Toronto Star attacks International Health & Venus Owner

[missbeans]

Having read the story today, I could not help but wonder why The Star was so vindicative against the owner of International Health & Venus Spa.

Reading the article, seemed to me to be so bias and devoid of the slightest amount of balance. It almost appeared that The Star had wrote the article as a ventetta, to destroy the owner economically as well as mentally without the need for a trial. The article seemed to be totally personal, and not at all professional, without any form of balanced reporting. Was completely one sided in it's reporting, with wild statements like "3/4 of the 300 licensed holistic centres were brothels". And how would they know this to be true or not? I think it is a gross exaggeration, and only effect is to inflame the reader.

I do not know the owner, but instinctively could not help but feel sorry for him. We are taught to believe that we are innocent until proven guilty, but the Star's bias reporting has convicted him without the benefit of any measure of defense. To let this go, what chance do any of us have, when a large newspaper decides for whatever reason you are next.

Something to think about.

 

[WHAT]

Toronto Star attacks International Health & Venus Owner

I know HI owner personally.
He is a nice guy!
He had his

 

[sunshine11]

to promote the idea these guys live a giggalo/pimp lifestyle benifiting from a shameful industry lacking morals

 

[jimgreg]

If all the people interviewed were smart enuff to know that "YOU SHOULD NEVER DO INTERVIEWS WITH THE PRESS" he wouldnt have this problem... he not only did one interview ... but he did two?????? I realize they prolly put on a nice face.. and said they just wanted to hear his side, but its common knowledge NOT to talk to them.... and your right...they made him look bad... to me it seems like a total PERSONAL attack... the richest companies and people in Canada are on BAY street... you have to wonder if someone is behind this article.. but the bottom line is, dont talk to the press, they always twist what you say, If he didnt talk to them what kind of story would they have to tell reguarding H.I.???

(i am in no way affiliated with that venus)

 

[H0oLiGaN]

The third part of the story says "The lights were out yesterday at Health International". I suppose there's not much chance of him avoiding being charged if they're open any time in the near future.

 

[James C]

I don't know the owner of HI and have never been to his establishment, but I do know that the Toronto Star hates successful people and loves only academics (especially femninist ones), unionized public service employees and other losers. Hopefully the publicity will do HI's business good in the long run. After all there's no such thing as bad press, as the saying goes.

 

[BETTY- Doing The Do]

The article reads like it was written by the spa owners pissed off ex-girlfriend. HI is one of the better spas out there, and the reporter could not find anything exceptional on the spa, so the reporter just trashed the owner. Sad.

 

[Intan S.]

it's sure is funny how the women stated ""I had a male friend come visit recently and as he got out of his car, the Madame of this place was out there inviting him to come in and get a massage. This used to be a decent place."
Out of all the places i've been to, i've never had such customer service where they've opened the door to invite a customer.
Why invite, they should just keep the door opened.........twisted, just twisted.

I'm heading up to the Star with an army of friends in a few days......i guess health is not a major issue to some.

 

[Pompal 09.]

... if you read other parts of the article, this "nice guy" is obvioulsy a scam artist, selling questionable pills and using the likenesses of celebrities without permission. Who wants to suppot an "entrepreneur" such as this? And let's not forget his criminal convictions for assault. Such a lovely piece of work. It's surprising so many are rushing to his defence. Then again, the Liberanos still lead in Ontario ...

 

[Leira]

The Red Star is biased? NAW!

 

[Pompal 09.]

Regardless of whether the owner is a good or bad guy, he was just asking for trouble opening a body rub on Bay Street in a nice downtown office building. It had to be a matter of time before he would be exposed/closed down. No City could allow a body rub to exist in the heart of its downtown business corridor.

Do you think they ever would allow a body rub in the Transamerica tower in San Francisco or on Wall Street?

I never tried H.I. because of the chance I would see someone I know in the building who works in the financial district.

