Ford campaign sends lawyers to muzzle satirist
Few things bring greater attention to a low-profile (and in this case, low-grade) satire than receiving a cease and desist letter in the age of the Internet. That’s what seems to have happened to Oliver Ogilvie, proprietor of the satirical blog robfordmayor.com. The site features a fake diary written from Rob Ford’s point of view and covers such thrilling topics as bowel obstruction and erotic encounters with other municipal politicians. Some of Ogilvie’s friends started sharing his story on Twitter, and it’s safe to say that the Web site has probably received more hits today than, well, ever.
That is, until it was taken off-line. “We appreciate him taking it down,” says Ford campaign spokesperson Adrienne Batra, adding that they sent the cease and desist letter because “some of the hits were pretty personal, and it was getting out of hand.”
The original Web site is indeed gone, but the almighty Google cache preserves all, at least for a while, so we can still see what got the Ford campaign so excited. The post about the Wendell Brereton fracas is rather homoerotic, and there are a few cracks about Ford’s wife never being home, not to mention the numerous jokes about Ford’s eating habits.
They are, it’s true, personal hits. We wouldn’t advise anyone take a crack at a politician’s spouse. But honestly, we’d barely heard of this guy’s Web site before today and hadn’t bothered checking a link until hearing about the legal fuss. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to swat a fly with a sledgehammer.
• Gorfed [Twitter]
• robfordmayor.com [Satirical]
• robfordformayor.ca [Legit]
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/ford-campaign-sends-lawyers-to-muzzle-satirist/&title=Ford campaign sends lawyers to muzzle satirist&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/robfordmayor.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_35337" align="alignleft" width="620" caption="A screen shot of the Google cache version of robfordformayor.com"][/caption]
Few things bring greater attention to a low-profile (and in this case, low-grade) satire than receiving a cease and desist letter in the age of the Internet. That's what seems to have happened to Oliver Ogilvie, proprietor of the satirical blog robfordmayor.com. The site features a fake diary written from Rob Ford’s point of view and covers such thrilling topics as bowel obstruction and erotic encounters with other municipal politicians. Some of Ogilvie's friends started sharing his story on Twitter, and it's safe to say that the Web site has probably received more hits today than, well, ever.
That is, until it was taken off-line. “We appreciate him taking it down,” says Ford campaign spokesperson Adrienne Batra, adding that they sent the cease and desist letter because “some of the hits were pretty personal, and it was getting out of hand.”
The original Web site is indeed gone, but the almighty Google cache preserves all, at least for a while, so we can still see what got the Ford campaign so excited. The post about the Wendell Brereton fracas is rather homoerotic, and there are a few cracks about Ford's wife never being home, not to mention the numerous jokes about Ford's eating habits.
They are, it's true, personal hits. We wouldn't advise anyone take a crack at a politician's spouse. But honestly, we'd barely heard of this guy's Web site before today and hadn't bothered checking a link until hearing about the legal fuss. Sometimes it doesn't make sense to swat a fly with a sledgehammer.
• Gorfed [Twitter]
• robfordmayor.com [Satirical]
• robfordformayor.ca [Legit]){kind=link}
The big guy couldn’t resist, could he? Got himself locked into a big head of steamin’ righteous anger and GRABBED THE TAR BABY. The fun is just starting. Robbo is evidently unfamiliar with the equation attention=oxygen. This will be fun.
If this isn’t a fine example of how easy it is for morons to get into City Council, then I don’t know what is. This guy is a complete fool.
It was pulled because I let Rob know that an IP originating from someone at the Toronto Star posted that satire blog on Rob’s Wiki page, as an official link. If that’s not dirty politics, I don’t know what is. Whoever at the Star posted it should be ashamed.
You can still check it out yourself, go to Rob’s wiki page, check “View History” & scroll down to the July 16th edit. The a quick search on the IP 192.206.151.131, shows that it was done from the Toronto Star building. If he didn’t have my vote before, he sure does now.
Its sad that those who are against Rob Ford just seem to throw around unconstructive criticism. All the attacks thus far appear as futile personal attacks against his character. I can just say that even though he is not councillor of my ward, I was always able to go to his office for help in matters that the councillor of my ward would not help in.
I’ve found that he sticks to his word. I would vote for Ford because he is genuine. In the past, I have been able to speak with him directly, not just passed on from one assistant to another or stonewalled.
I know he wants to scrap the city land tax as well as other fees that have been pushed down our throat. I have seen him oppose all the expensive “perks” that other councillors have taken advantage of at the expense of us taxpayers.
I have a family of 4 children and I know he supports a truly safe Toronto which works for us all.
My vote is with Ford because at the end of the day, I would like to continue to stay in Toronto and be able to afford to!
wow catherina , do you work for rob ford ?
youre right about one thing , there is no need to make personal attacks on him . his record of racial slurs , anti-immigrant actions , homophobia , domestic violence , public harrassment etc speaks for itself !