In the saga of Rob Ford's Mayorship of Toronto we have seen the unscrupulous lows of the tabloid media buttressed by the amateurish and comical missteps of the Mayor himself. The authenticity of the video purporting to show Rob Ford smoking something and allegedly making outlandish statements cannot be verified on character alone.
Both parties, media And Ford, hold opposite claims.
The Media have no credibility when attacking Rob Ford. Everyone can clearly see why they hate him. Fat. White to the point he almost looks pink. Blonde. Plain speaking. Nominally Conservative (it's the contrast with his socialist policy/tactics opponents that puts him in this category by default). These reasons alone induce the derangement syndrome we've come to expect from the media. It's easy to suppose the muck crawling tabloid media filth would willingly cooperate with criminals to take down their white whale. At the very least they would lower their standards to propagate a story like this. They came so close to nailing him in the past they are just aching to get Ford.
Rob Ford on the other hand has bumbled himself into scandals before. How anyone in his position with his enemies could allow himself to be video taped seeming to break the law is beyond stupid. It's so stupid I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. We elect people to office because we believe they would be good at it. Rob Ford has some good ideas I'm told. So what? So do I. So do you probably. I can't vote for someone who would do a worse job than me. I'm neither smart enough nor stupid enough to run for office. Could it be that Rob Ford is the only one who can put up with this much crap just to help his city? Possibly.
We have essentially no way to verify the existence of this controversial video without actually seeing it for ourselves.
Whoever is lying about the video is going to get clobbered. The liars haven't thought this through. If the video exists it will become public. It must. The value set by the holders of the video is between $100,000 - $200,000. If they don't make their target they will lower the price. This is assuming that drug dealers have some skill in deals. If they believe that the police will seize the money and them then the value of the video is zero. The only thing left to do with a worthless video is to make it public out of spite. I'm sure they can find someone to hand them $1000 in cash somewhere.
The point is that the video will find its way to the public eventually. The intersection of demand and risk will set the true price. The video will be released if it exists. Even a fake has some value. We will see it.
The liars in this story had better think on this and what it means for them. No video made public would indicate there is no video. This means either the dealers made it up for a quick payday or the journos made up the whole thing. The back seats, the cell phone, even the Somali drug dealers might just be so much random tv snow from the disconnected minds of so-called progressive hacks.
On the other hand, an authentic video is the end of Rob Ford as Mayor. The media will have slain their white whale. If they don't get him with this public video, they will end up like Captain Ahab beckoning the rest of their cohort to join them in a watery grave of bankruptcy.
