#crackstarter

1. The Independent , UK

2. The Hollywood Reporter , US

3. New England Sports Network, US

4. BoingBoing, WWW

5. Forbes, US

6. New York Magazine, US

7. Eagle 96.4,UK

8. The Republican, US

9. ENCA, South Africa

10. Slate, US

I've never been more disgusted with the city of Toronto. I mean that, with feeling, I am disgusted by just about every element of the Rob Ford video scandal. Considering how many different groups I'm about to call out I should probably lay my personal politics out. I am a politically active independent (formerly NDP) leftist who blogged about the mayor's poor grasp of mathematics back when he was a candidate. I'm not a member of Ford nation. That's why I'm sad to say:

I am disgusted with the media

Let's start with Gawker. Pocketbook journalism is not good journalism. Gawker is a gossip blog so we can perhaps forgive them for engaging in poor journalistic behaviour. However what we shouldn't forgive them for is a crowd-funded campaign to buy illicit material that, if it exists, was probably produced as blackmail material and that would end up putting hundreds of thousands of dollars into the hands of admitted professional criminals.

The Star isn't off the hook either. Ok, so you got scooped by Gawker. That's gotta sting. But repeating the same unsubstantiated story every day isn't news. It's not even poor journalism. Frankly it reeks of desperation.

How about the Globe and Mail? Is it relevant that Doug Ford was possibly dealing hash in high school? Not particularly, unless the Globe has evidence that Doug Ford is currently involved in criminal activities it's not news, it's olds. You know what happened on the Saturday that the Globe ran the Doug Ford story? 

Far-right wing groups marched across England.

Canada was ranked third last for paid vacation time among economically advanced countries

And of course this was still going on. You know, the really important Canadian political scandal.

I'm disgusted with other people on the left

You know what? It seems likely that the mayor has a substance abuse problem. If so and if that problem is interfering with his work performance it is a matter of public concern then it's of relevance. Here's the thing though. It's probably booze.

Here's the other thing, when it came out a while ago that people near ford were concerned with his drinking problem we didn't get a circus like we did over the Crack allegations.

And that smarts of racism and, yes, classism.

Hold on a second, I'm not defending the much maligned white male. No. Not going down that road.

Rather I'm going to point out that crack is generally seen as a ghetto drug, as a black drug. For there to be more moral outrage over Ford potentially using crack once than there is over his habitual drunken antics is creating a race/class distinction about ghetto drugs vs. mainstream drugs which people on the left should be above.

And another thing: misquoting the Daily Mail to make it seem like the mayor might have had somebody killed over the video isn't cool. It's childish and dangerous. I mean, come on, it's the Daily Mail for fuck's sake. It's just about the least credible news portal on the internet. To then go and misquote it... I mean, just come on.

I am disgusted with the right wing

Get off your high horse conservatives. Because first off you're backing a terrible, horrible, awful shitshow of a mayorality. Rob Ford has been the most embarrassing mayor our city has ever seen. He's got Lastman's casual, unthinking racism without the latter's charm. He's even more polarizing on city council than Miller by a long shot. He's not good at accomplishing any agenda at city hall. He distracts city council from the business of running this city consistently and constantly.  Were he anything other than a politician he'd have been fired long ago.

Considering the rate he's losing staff over his constant stream of blunders and bombast he should resign.

Part of the problem with the whole crack video scandal, part of the reason for its persistence has been the continuous stream of inflammatory remarks Ford has made rather than confronting the issue. A sane mayor would have held a press conference, categorically denied the allegations and taken questions from the media. Instead we got a circus with the mayor running from the press, insulting the press at his side job as a peripheral member of the press and generally behaving like an ass.

But there are other problems besides the mayor's lack of decorum.

There are other problems besides a man with a weekly hour long radio show calling the media "maggots."

There is a spectre of privilege that hangs over the actions of the mayor and over other conservatives in this country.

He doesn't seem to think he should have to speak to the media. He seems to think it doesn't matter how he comports himself at city hall as long as he's fighting the gravy train.

Likewise our prime minister doesn't think he should be accountable for the misbehaviour of his senate appointees and those senators don't think they should be accountable for their misappropriation of funds.

