Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
I'm torn on the last video, on one hand yes he's clearly drunk or high or whatever and he's rambling like a drunk or high person tends to ramble on.
On the other hand, he's sitting in a living room, clearly with friends and somebody video tapes it and turns around and sells the video tape for $5000.00. The person that did that is just as terrible of a person.
And it makes you think that you are now open game in your house. For someone like Slava for example if he's running for city council in the next election, you'd better make sure you take away peoples cell phones when they come into your house in case you start dropping f-bombs when someone brings up a topic that you don't like when your loaded.
Looking at the video I don't know the context, is the guy doing a wrestling promo, is he ordering a hit on his enemies. Who knows.
Its clear that Ford needs to go and get help and decide if he wants to stay in the public limelight.
But this opens up the whole, does a good news story and a check trump the right to some privacy?
I don't know if I'm even saying this right to be honest.
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No, it sounds good to me. I think I know what you're saying, and in 90% of situations I'd agree with you. In a lot of cases it wouldn't be news, and it would be an invasion of privacy. Maybe not legally, but morally, definitely.
However I find this situation different and justified. It's about context.
For one, the person in question is in the public eye. And not just in a celebrity rock star sports hero way, but as a person who is elected to represent a group of people and a city in a positive manner.
Now before people go off the handle, let me say definitively that this point is not enough to justify it. Not even close. Everyone has a right to privacy, even those in the public eye. Everyone has bad days, or days they wouldn't want others to see, everyone has private moments, and they should expect to have places in those private moments. And I agree, people, like whomever released the video, who use moments like this to make money or prey on others are the lowest type of scum.
However, when looked with other points, the first point I brought up DOES tilt the argument to the other side in my opinion.
The other points are many. This is not the first time behaviour like this has been noted. Ford has had similar incidents in public, even at city hall! It's not like these moments, or this issue (or group of issues) is so private, even in Ford's mind, that the public isn't involved in it already. He brought them into it already.
Secondly, he is a subject in a police investigation. Perhaps not as a suspect of anything anymore, but we don't know. All we know is at point, he was followed as a person who may be breaking many laws. And we know there is proof of him doing shady, perhaps illegal things. It's hard to complain about privacy if your breaking the rules of law. Maybe there is still a moral argument, but to expect it is a little naive.
Third, he has lied about his actions time and time again about this issue and related issues. Not once, not twice, plenty of times. Should a public figure be allowed to lie for privacy? Sure, I would expect many many white lies. But these aren't white lies. These are big ones hiding a pattern of irresponsibility and poor decision making that the electorate should know. If this video helps out these lies, then it's newsworthy.
Fourth, he has torpedoed all calls for responsibility or help so far. Again, in a smaller context, maybe it's not an issue. No one is perfect. But with how big this has gotten, and the level it must be influencing him, even his decisions, even before it became a news story, it is important for him to stop. For him, for his voters, for his city. If this video helps push him in that direction, or the people around him to push him in than direction, than again it is newsworthy and important.
A private citizen gets a lot more chances to screw up. Can shrug off responsibility, often almost indefinitely. But a public servant cannot. They have responsibilities. And they have given up privacy in circumstances to prove they are up to the task, to prove they are a good decision for leadership. If they keep that promise, than yeah, keep out of their private moments. But Ford has broken that trust. He has been caught lying. He has been caught doing illegal things (at least one anyway). He has been caught in situations which even before the circus arrived, had to be affecting his job, and influencing his decisions. Not sure how you can say it couldn't. And since the wheels started falling off, it's only more obvious it is bad for the city. It's a problem.
In extreme situations like this, the public has a right to more information to 1. make a better decision, and 2., put pressure on their official to do the right thing.