by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
They say never met your heroes and it’s pretty clear that I’m never going to meet Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker Media. I’m blocked by Denton on Twitter and I’m completely mortified by the fact. But, alas, I have to admit that he probably has a legitimate reason to do so.
There was a moment in my life when I was pretty obsessed with not just Mr. Denton but Gawker Media. That moment in time is long gone, but the consequences of me pinging Denton all the time on Twitter remains. This situation reminds me of how there was a very influential community publisher who gave me a chance during a dark period in my life…only to realize that I was completely bonkers.
And, yet, at the same time I feel I can only feel so bad about this situation. Denton has a strong reputation as something of a journalistic mentor to young reporters in New York City and if there’s one thing I’m not good at, it’s being mentored by someone.
Fuck that.
Any mentoring of someone involves a certain level of manipulation. And so not only am I too old to be mentored by, I hate being manipulated for any reason.
So, lulz. I suppose if I write a breakout hit novel and I get to be a smug Twitter liberal, maybe I’ll meet Denton at a cocktail party and convince him to unblock me.
