OTTAWA – An airing of The City with Mayor Rob Ford on CFRB NewsTalk 1010 Toronto violated human rights broadcast standards ruled the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC). Today it released its decision concerning a guest’s comments during the May 6, 2012 broadcast of the show after it received 64 complaints. It concluded that comments made about homosexuality in reference to a specific individual violated the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code. CFRB is now required to announce the CBSC’s decision on air with the next seven days.
The City with Mayor Rob Ford is a talk radio program hosted by Mayor Rob Ford and his brother Doug, also a City Councillor. The Ford Brothers talk about Toronto politics and current events with guests and callers on Sundays from 1pm – 3pm. On May 6, 2012 they had journalist David Menzies as their guest and talked about media coverage of specific incidents involving Mayor Ford and the criticisms Ford had received.
Menzies mentioned an all-candidates meeting that had occurred during the 2010 mayoral campaign at which someone had suggested that Mayor Ford could suffer from a heart attack in office because he is overweight. Menzies expressed the view that this comment was unfair to Ford and made the analogy that it would be like asking the openly gay candidate if he would likely die in office because he engages in high risk sexual practices and drug abuse. Menzies also made critical comments about other public figures.
“Could you imagine, Mayor Ford and Councillor Ford, could you imagine if I was at that all-candidates meeting and I went to George Smitherman. And I said ‘You know what? You know, George, being a practising homosexual and being the fact that you’ve been involved with all kinds of illicit drug use, how do we know you won’t engage in high-risk sex and drug use that will bring about, uh, HIV leading to AIDS and you’ll die in office?” I would be run out of town on a rail, right?!’” said Menzies during the show.
Doug Ford responded by saying that he and his brother have been complimented for standing up to the Toronto Star and Menzies made negative comments about other city councillors who he said were “hostile” toward Mayor Ford. Ford’s response was “David, that’s, uh, phenomenal.” In reports that followed the airing of the show Ford stated that he and his brother did not agree with Menzies’ remarks and did not support “personally attacking anyone” because they understand how that feels.
After listening to the audio file and reading the transcript of the program, the panel members concluded that the comparison made by Menzies to attack George Smitherman and homosexuality was not a random choice. “He used a news item about an incident dating back two years that took place not on the air, but during an all-candidates meeting at the time of the City of Toronto mayoralty campaign, to emphasize that personal attacks were being directed against Mayor Ford concerning his excess weight and the associated risks to his health,” wrote the panel in their decision.
The panel found violations of the Human Rights Clauses of the CAB Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code as well as clauses of the Equitable Portrayal Code regarding negative portrayal, stereotyping and stigmatization. It also found a breach of the Proper Presentation clause of the Code of Ethics because the comments were unfairly insulting towards a specific individual, but it did not find any problems with the criticisms of other public figures.
CFRB is required to: 1) announce the decision (below), in the following terms, once during peak listening hours within three days following the release of this decision and once more within seven days following the release of this decision during the time period in which The City with Mayor Rob Ford was broadcast, but not on the same day as the first mandated announcement; 2) within the fourteen days following the broadcasts of the announcements, to provide written confirmation of the airing of the statement to the complainants who filed the Ruling Request; and 3) at that time, to provide the CBSC with a copy of that written confirmation and with air check copies of the broadcasts of the two announcements which must be made by CFRB.
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has found that CFRB NewsTalk 1010 breached the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code in its broadcast of The City with Mayor Rob Ford on May 6, 2012. A guest on the program made negative and stereotypical comments about homosexuality contrary to Clause 2 of the Code of Ethics and Clauses 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the Equitable Portrayal Code. The comments also insulted an individual, contrary to Clause 6 of the Code of Ethics.
