Roberta Da Bore -No More-another Block puppet gone!

"Ding Dong the wicked witch is dead!"Yeah!Yeah!I always hated her articles/rants.

In my opinion, Roberta Da Bore is a hypocrite in so many ways.

The PRIME EXAMPLE, is when The Blah published her 3-Part series on Childhood Prostitution in Toledo. Some story she worked on, chronicling the lives of area prostitutes and how some prostitutes were being trafficketed in and out of Ohio and Toledo.

Now why would I (in my own opinion), label and her and many other Blah reporters / editorial writers....hypocrites ?

Simply take a look at the Sports Section and take a look at the ads that are FRONTS FOR PROSTITUTION. At The Blah, the code word for the page where those ads get grouped together, is the "Rub Page." People that work there, know what those ads are all about.

But The Blah and Roberta Da Bore, like to criticize and write about all manner of stories, locally and nationally, but "look the other way" - (play stupid), when it comes to what goes on right there, in their own house.

Up until very recently, I talked to the ad assistant on a weekly basis, who worked at The Blah and handled all those escort and massage ads, that are SIMPLY fronts for prositution. She would field the phone calls and take their ad orders - over the phone. Then the women would show up, to pay for the ads. (This ad assistant lady, she died in a car accident a couple months ago).

She knew the lives and stories of many of these women, pretty well, after a while. She would tell me stories, every single week, about these people, coming in to the front lobby, with their pimps, to pay for these ads. She knew when they got picked up for prostitution and went to jail. She knew which ones had kids and had drug problems.

These woman operate on an almost cash basis. Paying for a block of ads, almost week by week. They would pay with cash and credit cards. And these women, some of them changed their names all the time - as if this lady couldn't recognize their voices on the phone or their pimps that showed up at the front window (cashiers window).

In my opinion, Roberta Da Bore wrote her little 3-part series (story) on Toledo area prostitution, but "looked the other way" when it came to the type of ads (business) The Blah has been printing and promoting in the sports section for many....many years.

Jeez, such rancor.

I didn't always agree with Roberta de Boer, but she was an interesting columnist. Let's also not forget that she worked as a reporter, and some of her work (like her contributions to the Blade's teen prostitution series) earned her deserved journalism awards.

Anyways, in the interest of balance on this thread, good luck to Roberta in her future endeavors.

I have no use for people like Roberta Da Bore....

My post went in after Walter Anthony's, who raised an interesting point about the Blade's hypocrisy. However, in fairness to Roberta, these sorts of fronts for prostitution advertise in many places. Do you equally condemn Yellow Pages workers because the book carries ads for escort services? How about people who post on Craigslist, which has categories that are a veritable cesspool of illegal sex services? How about TV and radio stations that promote strip clubs, where prostitution sometimes finds a back-room or after-work foothold? Or how about hotel/motel employees at facilities that rent rooms to hookers and johns - they know that some guests are engaging in illegal activity, right?

The Blade as an institution certainly profits from disguised prostitution, but to condemn individual employees for the decisions of corporate officers is unrealistic.

"Ding Dong, the Wicked Witch is Dead"...LOL!...I agree 100% with that comment!

Is it any different than the radio hosts on WSPD endlessly bashing say 'Cash for Clunkers' while accepting advertisements from car dealerships promoting it.

Why did she leave? Was it an economic decision on the Blade's part?

And so much negativity in this thread: Toledo at its finest.

Block & his rag are one of the reasons for the bad attitudes you find so disheartning. The Toledo Blade is the greatest enemy of northwest oheilo. You don't have to believe that if you choose not to.

Not like WSPD, nothing but rainbows and kittens on that channel.

SensorG, you inspired my mad-but-meager PhotoShooping skillz:

Nice!

historymike said - Do you equally condemn Yellow Pages workers because the book carries ads for escort services? How about people who post on Craigslist, which has categories that are a veritable cesspool of illegal sex services? How about TV and radio stations that promote strip clubs, where prostitution sometimes finds a back-room or after-work foothold? Or how about hotel/motel employees at facilities that rent rooms to hookers and johns - they know that some guests are engaging in illegal activity, right?
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The big difference with those, is that they aren't out trying to bust open or expose prostitution - they make money off it, sure. But the Blade ran an entire series on the evils of prostition - didn't it win some award for this series? Big difference as far as I'm concerned. All are being hypocrites perhaps - but the Blade is by far more hypocritical.

As for Roberta's column - she had several that I enjoyed. I was a bit put off when she seemed to cater to Bernadette Noe - like she was running her own campaign to clean up Bernie's image here in Toledo.

I get a kick out of media heads whose egos blind them into thinking they're bigger than they actually are.

and this person is a perfect example.

Her writing style wasn't all that good. Too "cutsie"in many instances. In others she seemd to pander to the interviewee. She always, always took the safe side.

