Crackstarter - Gawker crowdfunding the Rob Ford crack tape: good or evil?

ford's press secretary just quit

this is actually the state of media-mayoral relations in toronto:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=blcj-jEXfsA

https://twitter.com/reporterdonpeat/status/339074390878732288

"the lights! the lights! will somebody get the lights!"

Imploding, brio--there's a cancer on the mayoralty...

CFTR made a big deal this morning about Ford's public support "holding firm." He was at 36% support/approval before all this, and he remains at 36%. They must never have heard of Nixon or Gingrich--if you refer to the media as maggots, of course your base laps it up and digs in. Meanwhile, Olivia Chow still leads 56-36.

Crackstarter has less than $2 G's to go with 11 hours on the clock

woah bam just hit it

I am amazed people are/were still donating to this

so is Gawker, I think:

John Cook ‏@johnjcook 19m
Well what do you know?

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18oz6s4ciuqdyjpg/ku-xlarge.jpg

Dizzy, Bizzy, and Etobicoke Bone.

Ford's Greatest Hit possibly leaked and out there:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/05/27/rob-ford-video-copies-robyn-doolittle_n_3343234.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008

this is all just so amazing.

yep, please let there be copies out there. i just really want to see rob ford smoke crack, his ruination would just be gravy.

This Star story from today lays out a pretty clear narrative:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/05/28/rob_ford_crack_scandal_fears_fords_aide_sought_video_spark_police_probe.html

http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2013/05/28/rob_ford_crack_scandal_fears_fords_aide_sought_video_spark_police_probe/rob_ford_1.jpg.size.xxlarge.promo.jpg

he's looking well

a little paler than usual, i suppose.

xposts

If that story is correct and Toewy goes public with it all, the tape might not need to come out to force a resignation.

Toewy is an ex-military guy and a straight arrow - plus Ford fired him over wacko football stuff, so he'll eventually spill it all. Will be hugely damning coming from Ford's right-hand man.

He fired him over football?!?

wacko football

a little paler than usual, i suppose.

― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, May 28, 2013 10:26 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

withdrawal?

wacko football firing:

...sources told the Star that Ford was so emotional after losing his beloved post at Don Bosco that he ordered Towhey to go to the school and retrieve thousands of dollars worth of football equipment he had donated. When Towhey told Ford that this was a bad idea, the sources said, Ford fired him.

The sources said Towhey implored other aides not to answer any phone calls from Ford that night because the mayor was so upset. Accustomed to Ford's mercurial behaviour, Towhey, who thought he had experienced a "phantom" firing, then returned to city hall the next day — at which point Ford asked him to help arrange a party next week with Don Bosco players and other friends.

Towhey, incredulous, calmly explained that the mayor's office had more urgent business. This so infuriated Ford, the sources said, that he reminded Towhey that he had been fired the night before and had him escorted from the building by security.

Happy 44th, Mr. Mayor!

that is pretty wacko

crack seems pretty wack

I'm guessing Ford will not be using Whitney Houston's "where are the receipts?" defense

crack is for poor people (not mayors)

I am imagining that entire interview happening with Rob Ford subbed in for Whitney, holding Bobbi Cristina on his lap

lol 'where are the receipts' miss you whitney

http://media.tumblr.com/87730f62856f5e331f6b61ccdcb1a100/tumblr_inline_mlbkkkAYkz1qz4rgp.gif

http://media.tumblr.com/87730f62856f5e331f6b61ccdcb1a100/tumblr_inline_mlbkkkAYkz1qz4rgp.gif duh

A timeline for interested out-of-towners:

http://www.thegridto.com/blog-post/the-emerging-ford-drama-in-chronological-order/

Check the first photo!

The saddest thing is the Fords are right that the media is a bunch of downtown elitists who are out of touch with much of the city - and this whole saga proves it.

Local reporters seem to have next to no contacts in the 'burbs or with the cops - the sources who could actually break this story wide open... When a couple of rexdale dealers tried to hand the Star the story on a silver platter, the reporters at the Star and at Gawker fumbled it so bad we may never see the tape. When they tried to dig on Doug in Etobicoke the best they could do was junkies spilling 30 year old common knowledge.

Weeks into it, this is the FIRST story I've seen that I've seen from the neighbourhood where the action went down, and of course it's in The Sun:
http://www.torontosun.com/2013/05/28/rexdale-neighbours-of-rob-ford-video-holder-nervous

reporters...at gawker?

what were they supposed to do to get the video other than ponying up 200k?

I think if Gawker hadn't fucked it up - by calling CNN Canada who called the mayor's office - the Star reporters could have negotiated a more reasonable price or found a way to verify it without buying the tape

or just pony up the 200K, fair price for 2-3 guys who have to split town

and, possibly, risk murder or arrest

don't see how cnn being a bunch of fuckwits reflects poorly on gawker.

also i mean regardless of how much we'd like the tape, ford seems pretty well hosed at this point?

Yeah, I'm missing where Gawker needed a slew of reporters on the beat in Etobicoke because of their exhaustive Torontan focus.

Nothing but reporting on TTC from our own max.

Gawker can be expected to fuck up - because, it's Gawker and yes - why would they know how to handle a Toronto story sensitively - my point was more that the Star needs better connections around the city so sources don't take their stories to Gawker who will fuck them up.

And sure, the way it broke is a shitshow and maybe it was always going to be a shitshow given the sources... what I'm really talking about is the reporting since the story broke. Papers have been great on inside the Mayor's office action - important stuff - not so great on trying to break the story from the street

we need a Charlie LeDuff (though I think he might be off the rails himself)

mission statement of the last season of the wire is some score settling tedium but it does a good job of showing how cutbacks and death of newspapers has just completely decimated newspapers ability to know what's actually going on in the communities they serve. not enough boots on the ground and the ones they have don't have the experience and background to perform the task yet.

im bet u 100$ the video will be on the internet in under a week

i'll take that bet

tuesday, june 4th, 10:04 pm mountain time, at least 45 seconds of the video available online

There was a fake 2 second one floated today

dylan gonna lose

lol dylannn jumping in

i have a copy of the video in my hand right now

Gross.