Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

CBC ombudsman reviewing Ford-911 stories

The CBC’s ombudsman is reviewing “CBC online, radio and television reports concerning 911 distress calls made by Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.”

Kirk LaPointe quietly announced his look at the broadcaster’s coverage of Ford’s 911 calls at the end of a recent blog entry.

Around 8 a.m. on Oct. 24, Mary Walsh of CBC satire show 22 Minutes appeared in Ford’s Etobicoke driveway as her character “Marg Delahunty,” who, clad in warrior garb, ambushes politicians with jokes.

In video later broadcast, Ford appeared to be smiling but refused to speak to her and retreated into his house, where he twice called 911 demanding police be dispatched to make Walsh and her camera operator leave.

Later that week, CBC cited anonymous police sources in reporting that Ford yelled at one dispatcher: “You ... bitches! Don’t you f---ing know? I’m Rob f---ing Ford, the mayor of this city!”

Ford vehemently denied that account. In a statement, he acknowledged that, after being “attacked” in his driveway, he used the “F-word” with an operator but “never called anyone any names.”

Police Chief Bill Blair, after listening to Ford’s two 911 calls and a third in which an operator called him back, said: “The mayor did not use the word ‘bitches,’ attributed to him by those ‘several anonymous sources.’ The mayor did not describe himself as the original account claimed.”

CBC spokesman Chris Ball said Monday the broadcaster stands behind the story, and awaits the results of LaPointe’s review.

LaPointe could not be reached Monday. He recently told OpenFile.ca’s John Michael McGrath he had decided to launch a review — which has not yet started — in response to “a handful of complaints” from the public.

Origin
Source: Star 

No comments:

Post a Comment