’s to your discredit.
​

Or maybe The Star is just holding its guns for its next major scoop. After blowing the lid off the fact that the mayor likes Kentucky Fried Chicken, and scooping the whole world on his desire to buy a bit of land next to his home, what could be next: Ford puts blue box on wrong side of driveway?


We can hardly wait.


National Post


Toronto Star takes the weekend off, forgets to hound Rob Ford | Full Comment | National Post

 

[mentalfloss]

It's well known that McParland is a complete shill.

I wouldn't be surprised if him and Sue Ann Levy engage in some debauchery while Ezra Levant pees on both of them.

 

[TenPenny]

Ford must be a piece of work, all of his supporters are fragile, whiny little twerps.

 

[mentalfloss]

Someteeng tells me that this is just gonna get worse.

Rob Ford’s stupid and offensive radio show demeans us all

The political scene in this city has never been more ridiculous than it is right now.

Following last week’s almost-punched-a-reporter saga, yesterday’s episode of Mayor Rob Ford’s radio show on Newstalk 1010 was yet another low point for the Ford administration. The mayor, with his cohost and brother Doug, spent much of his program time engaged in an on-air smear campaign alongside their brand new sidekick, Sun News Network personality David Menzies.

Their wandering conversation touched on a lot of points, but they started with the obvious topic: Daniel Dale, the Toronto Star reporter who almost found himself on the business end of a mayoral knuckle sandwich.

“I’m going to try to be as fair about this as possible,” declared Menzies, before proceeding to be incredibly unfair for the rest of his remaining airtime. He started with a prolonged ode to Ford’s commendable volunteer work – his football team – and then noted that the mayor has to be very careful to protect himself from stalkers, especially “in this day and age of post-John Lennon.”

That’s probably the first time Rob Ford has ever been compared to John Lennon.

Things got worse after that. Referring to the Toronto Star repeatedly as the “Toronto Stalker,” Ford’s guest took measured and nasty shots at Dale’s masculinity. “I’ve been told the Star purposely assigned their most effeminate reporter,” he claimed, floating the idea that Star editors were hoping to incite violence from the famously short-tempered mayor.

Later, Menzies asked pointedly why Dale hadn’t been fired for his part in last week’s story.

Menzies also took aim at Mary Walsh, the veteran comedian who has done her Warrior Princess bit with dozens of politicians across Canada. She hadn’t ever had anyone call the police on her until she tried to film a segment with Rob Ford last October. Of her, Menzies said, “if I had an alcoholic woman with a sword on my property, I’d phone the police too.”

Walsh’s prop sword is hardly a deadly weapon and she’s been open about her alcoholism, standing as an advocate for mental health, but, still, the mayor laughed. “Yeah, it seems like she was on something,” chuckled Ford. “I’m not quite sure what it was.”

Menzies then went down a different path, turning listener attention back to the 2010 election campaign. In a bizarre extended analogy prompted by an inappropriate question Ford was asked at a mayoral debate, Menzies compared questions about Ford’s weight to hypothetical questions about George Smitherman’s sexual orientation and admitted past drug use.

“Could you imagine if I was at that all-candidates meetings and I went to George Smitherman and I said, ‘You know what, George, being a practicing homosexual and the fact that you’ve been involved with all kinds of illicit drug use, how do we know you won’t engage in high-risk sex and drug use that will bring about HIV-leading-to-AIDS and you’ll die in office?’ I would be run out of town on a rail!”

Offensive? Stupid? Stupid and offensive? On the Mayor of Toronto’s radio show, you get both.

Menzies went on to rage against Ford’s council opponents. He called Councillor Karen Stintz “a liar, who would spit on your face and tell you it’s raining.” He pointed to Adam Vaughan as a “petulant guy who’s bitter with daddy issues.”

Pausing for a commercial break, the mayor noted his appreciation for Menzies’ comments. “David, that’s phenomenal.”

And, I guess, literally, it was. Phenomenal. This whole political administration meets that metric. This is once-in-a-lifetime inanity spun out slowly – painfully – in public, out of one of the highest political offices in Canada. We have to look at it because we’ve never seen anything like it and we may never see anything like it again. It’s a supermoon of political farce.

Rob Ford’s stupid and offensive radio show demeans us all | Metro

 

[TenPenny]

The newspaper guy was at fault for being too effeminate, which apparently angered the mayor.

 

[CDNBear]

It's well known that McParland is a complete shill.

I wouldn't be surprised if him and Sue Ann Levy engage in some debauchery while Ezra Levant pees on both of them.

The newspaper guy was at fault for being too effeminate, which apparently angered the mayor.

Obviously neither of you wrote those letters to the Editor.

Ford must be a piece of work, all of his supporters are fragile, whiny little twerps.

Fuzzy isn't a Ford supporter.

 

[Locutus]

Obviously neither of you wrote those letters to the Editor.

Fuzzy isn't a Ford supporter.

And it's tres difficult to find a proto-democrat-approved writer/newsource/blogger/forum poster these days. ;-)

 

[TenPenny]

Fuzzy isn't a Ford supporter.

That wasn't my point.

 

[CDNBear]

That wasn't my point.

But he's the only fragile whiny little twerp around these parts.

 

[karrie]

I couldnt give a rats arse about Rob Ford... he literally does not effect my life in any way shape or form.

But, I can not help but think that the bullies found his hot button and are intent on pushing it to the fullest extent of their capability, all the while calling him the bully for snapping when he is being stalked and his personal space violated.

Politicians are done work at the end of the day.... leave their homes the **** alone.

 

[CDNBear]

I couldnt give a rats arse about Rob Ford... he literally does not effect my life in any way shape or form.

But, I can not help but think that the bullies found his hot button and are intent on pushing it to the fullest extent of their capability, all the while calling him the bully for snapping when he is being stalked and his personal space violated.

Politicians are done work at the end of the day.... leave their homes the **** alone.

But he listens to the constiuents Karrie!!! The constituents!!!

Oh, and worst of all, he's fat dontchya know.