The line up at the grocery store was unusually long this Sunday. I was hoping to get a few items quickly and get back home by 1 pm but it looked like that there are many other folks also deciding to pick up the raw materials for their next few meals at this time. The reason I wanted to get back by 1pm was to listen in to the Fords. They have been in a swarm of controversy all week and I was curious to hear what they had to say about the various allegations in their weekly talk show.
I tuned in to their show late and when I did, it was Doug Ford who was on air and was taking a call from a retired police officer. The officer was the supervisor of drugs investigation unit when the elder brother (Doug) Ford was alleged to have been dealing drugs in the streets of Toronto. The officer gave his name and (former) rank on air (but I cant remember it) along with a clear and crisp description of his responsibilities. As supervisor of the drugs investigation unit, he was in the know of all the major drug investigations that were ongoing at that time. He was also in liaison with the RCMP to help with busting drug dealers. His span, when he was the supervisor was around 10 years. He called out of "duty" and wanted to set the record straight. He stated, very factually and without any frills, that during his entire time that he was leading the investigation, he has not heard Doug Ford's name at all. The officer's view was that had Doug Ford would have been involved, the officer would have heard about him for sure.
I heard another caller as well. He was a Councillor from Richmond Hill. He was the person who came out and presented the eye witness account when Sarah Thompson made her own allegations against the mayor.
I had to take care of the honey to do list and did not listen to any other stuff. But I was curious to hear what happened and decided to look up the details on the Toronto Star and the CTV news I was sure they would have carried the story about the mayor's radio show as they were quite interested in what he is up to. I was not wrong. They did carry the story. However, have a look at what they wrote. There was not a word about the retired police officer's comments refuting the allegations of the Globe and Media.
This was significantly huge. If I would have relied on getting my news about the show from these outlets, I would have completely missed out on the context of the show!
Whats more important, in my view, is that this is a 2 hour show on a Sunday afternoon This being the start of the warm season in the city, it is unlikely that a huge percentage of Toronto residents are listening in. In other words, people are relying on the reporting of the media to get the news about the show. And if they dont read about this retired police officer's comments were not mentioned in the media. Then it is just like that he has not made that call at all. This is alarming and dangerous.
After all, we expect the media to be fair. To be just. Unbiased. And more importantly to be honest. But is it?
Why is it only showing up one side of the story? Why is it omitting out details which does not fit in with the view that they appear to want to project? Is this that the reporters are not filing the reports correctly (which i dont think is the case)? Or is this the editorial directions are making some folks to edit out "unimportant" details?
There are lots of questions. Few answers.
Media has a right to ask questions of Mayor Ford. But what about the media? Dont they have a few questions that they need to answer as well?
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