{"id":9958,"date":"2010-03-18T17:08:30","date_gmt":"2010-03-18T21:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=9958"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:34:13","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:34:13","slug":"city-councillors-use-expense-budgets-on-gasp-expenses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/03\/18\/city-councillors-use-expense-budgets-on-gasp-expenses\/","title":{"rendered":"CITY COUNCILLORS USE EXPENSE BUDGETS ON (gasp!) EXPENSES"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It probably says something that Rob Ford is being more restrained and thoughtful than even the Toronto Star<\/em> these days.\u00a0 Pressed by the Post<\/em> for comment on Adam Giambrone’s taxi bill<\/a>, he told Natalie Alcoba<\/a> that “it’s not fair to single anyone out.” (The media similarly tried to extract a nutzoid soundbite from Ford following Giambrone’s pulling-out press conference, but he refused to indulge<\/a> them then, too.)\u00a0 It’s one thing for the Toronto Sun<\/em> to gleefully slap together cover stories<\/a> about meaningless things, but (let’s be honest) we all hold the Star<\/em> to a much higher standard.<\/p>\n

“Councillor expensed chipmunk costume”<\/a> is a wonderful phrase, to be sure, but do you know what the proper medium for it is?\u00a0 A tweet.\u00a0 Not a headline on the front page of a daily newspaper.\u00a0 Oh my goodness, Star<\/em>, you came across something quirky on the City’s website!\u00a0 Good for you! *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap*<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s indeed lots of fascinating stuff among the receipts posted online<\/a>, and everyone should be encouraged to browse them (if only for the insight they offer into what the job of being a city councillor actually involves).\u00a0 That’s how I stumbled across the Karen Stintz lunch bill that became the subject of my complaint to the Lobbyist Registrar and subsequent investigation<\/a> into the dubious path that one particular billboard took on its road into existence.\u00a0 Perhaps the dailies might have come upon that story, too, if they were less enthralled by animal suits.<\/p>\n

The Star<\/em> employs very many good, dedicated people, and I’m sure they’re as embarrassed by this as anyone else. And I imagine that one of those people is Laurie Monsebraaten, the author of the “Chipmunk” article who usually does wonderful work as the paper’s “Social Justice Reporter” (a title which mercifully did not appear under her byline on this particular story). As Spacing contributor (and School Board candidate) Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler commented on Facebook, “To take Laurie off [her usual beat] for a day to write a petty ‘gotcha’ story is, in a nutshell, what’s wrong with journalism today.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It probably says something that Rob Ford is being more restrained and thoughtful than even the Toronto Star these days.\u00a0 Pressed by the Post for comment on Adam Giambrone’s taxi bill, he told Natalie Alcoba that “it’s not fair to single anyone out.” (The media similarly tried to extract a nutzoid soundbite from Ford followingContinue reading “CITY COUNCILLORS USE EXPENSE BUDGETS ON (gasp!) EXPENSES”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4078,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCITY COUNCILLORS USE EXPENSE BUDGETS ON (gasp!) EXPENSES - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/03\/18\/city-councillors-use-expense-budgets-on-gasp-expenses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CITY COUNCILLORS USE EXPENSE BUDGETS ON (gasp!) EXPENSES - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It probably says something that Rob Ford is being more restrained and thoughtful than even the Toronto Star these days.\u00a0 Pressed by the Post for comment on Adam Giambrone’s taxi bill, he told Natalie Alcoba that “it’s not fair to single anyone out.” (The media similarly tried to extract a nutzoid soundbite from Ford followingContinue reading "CITY COUNCILLORS USE EXPENSE BUDGETS ON (gasp!) 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