Ballroom Blitz? Boxing Day Blitz? No, More Like Blocking Blitz: DJ Blitz Is Blocking Everyone!

(Note: This new paragraph in brackets was written in July 2020. Guess what? DJ Blitz has unblocked me on Twitter. But it could only be because I replied to someone on Twitter who replied to one of his tweets, and that guy replied back. So Blitz could see his side of the conversation but not mine. I still don't know if Blitz even knows of this blog entry. I didn't tell anyone about it after I posted it. I didn't talk about it on Twitter or Facebook or anywhere. I was curious to see how long it took before someone discovered it. Anyway, Blitz is not yet unblocking me on Facebook, only Twitter. And if I did a version of this paragraph to him, telling him I will continue to keep this blog entry up until he also unblocks me on Facebook, he might say, "What blog entry?" and ultimately I have dug myself in deeper. So instead, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and I'm not going to say a word to Blitz, instead I'm just doing this new paragraph to tell him and everybody here that the blog entry stays until he unblocks me on Facebook too, and that's the end of that. He probably, after unblocking me on Twitter, read the conversation me and that guy were doing, the time passed, and he just forgot to block me again. Who knows? And what is my perspective to responding to his tweets? Will that draw attention to me, causing him to block me again? It's too early to say, because with COVID, Blitz hasn't been tweeting much lately, and the tweets he has done I haven't wanted to respond to. But you'll know if he reblocks me when I remove this paragraph.)

As a former DIY-type media host myself, as the host and producer of my own TV show on cable access TV here in Winnipeg called Hard Rock Heroes, I've always admired someone like DJ Blitz. Here's a guy who has created such a buzz for himself as a DJ through social media that he has parlayed himself into being a bonafide Winnipeg celebrity, one who attracts massive crowds whenever he does special DJ dates at Cowboys and other places he is not a DJ regular at, and one who can now even become a weekend announcer at Virgin Radio. (I wonder how Twitter and Facebook would have affected Hard Rock Heroes if the internet had been around back then. My show aired just before the dawn of the internet, from 1990 to 1993.)

So I followed him on Twitter and Facebook. It's cool that, since for various reasons I can no longer be the toast of the town with my show or any kind of replacement, I can now at least live vicariously through Blitz' media circus. He followed me back on Twitter, and liked many of my joking and/or smartass comments, and replies to his comments. Everything was good, until.....

One afternoon, he blocked me on Twitter. And I'm certainly not the only one.

Over the course of the next several months to a year, here are my attempts to get to the bottom of this: I tried contacting him all of the different ways you could at that time to ask him why, or if it was a mistake. He had his phone number on his Facebook page at that time. I called him and he answered and he blurted out he thought it was a mistake, but that he had to go and he hung up. He then proceeded to NOT unblock me. Every time I tried calling him after that - once every week or two - it would go to voice mail at first, so I'd leave messages that Blitz never responded to, then the voice mail would be filled up for many weeks, then finally I got a generic message that said the person at this number was unavailable and to leave a message. I did that only once, because at that point Blitz could have gotten rid of that number and it could have belonged to someone else by that point. Meanwhile, I would be sending him Facebook messages and Facebook would tell me that they were read, but Blitz ignored those as well. All my voice mail and Facebook messages, as well as emails I sent him, too, were all polite and gave him the benefit of the doubt and treated the situation like he had just been too busy to unblock me if, as he told me, it was a mistake, and so my messages would act as just friendly reminders.

I also thanked him for not blocking me on Facebook, and so a small part of me thought maybe what I just wrote was true, because if Blitz had something against me, he would have blocked me on Facebook, too, as I had been making comments on his posts there. But then, the day came: He posted a video of him and some girl lip-syncing the song Promiscuous by Nelly Furtado and Timberland, and I did a comment praising him for that video and how great it was, and how I would have loved to do stuff like that to promote my show back in the day, but that was before the internet, so at least now I can live vicariously through him. And after I posted that reply, he blocked me on Facebook. I can still see his page, but only if I punch it up. I cannot follow him, which means his posts won't show up in my timeline, and I cannot like his posts or comment on them or message him. I can only share his posts. And I did share his Promiscuous post, if you look at my Facebook page.

