NOW Magazine’s Naked Rob Ford Cover Sparks Furor at Toronto City Hall

A city official ordered all copies of the paper featuring a photoshopped image of the mayor removed from city hall.

Torontonians awoke Thursday to an unsightly eyeful on the newsstands: a doctored image of a hefty, nearly naked man with mayor Rob Ford’s tacked onto it. The backlash was almost immediate, and it wasn’t just people’s sense of decency that was offended. Comments flew over Facebook and Twitter accusing NOW of abandoning journalistic principles and making a personal attack against the 300-pound mayor. The controversy escalated when city hall custodial supervisor Lorraine Pickett sent out an email asking staff to remove copies of the weekly paper from all City of Toronto facilities, prompting accusations of censorship from NOW’s editors. The editors defended the cover by saying they were attempting to expose the mayor’s lack of transparency.