[URBAN NOTE] "Mayor Rob Ford attacks Newstalk 1010 during his Newstalk 1010 show"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Daniel Dale writes about the ill-thought decision of Rob Ford to attack Newstalk 1010, the radio station that hosts the weekly radio show the mayor puts on with his brother and fellow city councillor Doug Ford, while the two are in the middle of their show no less. Compare Natalie Alcoba's National Post article.

Mayor Rob Ford and Councillor Doug Ford angrily criticized Toronto’s media on their Newstalk 1010 radio show on Sunday — including Newstalk 1010.

The brothers’ latest broadside against perceived media failings follows a two-week period in which the mayor was taken off message by stories on his use of city resources for his football teams and his personal request for city repair work outside his family company’s building.

Rob Ford regularly denounces the Toronto Star. Doug Ford has lambasted the Star, the Globe and Mail and the CBC. But neither of them had publicly scolded a talk radio station that is generally sympathetic to them.

Early in the Sunday show, Rob Ford claimed again that last week’s official trip to Chicago won’t cost taxpayers “a dime” — even though taxpayers are picking up the tab for at least some of the eight councillors who attended. Newstalk ran a mid-show update that pointed out his claim was false.

Soon after, Doug Ford said unnamed members of the media are “like a bunch of little sucky little kids” who “whine and cry and moan” when the Fords stand up to them and who “sensationalize and lie through their teeth.”

Rob Ford then added: “They’re pathological liars, that’s what drives me nuts. Let me tell you: we talk about an hour on Chicago, and now these guys come out and put advertising on about expenses,” he said, referring to the Newstalk news update as advertising.

“They don’t even know what the expenses are, because the councillors said this, this is all gonna balance out at the end, and I know, I’m gonna stick to what I said: it’s not costing taxpayers a dime.”

Talk radio is Rob Ford’s preferred media venue, and he regularly calls in to Newstalk. The brothers thanked and praised the station in an attempt to make amends before the show ended.

“If they’re comin’ after me, I’m comin’ after them. I don’t care who they are. So you better make sure your chin strap is done up pretty tight,” Rob Ford said with a hint of a chuckle.