QUOTED: Star reporter Daniel Dale on whether he’ll sue Rob Ford

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“If I do take legal action, the Star’s got nothing to do with it. In fact, if I were a businessman or teacher or anything other than a Toronto Star reporter, I would have served Ford with a libel notice already.”

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-Toronto Star city hall reporter Daniel Dale, on whether he’ll sue Mayor Rob Ford. The conflict stems from an interview between the mayor and Conrad Black, which aired Monday night on Vision TV. In response to a softball question about media excesses, Ford said: “Well, I guess the worst one was Daniel Dale in my backyard taking pictures. I have little kids. When a guy’s taking pictures of little kids, I don’t want to say that word, but you start thinking, ‘What’s this guy all about?’” Dale, along with many other people, has interpreted the comment as an allegation of pedophilia. Ford made the comment despite a police investigation that found that, on the day in question, Dale was actually in a park adjacent to the Ford’s property, researching a story about the mayor’s attempt to buy a parcel of public land.

Dale isn’t the only one at One Yonge Street issuing stern soundbites. Here’s Torstar chair John Honderich, speaking with the CBC: “It is a complete outrage. That’s all I can say. There seems to be no gutter deep enough to which this mayor will not stoop. He has made a very serious allegation against our reporter, who was doing his job.”