Is this the way someone who aspires to be a top on-air personality at a Winnipeg radio station conducts himself? By showing though his behavior that he isn't brave enough to talk to me on the phone or send me a computer message that tells me as a common courtesy WHY he is doing this? If he's going to have a career dealing with the public, then he needs to be man enough to be able to tell any member of the public what he needs to tell them.

Now, as I said before, I am not the only one he is doing this to. I recall Blitz tweeting a screenshot without an accompanying comment that showed he was blocking over 4000 people on Twitter. On another day, he told someone on Twitter he couldn't remember the last time he had blocked someone. Then, on another day, he told someone he had to block a few people. Ummm, make up your mind, dude.

Do a search on Twitter on the following: DJ Blitz blocked (not as a phrase), and look at all the tweets from people who have discovered DJ Blitz has blocked them and have no idea why! I did that and below this blog are six screen grabs of a few of those many victims. Later on, after I had captured and cropped those screen grabs in preparation for this blog, I noticed he is also blocking writer Shelley Cook and comedian Jules Rowan, and they have no idea why, either.

I suspect that with all the stuff Blitz does involving high school students and the very young adults that hang out at Cowboys, that he only wants to deal with people of that age group. Ages 15 to, say, 20 or a bit older. People older than that are thought by the people in that age group to be "creepy." Maybe DJ Blitz thinks they're creepy, too. So he curates his followers by ruthlessly blocking everyone who is not in that age group. Well, if that is his mindset, as I suggested above, he's got a lot to learn as he gets older himself and moves up in the broadcasting world. Wouldn't it be rad if he has to interview someone live on air on Virgin one day, and in the conversation, that person randomly asks, "So, Blitz, how come you're blocking me?" Maybe he'll cowardly cut them off and move on to something else, the same way he got rid of me on the phone. And if the guest is live in the studio, well, then.....

If I am wrong in my theory about age groups, then why would he want to alienate all those people by blocking them on Twitter and being so disingenuous and vague on that subject? Why is he basically ghosting all those people and myself on the subject of why he is blocking them on Twitter and/or Facebook? Why is he pissing everybody off?

Wouldn't it be nice if things just got back to normal here, with him unblocking me and everyone else on Twitter and Facebook, and letting all of us be a fan of his? That's my only goal here. Positive feelings all around. No negative feelings.

Besides, doesn't he realize that blocking someone means that that person can still tag him in a tweet - if it's me tweeting, I just have to type out his whole handle, it won't auto-fill - and that it could turn out to be something earth-shattering he would want to see (whether it's positive or negative), but he can't because he's blocking me! Everyone else in the world can see that tweet except for him! And no one else reading that tweet would even know he's blocking me! Maybe they'll respond to both me and him. He'll see that response, but he'll wonder what they're talking about because he can't see the original tweet because it's by me, someone who he's blocking! This is why I don't block anyone: I don't want anyone tagging me in a tweet I can't see because I'm blocking them!

You can still view a person's Twitter page with their original tweets when you're being blocked by not logging in. You need to login to view their "Tweets & Replies," though, meaning any tweet that starts off by tagging someone, which Twitter considers a "reply." I can still see the "Tweets & Replies" of Blitz and anyone else who is blocking me with a couple of secret accounts I have that don't have my name on them. I choose not to reply on those accounts. but I may reply to anyone who is replying to Blitz after I login to my real account, making me a part of the conversation. That Blitz can't see! That'll fix his wagon.

So if this blog can accomplish something and give Blitz a change of heart and makes him see the error of his ways and the bigger picture here, inducing him to unblock everyone, then I'll remove it. If not, I guess this will have to stand as a testament that some people just ain't what they seem. Don't judge a book by its' cover, people. Be careful who you choose to be your heroes. And always keep your eyes open for a con job from a con man. Hopefully, in the years to come, as he gets older and more into the general public mainstream, Blitz's actions will come back to haunt him and he will answer for his actions. Not from me, but from all those other people he has harmed along the way by blocking them. As Justin Timberlake sang, "What goes around comes all the way back around." Take heed, Blitz. Be the bigger man. Be an adult.

