Today, if you were near any type of media delivery system you probably noticed that Mayor Rob Ford was in the news. Sarah Thomson has accused Rob Ford of non consensual touching. What we know is that Ms Thomson has accused Mr. Ford of allegedly grabbing her, Mr. Ford in a statement made later that day denied the accusation. What we have is an unflattering photo of Ford along side Thomson. What we don't are witnesses, so it's her word against his.
That paucity of information managed to provide an astonishing amount of content for Twitter, Blogs and one particular Toronto radio station. There was very little to talk about, hardly any hard facts to weigh if you were trying draw some sort of conclusion. The scarcity of information caused one of two things. The professional response; repetition of the facts, interviews or the reading of prepared statements by affected parties. The second response; taking sides, expressing support on twitter or in the comment section of online media, for which ever party you agreed with.
How, I thought were these people able to divine the guilty party on the available information? I sure couldn't. This is the part of the story I found most fascinating. It wasn't difficult to discern how sides were separating themselves out. Conservatives vs Everyone else. Rob Ford fans came to his immediate defence, most claiming, and rightly so, that there wasn't any evidence. Then usually in the next sentence (also without any evidence) calling Ms. Thomson a liar. How did they know she was a liar, because the "lefties" are always trying to get rid of "their man". If it really happened why didn't she go to the police or she didn't seem that upset, etc... in effect, Ms Thomson didn't react to the touching the way they thought she should have (victim blaming).
Everybody else didn't fair much better. Ford was guilty of "being like the kind of guy that would do something like that". Imagine those citizens sitting in the jury box.
The Internet is built for communication; for instant reaction. It seems less well suited for calm reflection. People took sides, the ones most familiar to them, political, social economic, gender. If you don't like Ford you probably thought he did it or was at least capable of doing it. If you were part of Ford nation you saw it as another trumped up lefty attack.
I won't lament the nature of the Internet as an aggregator of the lowest common denominator. I'll just be aware of it.
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