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    ironic_usernameJohn Cook
    6/06/13 2:17pm

    I'll preface this comment by saying that I understand Gawker is not typically considered to be a legitimate "news" organization so much as it is a gossip and general interest site. With that being said, the handling of this story was abhorrent and should result in some serious introspection.

    My initial comment following the first story in this series was basically that whomever had taken that video had better watch their backs because you'd basically just blown their cover. Not only had you blown their cover by rushing to print out of fear of being scooped, you further blew their cover by divulging the story to an untrustworthy source at CNN who then went directly to the mayor's office. Along those lines, how come we haven't gotten the name of the CNN employee who felt it was okay to contact the subject of the alleged video? Shouldn't they face some ridicule for their role in this debacle?

    Then, after you'd already let the cat out of the bag and probably brought significant heat, if not death, upon the owners of the video, you failed to pony up the $200,000 and instead embarked on a ridiculous crowdsourcing scheme that took weeks to fulfill its goal. We're talking about a situation in which a sitting mayor is fighting for his political life against drug dealers living on the fringe; people who can't exactly go to the police for help or protection when the thugs come calling.

    We know that the occupants of the house where the photo and video were taken were harassed and eventually beaten with a steel pipe and that both of the people in the photo with Ford were shot, one of whom died. Did it ever cross your mind that maybe you should have proceeded a little bit more carefully?

    Gawker should have deep pockets, and if you really thought this story was legitimate you should have gone to the source to see the video with the resources to acquire it. Instead, you saw it and then wrote about it, only attempting to buy it with other people's money after the fact.

    For shame, John Cook. You've got egg on your face and very likely blood on your hands, but at least you got your scoop and a lot of clicks.

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      gorabbitohsironic_username
      6/06/13 2:24pm

      Harsh but good points.

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      The-Hamburglerironic_username
      6/06/13 2:26pm

      Well said.

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    benjaminalloverJohn Cook
    6/06/13 2:01pm

    Thanks for staying on this story. Ford is doing his old deflection routine whereby he claims this is an elaborate conspiracy by the entirety of the media, and his stubborn semi-literate supporters are eating it up. I wonder how they'd explain this new, "coincidental" personal relationship with the owner and occupants of the crack house. Or the "coincidentally" timed home invasion. Or this guy Fabio's story, backed up by police and medical records. I guess he must be a Star reporter or a Gawker 'operative'.

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      BSTrainerbenjaminallover
      6/06/13 2:18pm

      Liberal media elites be wily that way. They think of EVERYTHING.

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      benjaminalloverBSTrainer
      6/06/13 2:28pm

      It's really a masterful set-up. Just textbook: following him around for the past few decades making him look foolish and setting up this elaborate take-down. I mean, there are lefty pinko conspiracies, and then there are ELITE lefty pinko conspiracies, amirite?

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    F.Yoo LeeJohn Cook
    6/06/13 1:43pm

    I know that you said you published the heck out of the video's existence in order to obtain it and let the public know about it before Ford could do anything to silence any acknowledgement of it, but in hindsight, do you think this was a bad strategy? Would it have been a better option to keep mum—including the other media outlets—until the video had been obtained? If money had been the issue, was crowdfunding (that is, drawing even more attention to the video's existence) the only way to get that cash?

    (Honest questions, not rhetorically snarky ones).

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      BrapppF.Yoo Lee
      6/06/13 1:58pm

      FYoo I think if you dig a bit deeper you'll find that it was a Canadian CNN reporter who forced Gawker's hand by contacting Ford's office about the video.

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      F.Yoo LeeBrappp
      6/06/13 2:02pm

      From the post:

      Gawker broke the story of the video and published the photo.

      It's entirely possible I have lost a thread here and there in terms of the sequence of events and other details, in which someone can point out if and where I've erred.

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    A_Copy_EditorJohn Cook
    6/06/13 2:01pm

    Fuck. This is a tough one to analyze. On one hand, it makes me hopeful that the video is out there somewhere, and it's going to surface soon. On the other hand, Ford quite confidently said there's no video. Clearly the hunt was on for the video. So did Ford's people get it?

