Oh, my dear foolish David. I think part of the ethic of journalism is TELLING THE TRUTH. But I guess that won’t work for your agenda.
I don’t block Twitter followers. I think part of the ethic of journalism in the digital age is to be accessible to those who want to reach you – and, yes, criticize you. Sometimes the criticism takes the form of crude personal insult. That’s a cost of doing business. Other people take a lot more than I do without being discouraged, so I would have no excuse if I allowed myself to be discouraged either. But too much exposure to so much anger and ugliness does have its depressing effect. And I hope, I very much hope, that Neil Heslin does not have a Twitter account. This loving and bereft man deserves more and better from his fellow human creatures than he has received.