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Put that in your pipe and smoke it Mayor Ford! -- Photo: Vince Talotta/Toronto Star. Collage by SQW. Click the image to enlarge.[/caption]
I believe Rob Ford's a punk. Okay, alleged punk; I don't have video. I base this belief on what I understand he's done as Mayor of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and how he's done it -- loudly, abusively, and divisively. That he may-or-may-not have smoked crack is just so much gilding on the lily.
The story that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was caught. allegedly, smoking crack cocaine on video, has morphed into a story about gawker.com trying to scare up $200,000 to buy the cell phone video of Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. ►
The fact that a gossip blog site is leading the the world media by the nose, is amazing. Most mornings British Columbians refuse to acknowledge there's anything of consequence on the East side of the Rocky Mountains (the rest of Canada); this morning, one of my town's two daily newspapers (both owned by the same publisher) devoted their editorial to the Ford/gawker story. I could hardly choke down my round eggs at McD's.
Once upon a time a person might have declared this chequebook journalism, but there's no journalism here. Once upon a time the mainstream press wouldn't have touched a down-market, supermarket tabloid story like this. But times have changed. As usual, Internet content-providers are ahead of the curve compared to the old-line providers.
The media's journalism cred has little or no cachet with today's mass audience. Instant, visceral content, beats careful, considered journalism. The average person doesn't know what journalism is, and doesn't miss it in their Fruit-loopy diet of gossipy blogs and feeds. They know what they like -- immediacy. The Internet is so about instant gratification.
Ironically, I believe Web sites can do this -- ignore traditional journalistic practices -- because, of course, the audience doesn't know the difference, and, more importantly, the mainstream media is still doggedly producing a steady stream of raw journalism, which feeds the Internet and then feeds off the result. Weird, when you think about it, but, for the moment, everyone's happy -- except Rob Ford.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it Mayor Ford! -- Photo: Vince Talotta/Toronto Star. Collage by SQW. Click the image to enlarge.[/caption]I believe Rob Ford's a punk. Okay, alleged punk; I don't have video. I base this belief on what I understand he's done as Mayor of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and how he's done it -- loudly, abusively, and divisively. That he may-or-may-not have smoked crack is just so much gilding on the lily.
The story that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was caught. allegedly, smoking crack cocaine on video, has morphed into a story about gawker.com trying to scare up $200,000 to buy the cell phone video of Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. ►
The fact that a gossip blog site is leading the the world media by the nose, is amazing. Most mornings British Columbians refuse to acknowledge there's anything of consequence on the East side of the Rocky Mountains (the rest of Canada); this morning, one of my town's two daily newspapers (both owned by the same publisher) devoted their editorial to the Ford/gawker story. I could hardly choke down my round eggs at McD's.
Once upon a time a person might have declared this chequebook journalism, but there's no journalism here. Once upon a time the mainstream press wouldn't have touched a down-market, supermarket tabloid story like this. But times have changed. As usual, Internet content-providers are ahead of the curve compared to the old-line providers.
The media's journalism cred has little or no cachet with today's mass audience. Instant, visceral content, beats careful, considered journalism. The average person doesn't know what journalism is, and doesn't miss it in their Fruit-loopy diet of gossipy blogs and feeds. They know what they like -- immediacy. The Internet is so about instant gratification.
Ironically, I believe Web sites can do this -- ignore traditional journalistic practices -- because, of course, the audience doesn't know the difference, and, more importantly, the mainstream media is still doggedly producing a steady stream of raw journalism, which feeds the Internet and then feeds off the result. Weird, when you think about it, but, for the moment, everyone's happy -- except Rob Ford.
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