Beyond the Headlines: Have the Media Treated Mayor Ford Fairly?

A video that allegedly shows the Mayor of Canada’s largest city smoking crack cocaine has generated headlines around the world. News of the video, which was not produced by the journalists, has also raised questions – some of them for the first time in Canada – on the way in which journalists gather and report on people and events. A panel will look beyond the headlines of this watershed moment to discuss the media’s treatment of Mayor Ford, who has not acknowledged the allegations, and the broader implications for society. Christie Blatchford has written for all four Toronto-based newspapers. She has won a National Newspaper Award for column writing and in 2008 won the Governor-General’s Literary Award in non-fiction for her book Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army. Christie is currently the National Post and Postmedia columnist. Kevin Donovan is the Investigative Editor at the Toronto Star and a senior reporter. He has won the Michener Award for Public Service Journalism, three National Newspaper Awards and three Canadian Association of Journalists Awards. He is the author of ORNGE: The Star Investigation That Broke the Story. Edward Keenan serves as senior editor and lead columnist at The Grid magazine in Toronto. An eight-time finalist at the National Magazine Awards, he was the top editor at Eye Weekly, is a contributing editor at Spacing magazine and writes widely on politics, sports and culture. Lisa Taylor, LLM, teaches at the School of Journalism, Ryerson University. Lisa spent a decade with CBC Radio & Television in a wide range of journalistic roles, including a co-creator and host of two nationally-broadcast series. Among other courses, Lisa, a former lawyer, teaches Law & Ethics in the Practice of Journalism.