Hey Gawker -- WTF -- Where's Your Drug Dealer Source?

Tabloid trash-talking website Gawker.com claimed they saw a video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking a crack pipe, and the mainstream anti-Ford newspaper The Toronto Star ran with the story a week ago today.

The problem with using drug dealers as sources, is sometimes they make sh*t up.

Okay, that's a bit extreme. Even drug dealers are honest, hard working contributing members of society, right?

Yeah, right.

So it should be no surprise that the scoundrels at Gawker.com haven't been able to reach the drug lords that showed them the blurry, poorly shot iPhone video -- but wouldn't let them make a copy, or verify it's source.

The Toronto Star has been unable to reach the video's owners to verify its authenticity as well.

All of this hits as all things come to their inevitable end. Today, Toronto City Council's executive committee is sending a letter to their boss -- Mayor Rob Ford -- asking him to address the issue publicly. There are also rumours that the city's executive committee is asking for the Mayor to step down, and let the deputy mayor and the executive committee run the city until all the pressure from the media blows over.

And, Gawker.com itself is about set to reach it's drug-money-funding goal on crowdfunding website Indiegogo, to pay off the owners of the video behind this enormous scandal to rock Toronto, Canada.

Oh wait -- exactly who are they paying off again? Their "sources" have fled, just as they are about to make it rich.

Maybe money can't really buy happiness after all?

Or maybe the video was faked, by a couple of slimy druggies that thought they could bribe some gullible wanna-be American journalists with a poorly shot mobile phone video about some politician in another country.

Seems odd that legitimate sources would suddenly disappear, regardless of their chosen occupation. Especially sources about to hit the money load -- literally -- and be paid for their info.

Maybe they had a change of heart, and decided to come clean, and instead of using any profits from the video to further their drug trade, they'd donate it to a worthy cause, like the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health?

What are you, high?

The real damage ultimately is to the citizens of Canada, the residents of Toronto, and the business of running Canada's largest city.

Once again, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's lack of tact has put more than his left-foot in his mouth, and caused all the above to be made the fool on the world stage.

All because some slimy druggies that wanted to make more money.

And because technology allows anyone these days to claim to be a journalist -- even if they don't have what it takes to really do the job.

Like common sense for one.

Dealing with drug dealers as sources that ask for money up front?

Come on now Gawker.com -- is that how the game is played in your f*cked up world?

Why Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Needs to Resign

Unless you've been living under a rock on a secluded island in the middle of nowhere, chances are you've heard about some crazy Canadian big city mayor caught on video smoking crack cocaine.

Late night comedians Jimmy Kimmel and John Stewart both poked fun at recently on their late night talk shows. 

Major global news outlets, including CNN and the BBC have covered the story internationally.

Yet the only one speaking publicly about this is the media -- Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, as of this writing, STILL has intentionally evaded the press, simply saying quickly when the story first broke that allegations of him smoking crack cocaine are "ridiculous" and simply untrue.

So, what is the story?

For those hiding under rocks on secluded islands, an American tabloid website called Gawker claimed to have been shown a video showing Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. Later that day, one of Canada's largest newspapers, The Toronto Star, claimed that two of it's reporters had also seen the video footage, and ran with the story.

Neither Gawker nor The Toronto Star have validated the video, because the shady characters that have the video want a million dollars for it's release.

Since The Toronto Star -- a newspaper that has had a long standing war with Rob Ford before he became mayor of Canada's largest city -- broke the story, the media has been on a feeding frenzy, trying to get the mayor to address the issue.

Gawker did what many tabloid organizations do -- try to build buzz using social media's crowdfunding. They created an Indiegogo campaign, to raise funds through donations to secure the video footage, from what the accused brother, fellow Toronto city councillor Doug Ford, calls "drug dealers."

Regardless of whether the video is legit, or simply a sham falsified by people that just want to make a dishonest buck, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford needs to step aside by resigning his post as Mayor for the good of the city and the country.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been embroiled in many wild and weird issues since taking over as Mayor of Canada's largest city.

From failing to acknowledge gay rights by being the first Toronto politician to not attend the annual city's annual Pride Parade (all local politicians usually attend the annual event), to almost making history by becoming the first Canadian mayor to be forced out of the job by court order over a conflict of interest charge (which he won, so he didn't lose his job).

Sometimes, sadly, Mayor Rob Ford attempts to do the right thing, but it ends up exploding in his face. Like the time he and his brother Doug held a weight loss challenge for themselves, to get Torontonians interested in fitness and health. Every week both would publicly weigh themselves, showing how much they had lost. As the pounds crept back on, they quickly and quietly stopped showing up for the weekly weigh-ins and the media had another field day trashing the mayor and his family, despite their good intentions.

The latest scandal to rock the municipal offices of the third largest city in North America, and the largest city in Canada, has disemboweled the office of Toronto's Mayor, Toronto City Council, the city, and even the country.

When you have late night talk show hosts poking fun at the mayor of Canada's largest city, it makes all Canadians look bad.

And it isn't just American talk shows which are shaping the minds of potential tourists to our great country -- the sordid story of Rob Ford and his legacy thus far have been trending on social networks worldwide, and told on legitimate news outfits from the BBC to NPR and beyond.

That's why, regardless of whether the allegations of alleged drug use are true or false, Rob Ford and his brother do the right thing, and resign for the good of the city and the country.

It's time to clean house, and have a new mayor in power in Toronto. Because the world has lost faith in Toronto, and to a degree in Canadian politics, and the only thing that will restore that faith is a change of the guard.

Crowdfunding’s Appeal is It’s Biggest Drawback

We’re well into our crowdfunding project to raise funds for the world’s first crowdfunded On-Demand Internet Television network.

I’d like to say it is going better than expected.

I’d LOVE to say that.

But I can’t.

Because it’s not – if anything it’s either exceedingly slow, or not even getting off the ground – and we are well into our second week.

We’re doing everything we are supposed to according to all the research we’ve done. We’ve got a great project video, a compelling story about what we are doing and why, great perks at various price points so as to not exclude low funders nor limit high rollers.

We’re promoting this project all over the place, we’ve had some press, and you can find us on all the major social networks.

We even have what I’ve begun calling our “social media army” tweeting, re-tweeting, posting, and sharing our project across their social networks.

We know we are reaching people, we average between 1,500 to 2,000 unique visitors to our Indiegogo project page every day.

Still, we are well below our predicted funding goals for this time in the project.

Why?

I’ve been debating that question with friends and colleagues since we started, as the project never really took off.

Is our project video not interesting enough?

We’ve re-done the video three times, each one different to see if that’s the cause.

Is the content just not interesting or informative enough?

Again, this has been re-jigged a couple of times, to see if that’s the problem.

Do we not have enough perks, or are the perks just not good value for the money?

We explored numerous other projects, comparing ours to ones that have exceeded their funding goals. Our perks seem to be in line with these, in some cases they are better.

For every possible reason, there are a zillion other reasons.

The caveat I’m learning as we take our lumps through this crowdfunding project is the lure of the masses, but those masses sometimes just don’t bite.

That’s the great appeal of crowdfunding – reaching out to millions of people, getting them behind your cause, and watching your dreams grow.

That appeal is also the biggest drawback – when your idea falls flat, fails miserably to attract anyone, and you feel exposed, naked in the wind, as your dreams are blown away.

Crowdfunding may be a great way to raise funds, but if the concept you’re putting forward doesn’t take, it’s a painful process to go through.

And that’s crowdfunding’s biggest drawback.