At the crossroads of journalism and profiteering stands Gawker Media.

If you haven’t followed the story, let me catch you up. A pair of shady characters allegedly caught Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack on camera. These amateur producers offered the scoop to two sources—one of which was Gawker Media—for a cool sum of $200,000.

A Gawker journalist flew to Toronto, where he saw the video firsthand. Two Toronto Star writers also got a chance to preview the video’s content. No one wanted to put up the cash. Everyone thinks the video is authentic.

Notorious for breaking with traditional journalistic standards, Gawker ran an article describing the video. Artful storytelling? Yes. Moral ambiguity? Also yes. The article caught fire, becoming an overnight viral sensation.

People cared. Gawker profited. It looked like this was a bigger scoop than they’d thought. So they had an idea: Crowdfund the $200,000 necessary to purchase the video through Indiegogo. They call this plan “Crackstarter.”

Whoa, hold on there.

Gawker Media gets nearly 50 million unique global visitors a month. Gawker owner Nick Denton is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And Gawker stands to make a whole lot more than $200k on this scoop.

Not to mention the thousands of dollars they’re making in ad revenue for every post they’ve created to support the Crackstarter.

You’re telling me Gawker has to ask their readers to scrape together two dimes? Something doesn’t track here. As Guardian blogger Tom McCarthy so eloquently put it,

“David Karp farts $200,000. Jonah Peretti just pulled $200,000 out from behind [Rupert Murdoch’s] ear. Nick Denton needs to pass the hat?”

As of this writing, Gawker has reached their goal.

There’s only one problem.

The crack-squad over at Gawker now says they haven’t been in touch with their sources for over a week. And why have their sources disappeared? Because they ran a goddamn article implicating them in essentially blackmailing the mayor of Toronto.

This entire story is profiteering heaped on idiocy piled on exploitation, topped off with a dash of lunacy.

Don’t worry. They built a contingency plan into their crowdfunding. “But if [the sources] disappear, or sell it elsewhere,” the plan reads, “we will donate every penny we receive to a Canadian non-profit that helps people suffering from addiction and its consequences.”

A worthy cause, to be sure. But not even close to the publication’s original purpose behind soliciting donations.

“But it’s the decision of the people who donated,” Gawker defenders are sure to whine. “No one is twisting your arm.”

Gotcha. It’s also your decision to send your personal information to a Nigerian prince you met over email.

You can empower the people who donated with choice. But the onus of presenting a clear, ethical case is on Gawker. This is clearly not one. A clear case would:

- Detail how much Gawker expects to profit from this article as a whole

- Present how realistic it is that their sources will back out

As far as I’m concerned, Gawker did neither.

This is wrong on so many levels.

Nick Denton can pull his journalist’s card anytime he wants. But it’s clear that Gawker Media is a business first and foremost.

Businesses all across this country take on risk. So do their backers. But they do so with the implication that success returns equal financial rewards.

The poor readers Gawker just exploited stand to gain no such thing. Here’s what they got instead.

- For $5, you get an e-book of Rob Ford quotes. For $25, you get the hard copy. (One assumes the majority of these are available online.)

- For $75, you get a public thank you over Twitter. Gee, now all of my friends will know what an upstanding citizen I am. Thanks, Gawker!

- For $150, you get a Canadian flag signed by Nick Denton himself. Chances are good he also used it to wipe his ass.

- For $200, you get a commemorative digital painting of Rob Ford smoking crack, created by Gawker art director Jim Cooke. (If he isn’t doing it in Microsoft Paint, I’m not impressed.)

- For $1000, you get to have dinner with the Gawker staff in NYC. Later, you get to swim in a pool of money and dump champagne on homeless people.

- For $10,000, you get the iPhone used to record Rob Ford smoking crack. Er, wait, actually you don’t. The owners tossed it into Lake Ontario because the idiots at Gawker implicated them in drug smuggling and blackmail.

Gawker editor John Cook should be fired. Nick Denton should be lampooned. Someone must be held accountable for this exploitation.

Canadian politics are cracking