"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Saturday 18 May 2013

WHAT'S THE TORONTO STAR UP TO?

It would be interesting to know what's behind The Toronto Star's relentless attacks on  Toronto's Mayor.

We heard yesterday about a video offered for sale by drug dealers. Robyn Doolittle, a reporter at the Star, said she had seen it. She saw  someone who looked like the Mayor with the sun shining full on him and he was smoking a glass pipe. 

What   purported to be the video was shown earlier. It looked like the Mayor with the sun shining on him being held up on both sides  by a couple of guys who looked like they might be drug dealers if it can  be said  that drug dealers look like drug dealers .

In fact, if I were really cynical, I'd say it looked like a life sized cardboard cut out of the Mayor being held up by a couple of mean looking guys with beards and bandanas

He wasn't sitting at a table. He wasn't smoking a glass pipe. If there was "crack"in the vicinity, it wasn't
recognizable.

What does  crack look like anyway when it's being smoked in a glass pipe . I know cocaine is a 
white powder. I understand crack cocane is ersatz. So what does it look like and how would it differ from anything else being smoked in a glass pipe?

Robyn Doolittle, is a pretty little thing.  Wholesome. Young.  She bobbed her head to illustrate smoke being  suckedin and puffed  out and talked quite dispassionately.

The decision to publish the story would not have been hers.

Probably the same person who decided on the last scandalous assertion  attributed to a Councillor 
hostile to the Mayor. 

Then there was the  story from an erstwhile Mayoralty candidate who complained ,but not really , that the Mayor had  behaved inappropriately but she wasn't sure. Didn't she say she had to check her facts with Wikipedia?

So why would Robyn Doolittle be the one giving an interview?

For a  facade of innocence perhaps ? To pretend  The Toronto Star is not doing relentlessly what The Toronto Star is  relentlessly doing ?

You have to wonder ? Who  might it be at the Toronto Star who hates  the Mayor so much they are prepared  to  risk credibility? Or doesn't that matter either any more. 

Could there be a connection to Provincial politics? Toronto is  every bit as Tory Blue as  the Ford brothers epitomise.

Then of course there's  always Colin Vaughan skulking about on the edges snatching at  the  scraps.
And  Michael Layton . And Olivia Chow. 

Maybe Paul Godfrey ,now that he's returning to his managerial role at the National Post, will  turn his 
attention to the Toronto scene. 

Rob Ford's brother Doug has declared himself a candidate in the next Provincial election. A few weeks ago on Focus Ontario, he laughingly responded to John Tory's question; "will you be a candidate for  leadership?  "

He  answered    "Will you be my campaign manager?"

He most certainly looks like he would be a passionate and vigorous candidate.

Now, there's a serious thought. 

Maybe  Ontario  Conservatives will re-discover the formual for leadership that kept the Liberals  in the wilderness for  thirty-five years. 




14 comments:

Anonymous said...


I hope not.

The Harris government almost destroyed the school and hospital systems.

And I grant you that Liberals are equally inept. Gas plants, anyone?

Are there no people out there with a true desire to serve the public in a responsible fashion and within a budget that we can all live with?

Political parties no longer mean anything. Their sole objective is winning and the weapon of choice these days is the smear ad campaign, the more vicious the better.

If Ford had lost 100 pounds that might have relieved the pressure on his brain and he might have been able to do a credible job.

At the moment it's like Looney Tunes.

Anonymous said...

I think the Star might be in financial trouble. They are in the midst of a campaign offering their paper delivered for peanuts. We have had it land on our doorstep twice in the last 6 months for ' 2 week trials'. They really don't get it when you call & refuse the thing. Even at the Banner, they understand rejection.

Anonymous said...

Evelyn, Ford is an ass hole, don't be an asshole for thinking he isn't.

His Skulking Days Are Over said...

Colin Vaughan has been dead for over a decade.

Anonymous said...

Isn't the *real* question: What's Rob Ford up to?

Anonymous said...

Colin Vaughan was damn good at his job. Now the reporters covering the GTA are mostly garbage.

Anonymous said...

Now That was a roller-coaster week ! Thank you, Evelyn.

Anonymous said...

Nigel Wright has resigned from the PMO. The PM has lost his soul-mate & that will not be helpful for him in the next election.

Anonymous said...

1154 " Harris destroyed hospitals"?
Hope your not getting your info from the Star
Please check out the closures in Fort Erie Nd Niagara Falls that has resulted in a death being investigated by an inquest
Please check out hospital downsizing a in Bracebridge/
Brockville/London/Ottawa/Windsor
The Liberals know not to tamper with gta hospitals and the Star is Toronto centric
Hence with all due respect you're being duped that only Harris destroyed Hospitals
Again research the crap going on in Niagara
Even Harris wouldn't do that


Anonymous said...


1:30 pm

"almost destroyed" is not quite the same as "destroyed."

There is no single newspaper or media tool that is as effective as they used to be in influencing public opinion.

Most of them are knot-heads appealing to all of us, who are equally knot-headed.

Each has to form an independent opinion and act accordingly.

Every political party is culpable. Take your pick.

Anonymous said...

1;30 PM
You made your point. A pox on all of them.

Anonymous said...

When did political party platforms stop being about what is good for Canada and Canadians, and start being about what's wrong with anyone that doesn't toe the party line.

Watch the parliamentary channel, when was the last time anyone stood up to reply to a question without reading the answer from a paper written by some spin doctor.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, 9:13 AM. I thought it might just be me.

Anonymous said...

To answer your question Evelyn, the Toronto Star has a left-wing agenda. They had their sights on Ford before the election and since he won, they have had a non-stop agenda to get him out of office.

Clearly they beleive that they have been wronged in some way and it is their job to get him out.

They have this angry dog with a bone mentality with other things too.

They tried to close down Marineland in Niagara Falls, only to have the authorities do an inspection and find nothing really wrong. They have taken credit for Ornge but I think that would have imploded on it's own anyways.

For some reason The Star acts as an advocate for the common man rather than a news reporting outlet. Sure, newspapers have had the editorial bias, but their main role is to inform. As the public shifts their information sources to real-time outlets like the internet and TV, newspapers need to attract readers and the Ford stories start to read like soap operas.

I get The Star every day but knowing the left-wing slant of their coverage, I tend to not read the first section too closely.