Toronto Star publisher, Globe and Mail editor-in-chief on journalism and the Fords
John Stackhouse and John Cruickshank stood behind their publications' recent coverage of the Fords in an interview on CBC's Metro Morning on Monday.
By Eric Mark Do
John Stackhouse and John Cruickshank stood behind their publications' recent coverage of the Fords in an interview on CBC's Metro Morning on Monday.
Toronto Star’s publisher Cruickshank said media relations with the Fords are “abominable,” and while The Globe and Mail’s editor-in-chief Stackhouse added that “it's unfortunate that it's fallen to name-calling.” Cruickshank also said the Fords' criticism that the Star is targeting them as “simply unfair and untrue.”
Stackhouse said sources were given anonymity in The Globe’s investigative feature on the Ford family’s history with drug dealing because the interviewees feared the Ford family's influence and connections. But he also said it's reasonable for people to criticize a story for only using anonymous sources.
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Gawker has now successfully crowd-funded $200,000 to pay for the alleged video of Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine, but Cruickshank said it doesn't detract from the story published by the Star if the video never turns up.
“I don't in any way step back from a story that was careful and truthful,” Cruickshank said. “I don't think the story changes because we didn't have the video when we published that story. And we still don't have the video.”
Listen to the full CBC interview:
