Morning Brew: February 25th, 2008

There's got to be a better image available to capture the essence of the fire on Queen Street.

I would never have expected to find a picture of Miller out there pretending to care about the common man on BlogTo.

No one is without fault. But I've had many face-to-face encounters with Mayor Miller at a variety of places/events and happen to respect and admire him very much.

Obviously your views don't align with mine, but please spare us the melodrama about him appearing as a fake and judging blogTO based on my own choice of photo.

Furthermore, we've featured many striking photos of the fire and aftermath.

"I've had many face-to-face encounters with Mayor Miller at a variety of places/events and happen to respect and admire him very much."

Yeah and that's exactly the message i got when i saw the photo. The photo space in Morning Brew usually captures a feeling of the city not a political bias which is why i found it out of place.

Saying so isn't melodrama. And if you're going to put political views in the photo space than we have just as much right to comment on the photos as the written news.

My guess is that the only reason why you're calling it (the photo depicting the mayor of our city, on the scene of a devastating fire, shaking hands with some of the workers cleaning up the mess - an event that occurred and was captured by a camera) political bias is because you don't like Miller. Now, if I chose NOT to post this photo because I hated Miller, that would also be political bias, wouldn't it?

If you read blogTO, and the Morning Brew regularly, you'll know that all posts are written by individuals, and writers are encouraged to infuse their articles with their own personal opinions. There's no mandated editorial "we" here.
The MB is injected with my brand of sarcasm, my own political slant, and my creative witticisms (and my choice of photos). I don't expect that it will always align with your political views or anyone else's for that matter.

Well said Jerrold!

Jerrold ...
wow you pretty much just ignored everything i said. You seem to get a big wound up over any discussion about Miller so i'll stick to this one final point ...

One of the reasons why i like tuning in to Morning Brew is because the photo space is more like a window looking out at the city than the front page of a newspaper. The photo captures a mood, and it's a nice way to start the day. It seems to provide a common ground for us all as we read a page full of news that often divides us along opinions and biases. That's a very different experience from picking up a newspaper, and it's one of the reasons I keep coming back.

"...The photo captures a mood...

I see what you're saying, jj. I don't usually use images with political figures, but my intentions haven't changed at all, and I chose this image for the same reason I usually do, which you've articulated as well. :)

It's fairly cynical to suggest political bias when simply showing a photo of the city's mayor shaking hands with workers. He IS the mayor - elected democratically by the citizens of this city. I though it represented that moment well. How many more photos of the fire do you need?

I think I can hear jj's axe grinding from here. Ideological cynicism is happily not the the way most people feel. The mayor at the site of a big city disaster, seems appropriate. JJ is likely the same guy who would say "where's the mayor" if he didn't show but he does and it's "pretending to care". Let him sharpen his axe, you won't change his mind, he likes it how it is.

Did'nt know a simple handshake would cause so much discussion.

Agreed. It's not like he said that Africans would boil him alive or anything. O the good ole days.

Good commentary section today. Made for an interesting, and entertaining "Morning Blog" read.

I'm also really impressed at how jj and Jerold were able to meet at the halfway point regarding each others views, and walk away with a smile.

Gosh, I wish our City Councillors could do something as mature and respectful more often.

Thank you both for showing that demonstrating a clear example that just because 2 people may disagree with each other, they don't need to reduce themselves to children with finger pointing and name calling.

This is why I like enjoy reading everything in BlogTO

True, Christopher. It too is why I read BlogTO and not the awful Torontoist, where excessive snark drips from everything. You can be humourous yet not be snarky good-for-nothing hipsters.

I thought that photo of the mayor was excellent. It captured the feelings of the city: sorry to see a wonderful historic stretch of Toronto gone but thankful to those who have and continue to work hard to begin the healing process.