Toronto reacts to Conrad Black’s softball interview with Mayor Rob Ford
It’s amazing, in a way, that Conrad Black and mayor Rob Ford hadn’t found themselves on camera together before last night. They have so much to talk about: treatment by various justice systems, being portrayed as cartoonish villains in the media, the ins and outs of maintaining a towering ego despite frequent humiliations, and so on.
There was some of that in Monday night’s interview with Ford on Black’s TV talk show, The Zoomer, but ultimately the segment was disappointing. Black lobbed softballs, which Ford batted away with stock responses. That’s not to say the interview didn’t manage to have disastrous moments for the mayor. Ford falsely implied that Star reporter Daniel Dale is a pedophile, possibly exposing himself to yet another lawsuit.
Here’s what people are saying about the whole weird mess, the video of which has curiously been removed from The Zoomer‘s website.
“Just when it looked as if he couldn’t sink any lower, Mayor Rob Ford did something truly vile.”
—The Globe’s Marcus Gee, who rightly points out that Ford’s story about Daniel Dale lurking in his backyard and taking pervy pictures of his kids is an incredible falsehood, even by Ford’s already-incredible standards. On the day in question, Dale was in a park adjacent to the mayor’s home, researching the mayor’s attempt to buy a parcel of public land.
“ROB FORD THAT IS NOT TRUE.”
—Star reporter Robyn Doolittle, reacting in all caps to Ford’s comments about Dale.
“Mr. Ford calling reporter Daniel Dale a pedophile tells you all you need to know about our mayor’s brain.”
—Star editor Michael Cooke, to the Canadian Press. If the Star sues Ford for defamation (and it may), the irony will be almost too much to bear. Ford tried to do the same thing to the Star once upon a time, but allowed the suit to lapse.
“Thanks for your kind words, everyone! Never again will I go to sleep before a Conrad Black interview with Rob Ford.”
—Daniel Dale (@ddale8 on December 10, 2013), responding to supportive tweets that came his way after the interview.
“Natural next step is for a prime time television event where Ford is interviewed by the Hamburglar.”
—Metro’s Matt Elliott (@GraphicMatt on December 10, 2013), tweeting about other convicted felons that might be interested in a sit-down with the mayor
Oh, except it kind of happened already.
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