House Cleaning: The Gabe Toro Situation
Sun, March 22, 2015 For a period of about a year, one of the most significant contributors to our podcast was film critic Gabe Toro. From 2012-2013, he must have appeared on every other show. I always brought him back because I felt he made a significant and entertaining contribution to those shows. He was popular, not just with us, but with our audience.
Then he pretty much vanished off the face of the internet. I was often asked if we would get him back on the show at some point, or at least just find out what happened to him.
A few months ago, I was contacted by a party close to Gabe who informed me that he was in jail for some sort of "misunderstanding" and no charges had yet been filed. I didn't press the matter, nor did I communicate it to anyone. It was just hearsay at that point.
On Friday I was pointed to an article out of a local Philadelphia news site confirming that Gabe Toro had pled guilty to online enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual conduct and was facing ten years in prison.
At that time, I could find no other sites that had picked this up. Nobody was talking about it on Twitter. I had to make a decision on how I would address this. I was not going to broadcast it from the high mountain of twitter. I had planned to open our next episode of the podcast with a personal message to you, our loyal listeners, explaining the situation. I felt that, since our viewership is fairly small and contained, that it would spread only to those who knew of Gabe.
Of course, that is now impossible since it has been picked up on other news outlets and is spreading as these things tend to do. So now, I will simply post my thoughts here and allow you a platform to do the same.
Firstly, whatever we are feeling right now (and I haven't come up with a word for it yet) should pale in insignificance compared to the feelings of those directly involved with the case.
As I said, we have a large backlog of shows which Gabe guest starred on. They now feel tainted in some way. I don't know if I will ever be able to enjoy them again. If you feel the same way, that is perfectly understandable.
What I am not going to do is erase them and try to pretend like they never happened. That is not how I do things. You may feel that is the wrong decision. That is fair comment.
I only have one other thing to say. It is tempting at a time like this to give up on people, to think you cannot trust people, to feel that you never truly know people. I understand that, but that's not the way I operate. I still trust my friends, I believe in my friends, I still love my friends.
I just lost one of them this week.
Reader Comments (10)
Well put Phil. I'm just as shocked as you and feel the same way.
I concur with your decision and handling of it.
This is sad and unfortunate, you made the right call.
I agree this is sad. I've always enjoyed listening to Gabe on here. Impossibly difficult time he must be going through. I hope not everyone turns their back on him. He's in my thoughts as are you guys who know him. I'm glad you've left the podcasts featuring him up. His talent as a writer and speaker stands on its own no matter What else happens. Best to all.
I must say when I came to the site this morning to see if a new episode had gone up yet, I expected a lot but I certainly didn't expect to read this.
I don't even know what to say to this, really, though most of it would not be in my place since all I am is a fan of the show. I'm sure everyone knows my feelings on Gabe's work and that I for one really enjoyed his comments, debates, rants.
I also agree with you Phil and with Collin's comment above: whatever this was/all about, it doesn't take away from the fact that many of us enjoyed his contributions to Movie Moan. I see nothing wrong with your decision to leave up the episodes he participated in (though I don't know if I myself will ever listen to the first Hobbit show again, at least not without thinking of this). Whether anyone wants to rewatch/listen to them should be up to them.
And yes, as Lou said, your statement is well put.
As a poster on the Rotten Tomatoes forums, where Gabe used to post regularly until being run off the board a couple of years ago, I just want to say this comes as no surprise.
Although Gabe had been an RT veteran when I joined, I hadn't encountered his particular brand of sleaze at first... like his lengthy opus on masturbating at work or a diatribe on anal sex. It was during the tragic death of Jennifer Hudson's nephew that I was introduced Fabfunk. When everyone else was posting their kind thoughts and best wishes for Hudson's family, Gabe got a stick up his ass for some reason and accused everyone in the thread of being disingenuous and insincere. A flame war started, but eventually died down.
A couple of months later, Gabe posted about "fools" who went to see Yes Man. What followed this was one of the more epic threads in RT's history, where just about everybody came out of the woodwork to bust on Gabe, his taste in hats, his relationships with triple penetration porn stars, his rapebrows, and finally culminated in a female poster revealing that during her relationship with Gabe, he had mentally and physically abused her. It was not long after that debacle that Gabe finally stopped posting at RT.
As I understand it, he had made some waves over at CHUD's site, and generally spreads his sleaze across the internet like a sticky river of molasses. If you'd like some more detail into Gabe's interests, as well as some pretty funny Photoshops of him, do a Google search for gabe toro jail and a recent RT thread should be the top hit.
In short... I'm sorry that Gabe betrayed your friendship by turning out to be a huge scumbag. But without any semblance of ego I can say that many of us saw this coming a mile away.
God bless.
It's not particularly ballsy or original to kick someone when they're down, especially via the internet. Your statement is more than a little melodramatic. Gabe didn't betray anyone's friendship. What he did had nothing to do with any of the movie moan crew. You sound naive and sheltered. I take it your self righteousness extends to Polanski films? I'm sure None of the aspiring filmmakers here would accept a big break working with or for Roman, right? Better include everybody involved in the hangover films since Mike Tyson is a convicted rapist. Come on.
The man is in jail and probably will be for a very long time. Give Photoshop a rest and grow up.
Wow... Collin sounds like a self-righteous asshole. No wonder he's such a fan of Gabe.
Strong response, bro. Way to dodge my points.
I've only just discovered this shocking news about a figure who I'd previously have considered an (online) friend. It's deeply troubling news and I was really upset to find people in the Rotten Tomatoes forum saying it comes as no surprise to them. How could anyone not be surprised by this news? I think most of us prefer to imagine the best of people. It reassuring to discover someone who met Gabe Toro face-to-face (or at least via Skype) who still thought he came across as an interesting character rather than this creepy monster that the media is now revealing.
Not particularly keen on either Collin's apologism or the anoymous commenter's gloats that he somehow foresaw this horrifying revelation about Gabe. Though Gabe probably never lied to me, I cannot help but feel betrayed. I'm not inclined to offer words of support to Gabe while he faces his stint in prison, yet those dancing on his grave don't seem to be benefiting anyone either.
I'm pleased to have discovered this website since I'm keen on podcasts about movies. Hopefully there will be space on your podcast for more up-and-coming film critics in the future who are just as interesting but don't share anything akin to Gabe's sordid criminal private life. All the best to you, and I'll be downloading the latest episode now.
I'm not a big church guy, but an older lady at a Baptist church once told me that prison is a bad place where many good men go. Stay strong, Gabe.