Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is taking his defiant promise to stay in office to international media, a strategy experts say risks backfiring.

“In media strategy terms, it’s a bit of a Hail Mary pass,” said Daniel Tisch, president of public relations firm Argyle Communications.

“He can’t get his core messages across to his constituents in Toronto through the local media, and so this gives him an end-run around them,” said Andrew Laing, president of media analysis firm Cormex Research, in an email.

Ford appeared on Fox News Sunday afternoon, where he said he was getting professional help and wanted to run for prime minister one day.

“I suspect that the mayor believes Fox News would be sympathetic,” said Alex Sévigny, director of professional communication programs at McMaster University.

“The problem is, in the United States he’s nothing but a sideshow,” Sévigny said. “I don’t think it’s of any value locally.”

“Won’t help with Ford Nation, they don’t watch Fox or CNN. It’s his desperation about losing his TO media access,” said Robin Sears of Earnscliffe Strategy Group in an email.

Sévigny said that even Fox was not particularly friendly to Ford — the segment ends with the anchor remarking that “people like to take pictures of trainwrecks.”

Ford will also appear on CNN Monday night.

Laing said Ford’s strategy of speaking to the American networks risks prolonging Toronto’s time in the international media spotlight with a negative story.

“A big part of what people in the city are seeing is that the story is global, and that they have been subject to two weeks of publicity across every major news outlet, and ridicule by just about every comedy show on air,” Laing said.

Ford was lampooned in the opening sketch on Saturday Night Live on Saturday night, and has been fodder for late-night comedians.

“Even his supporters would want this story to go away, and so seeing him now take exclusive interviews on major networks suggests that he actually wants more international media attention brought on him and the city,” Laing said.

If the mayor wants to rehabilitate his image with supporters at home, he needs to show voters that he’s turned a corner, strategists suggest.

“What strikes me the most is instead of being remorseful, or repentant, he’s rebellious,” Tisch said.

“If he wanted to try to reconstruct the same coalition that elected him before, then I think he needs to show much more sincerity, much more remorse, much more transparency,” Tisch said.

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International media appearances may enhance the mayor’s notoriety, Tisch said, but will not help his political reputation in the city.

“Rob Ford has become a tabloid celebrity. Do we want a tabloid celebrity for mayor?” Tisch said.