The mayor is blaming his highly publicized altercation with Star reporter Daniel Dale for the silent treatment he’s now giving the whole City Hall press corps.
To recap: Dale went to the mayor’s Etobicoke home to check out a piece of adjacent parkland Ford wants to buy from the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, he says for security reasons – or to give his kids more room to play. Both are offered as reasons in Ford’s letter to the TRCA. The mayor says he called 9-1-1 after he “caught” Dale “spying” on him from the woods behind his backyard fence.
Let’s put aside the nitty-gritty of that “he said, he said” for now.
Seems an ill-advised communications strategy for a mayor already occupying the political margins to be asking the press gallery to eat one of its own, or else.
Besides Tuesday’s presser, there was also the beeline the mayor made for the elevator on Monday after an appearance to mark, of all things, World Press Freedom Day.
But the Ford ultimatum seems to have divided the men and women stationed at City Hall who cover him every day, laying bare the individual sympathies of reporters at various news outlets.
Rather than hardening the line between the mayor and reporters, the Dale incident has had the opposite effect: galvanizing opinion for and against Ford among the fifth estate.
The Star’s urban affairs bureau chief, David Rider, describes the feeling as “a little raw right now among some people.”
Rider says the Star team was astonished by some of the criticism levelled at Dale and the way the story was reported by media colleagues.
“Some of us were surprised by the way the story was reported, especially originally, and by the weight given to some of the comments from the mayor’s team, given what we’ve dealt with [when] checking claims from them in the past. It’s a strange situation.”
Rider continues: “Most of us who know Daniel and the mayor – and looking at the track record of both – would decide to give more weight to one than the other.”
The press gallery will meet “some time soon,” Rider says, to figure out how to react to the mayor’s boycott of the press if he decides to persist.
To hear Rider tell it, there’s a possibility some city reporters may decide to accommodate the mayor and not participate in future scrums involving Star reporters. That would be a sad turn.
“There’s always a chance that people will think better of it and not do it, and I certainly hope that’s the case,” says Rider. But “that’s kind of an unknown at the moment.”
Press gallery president Dave Nickle is diplomatic about the tensions in the press gallery.
“I think we were all really shocked by the intensity of the confrontation. And it’s fair to say Daniel is somebody we’ve all worked with and is generally quite well-liked. So there’s a lot of empathy. I would be uneasy speaking on behalf of everybody, but he’s a colleague. He’s stepped into this giant mess of a situation, and there’s a lot of sympathy there.”
Not that I expected journos at Tuesday’s weigh-in to be wearing All For Daniel Dale Ts. But it’s not hard to side with Dale on this one. Ford has made a career of grandstanding. He did that as councillor. He’s followed that well-worn path as mayor.
“Aw, shucks” is Ford’s default position every time he fucks up. He tries to weasel his way out of every predicament he finds himself in. His deny-and-deflect act is familiar.
“The mayor seems to have an inner need to be a victim in everything,” says Councillor Adam Vaughan.
Criticism, implicit and explicit, of the Star’s coverage came not only from Ford friendlies in the Sun contingent but also from the Post and Globe, both of which bought the mayor’s narrative despite some obvious inconsistencies that, to be fair, were reported later.
Dale was described in those early accounts as a “peeping Tom,” his actions equated by Ford mouthpiece Giorgio Mammoliti with those of a “pedophile.”
On talk radio, the attacks on Dale and the Star verged on apoplectic even among those who had found no fault a few weeks back when the paper reported that the mayor had dropped in at a KFC while on his Cut The Waist diet challenge.
Even if he refuses to speak to most of the press, Ford still has plenty of apologists he can leak word to when needed. There’s a pecking order in the press corps where the mayor is concerned, and his staff have used it not only to deliver the administration’s message but also to get ahead of stories that may prove damaging.
When it looked like Ford’s fist-waving confrontation with Dale might result in an unflattering picture of our man of the people acquiring parkland to monster-size his home – to say nothing of possible criminal charges against the mayor for menacing Dale – he called the cops, and soon the media were on the scene to record his version for the 11 o’clock news. Worked like a charm.
But by his own account, Ford witnessed no alleged shutterbugging by Dale. His next-door neighbour ran over with that report.
Does anybody believe Dale was stalking the mayor, or that Ford really feared for the safety of his daughter? Where have we heard that one before?
Oh yeah, when he called 9-1-1 over an “ambush” by CBC comedian Mary Walsh in his front drive. We found out later there was more to that story than he was letting on: an F-bomb tirade to 9-1-1 operators.
This time, too, there’s a record of the confrontation with Dale – video reportedly from security cameras at Ford’s place – in police possession. That would put a lot of questions to rest, but Ford’s not authorizing its release. Déjà vu all over again.
Another curious tidbit: somehow the Sun got hold of the fact that earlier in the day of the confrontation a phone call was made by Dale to the executive assistant of Councillor Maria Augimeri, vice-chair of the TRCA board. Did that info come from the phone Dale was ordered to drop by Ford during their encounter?
That the mayor has adopted the U.S.-style approach of blaming the so-called “left-wing” and “liberal media” for everything under the sun, including his own travails, is not surprising. His Ottawa fishing buddy, the PM, has frozen out Parliament Hill’s press gallery to great effect.
Ford won the mayoralty with little more than a slogan: “Stop the gravy train.” And his brand has now been exposed as nothing but a handful of similar mantras: “Subways, subways, subways” and “Nuts, nuts, nuts.” But next time, if there is a next time, he’ll have to run on his record. And two and half years away from the next election, this administration has no more mojo.
Committee agendas have never been so thin. And never has a mayor’s office been so devoid of initiative. Rofo has hit the cruise button. Taxpayers should be asking for a refund.
When the mayor’s got nothing more important to do than “take aim” at potholes, as if that were something to get excited about, you know the cupboard where the Ford camp keeps its big ideas is bare.
One question that hasn’t been asked about the Ford-vs-Dale dust-up: what the hell was the hardest-working mayor in the history of the world (brother Doug says so) doing home for dinner on a weeknight, lounging in a T-shirt?
I’m half-joking, but check the Ford file. This week’s council order paper included not one key item of the mayor’s.
The only interesting ideas coming out of 100 Queen West are from council members. The most active part of recent council meetings has been the members’ motions.
Clearly, the councillors have moved beyond Ford, meeting formally and otherwise to discuss initiatives, coalescing in a remarkable show of cooperation across political lines to set a course for the city sans the mayor.
Unfortunately, there may be no curbing the media’s enthusiasm for Ford’s antics. He’s the gift that keeps on giving, his unpredictability making him irresistible. He sells papers and attracts eyeballs to websites, inspiring a weird sympathy, like the kid everybody picked on in school.
But at what point do we tire of the shit show? Suanne Kelman, Ryerson’s associate chair of the School of Journalism, says it’s time to turn down the volume on Ford.
“Let’s not kid ourselves. His personality is consuming way more attention than it should in proportion to the other things.”
Ford desperately needs to recapture that shrink-government agenda of his that’s been blown to smithereens. While his handlers figure that out, distractions will have to do.
Original Article
Source: NOW
Author: Enzo Di Matteo
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