Christie Blatchford: The media is almost as diminished in the Rob Ford affair as the mayor himself

Even on the day after arguably the most ignominious hours of the most ignominious life of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, we in my tribe were still hard at it — perched outside his home (“Are you going to rehab Rob?”), even door-stopping his mother Diane on the way out of her hair salon.

“Just leave him alone,” was Mrs. Ford’s plea, as if there was a prayer.

I am not at all confident that if and when the poor SOB is finally ensconced at an addiction joint, some enterprising sort won’t try to infiltrate the 12-step group or camp outside the place, hoping for a glimpse of the round pink fellow through a long lens.

It would, of course, be deemed to be in the public interest.

This is a long way of saying that in this ignoble round of the RoFo storm — wherein the addiction counselors are again getting face time on the tube, journalists are trying to out-clever one another on Twitter, Toronto city councilors are lining up to “react,” and mayoralty candidates intoning upon the human wreckage while not hesitating to take advantage — the mayor certainly emerges as the most diminished figure, but journalism itself is running a close second...