Anybody remember Alan Abrams? He got canned by Block for reporting some uncomfortable truths about the Blocks' and for occaisionally taking the opposition view. (Sadly, in later years after leaving the Blade, Abrams and spouse were both convicted of fraud for borrowing money under false pretensis and failing to repay.) If you want to write for a local newspaper and live in the Toledo area you have to accept the editorial heavy handedness that comes with it. It's Block's way or the highway.

You can excoriate her all you want. Her job wasn't the easiest. She might have been a better columnist under other circumstances.

If you want to write for a local newspaper and live in the Toledo area you have to accept the editorial heavy handedness that comes with it. It's Block's way or the highway.
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And that is precisely why I regard people like Her and Lemmon scum and phony 'journalists'. They have no scruples whatsoever as long as they're paid well.

Another good example is 'old stork-neck' Marilou Johanek. She loses her job on tv , we figure we'll never have to listen to her far left dogma again, and Block picks her up for a weekly column. Couldn't get rid of Anderson, either, just changed stations after getting canned.

Oops, last sentence didn't take. That's why I don't believe we've seen the last of Da Bore.

Hey, I loved Russ Lemmon and his drops.

the drops he wrote about, or the ones he sucked on to cover the liquor smell?

Goodbye to roberta the bore, and good riddance!

another toledo slug gone. Hope john r. block is next. be careful in that little swimming pool in the basement john.

Russ is on facebook. I am a fan. He make great stuff to read in paper. And he still eat at Bob Evans and count license plates from around the country.

Gee...I hope that Roberta doesn't get picked up by Scripts and move here...

I don't think you have much to worry about BIF. Taking away the "I don't agree with the slant her of column so I'm going to trash her" argument, her writing ability just isn't that good. There are much better journalists on the loose who can write really well as newspapers across the country cut staff.

I'd like to see some of the big mouthed yahoos on here actually sit down and try to write a piece - every week for 52 weeks - plus have the rag's owner with an agenda using the red pencil. Most of them would have to start with high school grammer lessons. They'd end up quitting or getting fired within a month. There's not much non-controversial human interest stuff in this depressed old town to provide column content.

I thought Roberta's columns were too cutesy. When Obama wrote that touching letter to his daughters after his election, Roberta wrote a column "To my dear daughter" who is in college, which seemed rather phony, and of course, unoriginal.

I found out from a very good source that Roberta was asked by management to help out and do general assignment reporting because of the newspaper's skeletal staff. She adamantly refused because she had done that 20 years earlier and it would be beneath her to do it again. These Blade reporters are so pampered and have huge egos that they leave the newspaper, thinking that they'll find something better. They forget that The Blade still offers the best salaries and benefits anywhere in the industry. She's not going to find anything anywhere near the salary and benefits at The Blade. This was all about ego. I guess she can take a annual salary cut of $70,000 without batting an eye. I'd sweep the floor for The Blade for that amount.

wow - you are going to blame the blade and roberta for your personal faults, bad attitudes, and quality of life in toledo? what happened to the touch-stones of personal responsibility or christian charity? she was not my cup of tea but she did important work on prostitution and you want to call her a hypocrit because of who the ad department deals with? if you were as self-examining about your own life as you are about roberta's, i doubt any of you would have a word to say - there is hypocrisy.

roberta probably saved for her retirement - if you had a retirement set up and your boss told you to do an entry level job, would you really do the entry level job rather than retire? that is "all about ego"?

I haven't read Roberta's column in years, and so don't miss her efforts.

From Holland: There's not much non-controversial human interest stuff in this depressed old town to provide column content.

Not so. There's plenty of 'stuff' available. It's just that Block won't print most of it and the really interesting 'stuff' can be a little hard to substantiate.

Shoot, even on a slow news day you could always get a photographer and torment Carty until he blows a fuse then report on it. Toledo is supposed to have a lot of prostitutes - hire a few of them to agitate Carty and report on that.

Holland, general assignment reporter is not an "entry-level job" in journalism. It is better than a beat reporter, which is entry-level. She would be a reporter again, not a columnist. That is hardly a humiliating job. Nobody asked her to clean the toilets. Of course, if that is beneath her, that's her personal choice to leave such a high paying job and pursue other interests. Her husband also works at The Blade, so perhaps that is enough to support both of them. I agree with you that she probably did save enough for retirement. The benefits at The Blade are tremendous. The company even pays for staff's tuition if they want to go back to college. But to leave a high paying job because you're asked to help out more - which everyone is asked to do in this economy - is about ego, in my opinion.

Nobody here knows, period. You know how opinions go....

In the end so what and who cares?

I swear Toledoans are a miserable lot. If something great happened to someone you wouldn't know what to do with yourselves.