Toronto Star defends allegations against Ford

(Update)
Should Toronto newspapers have published allegations about Rob Ford, his family, and their connections to drug dealing, based on anonymous sources?

The Ontario Press Council put the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail in the interview chair Monday to answer some complaints from the public. Lisa Hepfner was there and has the details.

Back in May, the Star published a story about Rob Ford appearing to smoke crack cocaine in a video. Then, 10 days later, there was a Globe and Mail piece about the Ford family’s history, including an allegation that Councillor Doug Ford was a well known hashish dealer in the 1980s.

The Press Council says it got a lot of complaints about these stories and so Monday’s inquiry was to answer whether the papers engaged in irresponsible and unethical investigative reporting.

The Toronto Star says it had to publish the story about the crack video reporters had been working on. After it appeared on the U.S. Gawker website.

Kevin Dovovan, Toronto Star Reporter testified: “We saw the video three times and it was very clear. If you saw the video i can guarantee you’d reach the same conclusion. the video is real. These people were now contacting CNN and Gawker because we wouldn’t pay.”

Michael Cooke, Toronto Star Editor-In-Chief said: “Connections between drug dealers, gun dealers, a crack house, and the mayor of Canada’s largest city is the definition of something that should be explored in the public interest.”

The Star says it heard similar allegations for a year before hearing about the crack video. In fact, it says it was approached about buying the video after it published a story about the Mayor appearing intoxicated at a Garrison ball.

Donovan: “It’s not that I didn’t believe that Mayor Ford could be involved in this, base on what I know about the gentleman. I couldn’t believe he would let himself be videotaped.”

A week and a half after the Star story, the Globe published a story about Ford family drug connections that date back to the 80s. But the paper says it had been working on the story for 18 months.

Globe and Mail News Editor Sinclair Stewart: “Part of the public interest that we had published about Doug Ford deals with presenting a composite picture of a family, many of whose members have had extensive history with drugs and with criminal elements around drugs.”

He says it would be irresponsible to keep those facts from the public.

Both papers say that there stories represent the highest standards of journalism possible. All those facts were checked and rechecked by editors. And they say there’s still more to report. There’s the Project Traveller rage that went on with Toronto police Chief Bill Blair refusing to clear the Mayor in any of those allegations. But there is more to reportthey say, but they will publish the results of the press council once they are made available. It should be in the next month or so.