Former Blade reporter authors ethics series

Written by Julie Ryan | | news@toledofreepress.com

The Newsmeister.com publisher, George Tanber, launched a series May 7 on his Web site outlining what he described as unethical actions committed by The Blade. The first story will highlight actions during a 2004 election campaign.

“The Blade broke the rules not once, but three times in an important election campaign,” Tanber said. “Its readers have a right to know, and the public has a right to know.”

According to Tanber, the article addresses how  The Blade, Buckeye Cable System, and its parent company, Block Communications, Inc., financially and editorially attacked a ballot initiative by Toledo bar owners who were trying to weaken a citywide smoking ban passed by the Toledo City Council in 2003.

Tanber had a 14-year career at The Blade as a general assignment, special projects and investigative reporter. He was fired in 2006 after sending a report to the Pulitzer Prize committee on ethics violations committed by The Blade.

“That was three years ago, and I’ve moved on with my career. But The Blade continues to cross the line of what’s right and fair, and that is unacceptable. As an independent publisher, it’s my job to let people know what’s going on.”

Tanber currently writes for ESPN.com, publishes The Newsmeister.com and is a video producer.

 

 

Call or write Ohios' Law Makers to vote in favor, we need our businesses back.

http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=128_SB_120

Kansas City, Missouri
 

The tyranny of the anti-smoking majority

A round of applause, please, and -- what the heck -- a standing ovation, too, for the
Gladstone City Council.
That suburban community's elected leaders appear on the brink of overthrowing the tyranny of the anti-smoking majority and approving what might be the metro area's
fairest and most sensible smoking ban. It is one that reasonable minds on both sides should be able
to live with -- albeit the non-smokers a little longer.
The Kansas City Star's bi-weekly Northland Neighborhood News reported Saturday the measure could be approved as soon as Feb. 9 and be effect in 60 days.
Notable exceptions to its ban on public and workplace smoking include billiard halls and
bowling alleys, as well as taverns and restaurants that seat fewer than 75 patrons,
provided signs are posted announcing: "Non-smoking areas are not available."
Also, any business with a liquor license operating in the city on Jan. 1 that customarily had allowed smoking would be grandfathered in to allow the practice so long as that business remained under the same ownership.
That last provision sets Gladstone's proposed law in a class by itself in common sense and fairness.
In Kansas City and in an ever-increasing number of suburbs where blanket smoking bans have been imposed, neighborhood tavern owners and others have had the proverbial rug pulled out from under them.
Their generations-old business models crumbled as their
smoking-patron regulars fled.
It simply was not fair.
All that these mostly mom-and-pop entrepreneurs wanted was the right to run their places of business -- their livelihoods --as they saw fit, to have a choice to be a smoking or non-smoking neighborhood watering hole, pool hall, barber shop or whatever.
For many that freedom of choice was stripped away.
The mindset among an increasing number of public servants insists on nanny-state
uniformity that bans tobacco use on any premises where any member of the general public
might someday step foot.
Now, at long last, wiser minds somewhere have found no offense in a dual economy
where smoking and non-smoking establishments shall be allowed to co-exist.
Gladstone council member Les Smith gets it. The Star reports he told fellow council members that second-hand smoke does not become a public health issue until someone walks through a door and makes it one.
"It is really simple," he said. "You have a choice not to go in."

 

Saturday, April 14, 2007

YOU HAVE BEEN LIED TO BY SMOKEFREE OHIO !!!