Gawker does it again

John Cook, editor of gawker.com has gone and done it again.

And for that, Mr Cook is Your Working Girl’s leading nominee for two illustrious awards.

Your Working Girl thinks her Gentle Readers remember the gentleman.  He’s the fellow who broke the story about sketchy Toronto mayor, Rob Ford, smoking crack cocaine in a video.  Mr Cook, in fact, launched the Crackstarter campaign on the crowdsourcing website indigogo.com.  For a site more accustomed to people hustling for their pet film projects, it made headlines all over the world and caused a lot of fret among media commentators.

• There was the “utter offensiveness of publicly rewarding a pair of drug players,” National Post columnist, Robyn Urbeck wrote.
• It’s ‘reputational risk’ to the fledgling crowdfunding industry, cried the National Crowdsource Funding Association of Canada (NCFA).
• “Are we asking citizens to contribute to a payment to drug dealers?” vexed media eminence grise, Jeffrey Dvorkin, former CBC news boss and U of T professor in a debate with John Cook on Q.

Mr Cook soldiered on.  And, as he turned his face to the gale, he offered textured and compelling media commentary.  Adamant in the righteous of his views, he was undeterred by upsetting the status quo.  As a result, he is Your Working Girl’s current nominee for Your Working Girl’s Working Reporter of the Year.

But there’s another award in the wings for Mr Cook of Gawker if Your Working Girl has anything to say about it.

Yesterday gawker.com revealed the recipients of the Crackstarter money that was meant to purchase the alleged Rob Ford crack video.  The money was available because the video “disappeared” and was no longer available to purchase.  And as he committed to Crackstarter donors, of which Your Working Girl is one, the proceeds of the Crackstarter campaign would go to organizations helping with “substance abuse issues” if the video deal didn’t pan out.  She’d been waiting for his choices.

At first Your Working Girl was almost afraid to look.   Who would it be?

“Don’t make it CAMH, don’t make it CAMH,” she whispered with her fingers crossed, “it’s a money pit.  Please make it interesting.”

Besides being full of themselves, CAMH, the world-class Centre for Addiction and Mental Health turned up their noses when they were asked whether they would take money from gawker.com.   Thumbs down says Your Working Girl.

She needn’t have worried when it came to Mr Cook, however.  He hit a grand slam.  His choices were inspired and required work to arrive at.  The princely sum of $46,195.65 will go to each of these four organizations:

• The Somali Canadian Association of Etobicoke, a 25-year-old nonprofit community organization aimed at “improving the lives of Somali immigrants and refugees in Etobicoke and foster pride Somali-Canadian youth.”
• The South Riverdale Community Health Centre which “operates a harm reduction program aimed at stabilizing the lives of drug users through needle exchanges, crack kits, counseling referrals, job referrals, and other help.”
• Unison Health and Community Services offering integrated social and health services serving much of northern Toronto.
• Ontario Regional Addictions Partnership Committee which “facilitates, advocates for, and guides the National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program in Ontario.”

As someone who has been spent a great deal of her time in the past two years working in the fine communities of Etobicoke and Rexdale, north and western suburbs of Toronto, Your Working Girl has experienced the need for someone to pay attention to the people who need help there.

Now it’s Mr Cook who has gone and done it.

And as a reward for the thoughtfulness and effort Mr Cook put into his choices, he is Your Working Girl’s leading nominee for a brand new award:  Your Working Girl’s Grant Officer of the Year.

Nicely done Mr Cook.

Find out more about where the Crackstarter Money is Going