    The frustrating thing is that even if Gawker knows more (and it probably does), they really can't say. Talking about it publicly in the first place is how this thing spun out. Now that it has, I'm sure Gawker is going to err on the mum side, even if they get scooped.

    And they should. Here's my advice to Gawker: be long-term greedy on this one. If there's a snowball's chance in hell you can still get that video, let yourselves get scooped on small, ancillary stories. Don't risk exposing intel if you can get the video. Because, in the end, the video is the white whale.

    Well, Rob Ford is, too. But you get me.

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      reggiebushlateralA_Copy_Editor
      6/06/13 2:11pm

      I would assume Ford has the tape, he sent the thugs to get the tape and the people that had the tape were not smart enough to make a copy.

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      A_Copy_Editorreggiebushlateral
      6/06/13 2:13pm

      That's my fear, too. In a previous post, Cook said that his contact said a copy had been made.

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    Island of Misfit ToysJohn Cook
    6/06/13 1:58pm

    Someone is gonna get killed before this is over.

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      benjaminalloverIsland of Misfit Toys
      6/06/13 2:05pm

      If they haven't already; both of the other guys in the photo with Ford got shot subsequently, and there are some other players unaccounted for...

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      Island of Misfit Toysbenjaminallover
      6/06/13 2:11pm

      I'm thinking since the 200K bounty was met for the video and/or Ford discovered it's existence. People have killed for far less.

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    SecretlyQuebecoisJohn Cook
    6/06/13 2:47pm

    This just gets better and better.http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/05/31/who…

    "Megan O'Toole from the National Post interviewed an occupant of the same apartment Ford is said to have identified as the place where the video could be found.This occupant confirmed that he had personally seen the video and that Ford's friends in the Somali community wanted to make a fake video to release to the press. They would pretend that this was the real video knowing that it would be quickly exposed as a fake, thereby vindicating Ford.They tried to recruit a Ford look-alike named "Slurpy" to star in the video but unforunately Slurpy backed out."

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      RussianistJohn Cook
      6/06/13 1:56pm

      I'm still hoping there's a copy out there, because making copies of a digital video would be the smart thing to do. Given the description of the clowns in this story, however, my hope is a bit diminished.

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        GregorMendelJohn Cook
        6/06/13 2:12pm

        The Ballad of Rob Ford. Crack-smokin' Boss Tweed, armed thugs, possible murder. If he weren't the mayor of a major metropolis in 2013 this would be a great melodrama.

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          MilitantCanadianJohn Cook
          6/06/13 9:17pm

          I know a few people at The Star and my god, did they screw this up royally. They were sitting on the biggest story of the year and they totally blew it. They should have bought the video right off the bat. $1 million? Yeah, right. If the Star reporters would have actually pushed I bet they could all come to a mutually satisfactory agreement. This is a problem with Canadian journalism — no one has any balls. I worked at a major European paper for awhile and I often saw reporters getting thick stacks of banknotes at the petty cash window. How do you think they get stories? They pay for them, duh. Canadian media has this attitude, like we're above that because it's "dirty". Well, guess what. You get scooped!

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            Veronica CorningstoneJohn Cook
            6/06/13 5:04pm

            How the fuck did this crackhead ever get elected?

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              ThetorontokidsVeronica Corningstone
              6/06/13 10:05pm

              Glad someone finally asked ! via the disgust and resentment of the citizens of Toronto felt towards well heeled sheister scumbags who are robbing the city blind. Everyone else in the race was basically pro status quo while ford vocalized a lot of the most common complaints of the residents, he seemed dumb enough, or nieve enough to actually be sincere about it so everybody thought, what the hell these professional politicians are robbing us blind. The public sector is out of control, and it seems like every organization even remotely related to the city is rotten with nepotism, waste and mismanagement. He failed to realize that the police run this city now, including his ass.

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              jemeeVeronica Corningstone
              6/07/13 1:21am

              just read some of his supporters comments than you'd understand. A city full of redneck tards. The construction business has gotten huge and they grab guys out of grade 10- dumb as a stick, and the construction bosses are all mafia anyway with a massage parlor on every street corner,

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