Today a court in Toronto dropped all charges against one Sandro Lisi, buddy and possibly minder of late Mayor Rob Ford. The dismissal of the charges means that the publication ban on the notorious video of Ford smoking crack cocaine has been lifted.
Jackpot! The media are falling over themselves to give the video as wide a circulation as possible. None moreso than the Toronto Star, which has splashed the video all over its website and is taking the opportunity to remind readers of the role it played in bringing Ford down. The reporter who actually did most of the digging, Robyn Doolittle, moved on to another paper more than a year ago, but the Star isn't about to let that little detail spoil the bragging.
What's most distasteful is that the headline on the story is "Rob Ford crack video released at last". At last? It's unlikely that most people have been sitting around these many months thinking, "Gee, if only I could see the video of a deeply troubled man making a mess of his life, my own life would be complete".
There is no real public interest in having the public gawk at this video, and certainly no justification at all for the Star's almost celebratory tone. What the impact is on Ford's widow and young family, who have surely suffered enough over the past few years, can scarcely be imagined. For shame!
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