Thursday, June 6, 2013
By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday, June 6, 2013
Rob Ford crack scandal: Video might be “gone”
Gawker.com, the U.S. website that raised more than $200,000 to buy a video apparently showing Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine, is reporting that the video might be gone.
An intermediary who initially contacted Gawker about the cellphone video now says its owner went underground after the story attracted worldwide media attention, John Cook, Gawker’s editor in chief, wrote Tuesday.
Gawker reached its fundraising goal on May 27. But until Friday, Cook says, he hadn’t heard back from the go-between.
After weeks of silence, Cook says the owner contacted the intermediary and that person reported back to Cook on Friday.
“His message was: ‘It’s gone. Leave me alone.’ It was, the intermediary told me, a short conversation,” Cook wrote.
Cook says “a fear of being identified, and a strong desire from the Somali community to make the whole thing go away” caused the owner to go silent.
Cook has watched the video once, while two Star reporters, Kevin Donovan and Robyn Doolittle, watched the video three times.
Both say the video shows Ford inhaling what appears to be crack cocaine from a glass pipe and making homophobic and racially charged remarks. The Star couldn’t verify the video’s authenticity. (Source: Toronto Star)