We shouldn’t ignore Doug Ford
There are few things Doug Ford loves more than the sound of his own voice.
And there’s nothing that many Toronto media outlets love more than to give Ford a platform for that voice.
Both those were obvious during Ford’s failed mayoral bid in 2014 when he jumped into the race as a last-minute replacement for his ailing brother Rob Ford.
It’s happening again now that Ford has declared he will run again against incumbent mayor John Tory in the Oct. 22, 2018, election.
Ford received widespread media coverage leading up to and immediately after his latest announcement.
He appeared on television programs, radio talk shows and was written about and analyzed in every newspaper in the city.
For a candidate who trails badly in the polls and whose chances of victory appear slim at this point, such coverage smacks of overkill to some residents who loath Ford.
They fear the media’s intense focus on Ford amounts to unlimited free advertising and could result in increased support for him on voting day, a scenario they dread.
Indeed, the media’s recent coverage of Ford reminds his critics of the massive media attention that Donald Trump received in the earliest stages of U.S. Republican primaries, although he lagged well behind every other major candidate at that time.
To prevent a repeat of a Trump-style come-from-behind victory occurring in Toronto, these anti-Ford voters want the media to ignore Ford altogether or at least to boycott some of his events.
“All of the anti Doug Ford articles however replete with accurate analyses regarding the depths of flaws, all of the rude comments on social media, whatever large grains of truth they carry, provides oxygen to his campaign and to voters looking for a way out of their current and difficult circumstances,” one person wrote last week on Facebook.
“For goodness sakes, IGNORE DOUG FORD. No more articles, tweets about what you think of him as a person, candidate. Ignoring him will be the biggest and most effective insult.”
It’s the same argument made against MP Kellie Leitch during her bid for the federal Conservative leadership in which she promoted a controversial proposal to screen immigrants for “Canadian values.”
Her critics urged the media to stop covering Leitch, suggesting such a move would cut off the air that fuelled hate and antiimmigrant sentiments.
But it is wrong for the mainstream media — and Toronto residents — to ignore Ford.
Like it or not, Ford will receive major media coverage in the next 13 months leading up to the election.
He’s a well-known, well-financed candidate who has a huge following in Ford Nation and who appeals to many residents who feel that most politicians don’t speak for them and don’t feel their pain and frustrations.
True, Ford is an expert at attracting media attention, with his wild and colourful, albeit often wrong, charges of waste, corruption and incompetence at city hall.
Rob Ford “blazed the trail” for the antielitist sentiments espoused by U.S. President Donald Trump, according to the late former Toronto mayor’s brother.
But the media has a responsibility to report on the words and actions of all politicians, even those we might personally abhor, to hold them accountable on behalf of readers and viewers.
Ignoring Ford would be an abdication of that responsibility.
It’s the job of journalists to shine a light on what politicians are saying, especially if it deals with hate, bigotry or is riddled with outrageous lies. It’s not our job to censure. We have a duty to report and provide context and analysis of what he says, which is often newsworthy.
We also have a duty to dig into his background, to fact-check his statements and compare his policy proposals with those of Tory and other candidates.
It’s also naïve to believe the media — or the public — can stop hatred, bigotry and ignorance by ignoring it, by sticking our heads in the sand in the hope that such evils will vanish.
At the same time, if mainstream media stopped covering Ford, his supporters and fellow travellers would still have plenty of ways to connect through social media — without any context, challenges or followups.
What the media must avoid is going overboard, as happened in the U.S. primaries with Trump. In the U.S., media bosses understood that stories and TV coverage of Trump, regardless of whether they were good or bad, attracted readers and viewers, with soaring ratings for cable news networks and increased digital subscriptions for major newspapers.
However, such huge bumps are unlikely in Toronto’s mayoral election. Still, residents will want to hear and read news about Doug Ford.
You can’t dismiss him; you can’t ignore him.