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

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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.

I think if Gawker hadn't fucked it up - by calling CNN Canada who called the mayor's office

gawker didnt fuck up; cnn fucked up

the Star reporters could have negotiated a more reasonable price or found a way to verify it without buying the tape

the tape has been "verified." it is a tape of rob ford smoking crack. verification is no longer the issue.

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.

I can't tell if you're being serious.

I am being serious.

There are four daily papers based in Toronto. There was a tape floating around of the mayor smoking crack for weeks and none of them got it. The holders of the tape went to Gawker weeks after contacting the Star - and now, it turns out, they also contacted The Sun who blew them off without checking it out.

Two Star reporters and a Gawker editor claiming to have seen it may be enough for you, me, and Max - but that's not "verified" enough to convince a lot of people, or to force Ford to admit wrong-doing. Part of the problem is everyone assuming the reporters' word is enough, and not doing the hard reporting.

Was Rob Ford ever seen around the apartment complex at 320 Dixon Road? Thousands of residents there, did anyone ever see him? Was he ever seen on the 17th floor? Was David Price ever seen there? Is there security camera video that might show either one of them there? Who was shot in the leg on the 17th floor at 4:20 am on May 21? Who shot him? Was Anthony Smith involved in the crack trade or not? What was his relationship to Ford? He has no friends or relatives who will talk to reporters? Where is Muhammad Khattak, who was injured in the Anthony Smith shooting? The sources of the tape have "gone underground" - does anyone in the neighbourhood know who they are, and where they are now? Did a bunch of crack dealers have a tape of the mayor smoking crack and really not show it to anyone who might talk now? What do the cops know?

Where's the reporting from on the ground in Rexdale and from police sources?

If they're doing all your reporting from inside city hall, focusing entirely on the people in power - I think it's fair to say they're elitist and out of touch.

Part of the problem is everyone assuming the reporters' word is enough, and not doing the hard reporting.

...

That sentence seems to be saying something different from what you think it is saying, unless you do actually mean that we should all be knocking on doors in Toronto and interviewing residents about Rob Ford.

so - that they report on the mayor? that makes them elitist?

sorry for my bad syntax, I'm talking about reporters knocking on doors not everyone in Toronto.

In an ideal world, 2 reporters and an editor of gawker reporting on having seen the tape would have been enough for Ford to admit it and leave office. This has not been the case. They need to prove it, not wait for the tape to surface or Ford to cop to it without proof. There's no guarantee of the former, and the latter is unlikely.

yes, it's elitist to assume the Toronto Star's word is enough to convince the city, unfortunately. There's nothing wrong with reporting on the mayor and his powerful allies and enemies, but this story didn't happen IN city hall so there's more reporting to do, and I'm not seeing it.

I'm sure all the Rexdale residents are just lining up to be interviewed in a takedown of the mayor/drug trade with the promise of going back to their apartments at the end of the day!

right, that's why it's hard reporting to do.

lol okay I read the article "from the neighborhood" and it contains a quote from an unnamed source that says “We always worry here,” and a quote from a named source that says of the night of the most recent shooting that might be tied to someone connected to the video, "It was scary."

Clearly we need more reporting like this, I mean the shades of meaning we have added to the story with these vital contributions.

Looking forward to The Daily Brio -- "News with Sass! Doors Knocked!"

I mean, did it occur to you that someone may have tried talking to these people, got those same quotes, and thought "this isn't actually a story" and tossed it?

seriously, guys?

The mother of the kid who was in the picture (injured, not killed) was interviewed in Metro yesterday fwiw

while i had been thinking what you had - that the Star didn't *seem* to be talking to people around that neighbourhood. I don't really take it of some sign of any sort of larger problem. they also didn't want to 1- pay for a video due to ethical standards and 2- run with the story when they didn't have the evidence. you're aware of that right? that gawker broke the story and forced the Star's hand, as they were the only media outlet that could verify gawker's claims with what they had at least seen?

you're also forgetting that the Globe - another "downtown" "elitist" monster - HAD talked to all sort of good ol salt of the earth folks around Etobicoke to build their story on Doug.

I would also like for you to expand some more on what an "elitist" is to you exactly. I find that term to be nothing more than a brainless drive-by smear used by conservatives to smear people in cities, or liberals, that they don't agree with. Am I an elitist? I live downtown. Should my opinions be cast aside because I have the gaul to live in the hoity-toity neighbourhood of Parkdale? Am I also a "laté sipper"? Or a "champaign socialist"?

its okay to be an elitist as long as you knock on some doors and do old school reporting