 

[ali.a.j]

Think about it, when you get on an elevator if know one is on it they do not see you get off at the 6th floor, if someone is on it you do not have to get off at the floor until all others have.

 

[Mr Bored sober]

The Health International website is down and the spa a closed today.

 

[ohioisforluvers]

Do you notice how in every article the reporter 'got up and left' once he had already paid the woman and she took her clothes off. No guy, reporter or not is going to leave at the sight of bare breasts.

 

[Musiclover]

Yeah I have read all three articles. I have journalism experience and have worked at a newspaper before and I can tell you that quite often articles get spiced up not to go after someone but to make a pathetic story more interesting. They conveniently ignore facts and quotes that disprove their angle. They also place quotes and facts out of context to make a story more scandalous.

The Star reporters who wrote the story obviously included a lot of quotes from people who were making shit up. Like the MP that had a girl invite people in. That is a lie. They even lock their doors, nevermind keep doors wide open and have MPA's invite people in. They didn't care if it was correct or not because it was a quote and thus are not really liable. To some degree they are responsible for what quote they "pick" to go in, but the Star has shrewd lawyers advising them of what is ok to publish and what isn't.

Why did they do all this? Because the article wasn't really shedding any new light on the matter and because their research didn't really reveal anything spectacular. In other words it was a worthless article and they needed to sex it up. The irony of a newspaper that accepts massage parlour and holistic centre ads running a story on the lack of morals and decency of massage parlours and holistic centres while employing immoral and indecent journalistic practices is staggering.

Also, has anyone else noticed on the Star website and how they changed the title of their 2nd story from "What really goes on at Bay St Spa" to "What goes on at Bay St Spa". I guess they realized how stupid they looked to include the word "really" as if nobody knows. In fact I liked the quote so much I was going to include it in my signature. I mean what REALLY goes on...huh? wink wink Wow...even more hilarious was that they changed it a few hours later. What dorks. What a pathetic article written by some pathetic journalist shit heads. This is why I left the craft. A bunch of dishonest fucks just looking for dirt and when there isn't any, they make it up.

I like some of the comments in the speak out section of the Star related to this series of stories. Some people raised some good points.

 

[Dawn]

Some parts of the article have been omitted, is more properly should read.

"She took off her top and moved towards the table, and offered to kiss me ... ... I got up and left."

The Star must have some of the same editing crew as here on massageplanet.net.

 

[peace.love25941]

"What a pathetic article written by some pathetic journalist shit heads. This is why I left the craft. A bunch of dishonest fucks just looking for dirt and when there isn't any, they make it up."

Sadly, the article likely has helped sell more papers and garnered more hits to their website (from people like you who had to read this "controversial" article). I have not read it, nor will I.

Increased sales from this type of reporting only leads to more of this type of reporting. Thus, the ultimate responsibility falls upon the reader. Stop buying this crap and they'll be out of business.

If the reporters at the Star kept to honest reporting, some other lowlife paper would write a slanted article, it would sell like hot-cakes, and eventually the honest reporters would be out of business because the big advertising $$ would move away from the Star and over to the other paper.

End result - it's the idiotic public that BEGS for these types of articles by purchasing these papers in the first place. Blame yourself for reading it. And if you didn't read it and you do indeed boycott the Star, blame those sitting next to you on the subway.

 

[antonia.]

No offense but you don't know what you're talking about. You can't put a paper out of business by boycotting it. It's Toronto's only serious daily, it's like suggesting to put GM out of business by not buying a Chevy Cobalt.

 

[clumsystuntmonkey]

Toronto's only serious daily!!!! You mean comic book, right.

 

[MrRawr]

What other daily does Toronto have except the tabloid rag Toronto Sun? Do you consider the Sun more serious than the Star? Don't judge a paper by one article. Remember the Post and Globe are national. And I'm not including the free things because they're only weekday and most are owned by either the Star or Sun (or at least partially).