Toronto editor defends story of mayor ‘smoking crack’
Toronto Star chief says claims about Rob Ford were true and reporting was in public interest
Canada's largest newspaper acted in the public interest when it published a report containing allegations that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford had been caught on video smoking crack cocaine, the Toronto Star's top editor told regulators.
Editor-in-Chief Michael Cooke told the Ontario Press Council, a voluntary self-regulatory organisation, that his newspaper's reporting on Ford, who has said he does not smoke crack, was both ethical and legal.
I tell you now, with great emphasis, that the story is true - every word of it
He was responding on Monday to complaints made by private citizens against Torstar Corp's flagship paper over its coverage of Ford in May.
Ford himself did not make a complaint and did not appear at the hearing.
"I tell you now, with great emphasis, that the story is true - every word of it," Cooke said at the hearing in Toronto, arguing that Ford had been given ample opportunity to respond to the report before it was published.
The Toronto Star story, released just hours after US gossip blog Gawker said it had seen a cellphone video that appeared to show Rob Ford smoking a substance from a small glass pipe, prompted a storm of media coverage in Canada and abroad.
The Star said two of its reporters had seen the video weeks before the Gawker report, and that individuals linked to the drug trade had offered to sell the video to the Star. The newspaper declined to buy it.