Winnipeg's Media Personalities: Shiny Happy People.....Well, Except For Jen Zoratti

Why, Jen, Why?

I try to be a happy person and to do positive, fun, and positive-snarky tweets on Twitter. The only negative tweets I do are to some organization or policy that I feel has wronged my way of life in some form.

But a certain media person has made it extremely difficult to keep a smile on my face lately.

Since Twitter began, the biggest thing I have learned about posting on Twitter is it amplifies people's personalities to such a degree that the differences between people become more stark and palpable.

I enjoy following media people and sending them snappy/funny/snarky comments about the things they've written or said on TV or radio. Sometimes I give them a perspective they have forgotten about. Sometimes I add a joke to what they've said.

What do my comments get me? They get me likes and even follows from the happy, positive, upbeat personalities at places like CTV Morning Live and Energy 106. It's such a joy to watch and listen to those people.

And at the other end of the spectrum.......there is Winnipeg Free Press reporter Jen Zoratti.

The same types of comments I send everybody else have apparently caused Jen to block me on Twitter. I discovered this one day by accident. So I emailed her to ask why she was blocking me. Was it a specific tweet I wrote, and, if so, how did she see it? She wasn't following me, so my tweets wouldn't have been in her timeline. Did someone she was following like or retweet one of my tweets, or was she searching for a hashtag? You would think someone would show the proper common courtesy to answer the question of "why" when that person comes a'calling. But instead, Jen's reply to me asking her why she was blocking me on Twitter was, "Yes, I am blocking you on Twitter. No, it is not a mistake. Please stop contacting me."

What a stark contrast between this apparently sour, unpleasant person as compared to the wonderful, happy media personalities I mention above. But I follow media personalities who interest me, and Jen's Free Press stories interest me. I could speculate here on things I think she might take exception to on my Twitter feed as opposed to Winnipeg's other media personalities, but that would be useless because I would be assuming things about her that may not be true.

And that's it, re: her response. No indication of why. I DID contact her again to remind her she didn't tell me why, and she did not respond. I then contacted Winnipeg Free Press editor Paul Samyn, and he told me he would talk to Jen, but that he wouldn't force her to unblock anybody. I told him I wasn't necessarily looking to be unblocked, but to find out why Jen was blocking me. After a few weeks, I emailed him back to say, "How's this coming along?" No response. I emailed him again. No response. I sent the thread to Free Press co-owner Bob Cox. No response. I sent it again a few weeks later. No response.

Then I said to all three of them that I would do a Facebook post whenever I got around to it, with a meme of Jen that said something she would not like. Why would I do something like that? To make the crime fit the punishment. In other words, I would now be giving Jen a reason to block me on Twitter. We could have now said that she is blocking me on Twitter because I did that meme of her.

Alas, Facebook removed the post because it violated their terms of service. That post is essentially what you are reading now, with a few changes. But keep reading.

Then I received a letter from the Winnipeg Free Press' legal counsel informing me they had reported my post to Facebook. So that's how Facebook found it. Even if they didn't remove it, the lawyers demanded that I do it.

The issue isn't what you are reading now. It's what I had said in the meme.

After I replied to the lawyer who sent me the letter and she responded, I believe I have taken out any parts of what you are reading now that would constitute harassment or defamation. Oh, but I am leaving in the facts, and I am posting this here on The Beau Zone, as my original idea had been to repost the original Facebook post here before I discovered the lawyer's letter to me via email. So what's left, after deleting any illegal harassment or defamation sections from my post, are simply freedom of speech issues, which are not illegal.

I want everyone to know what kind of person Jen Zoratti apparently is!

And these are the facts. So YOU decide what kind of person she is based on these facts.

Jen is under no obligation to tell me why she blocked me on Twitter, of course, but, now, regarding that, let's get back to my email exchange with these people from seven paragraphs ago. So then Paul Samyn finally breaks his silence and says, "My previous note to you on this matter made clear that Jen is under no obligation to respond to your demands." No, Paul, you NEVER said that to me. I do apologize for not thinking of the phrase "common courtesy" that I used earlier in this Beau Zone post when describing to you my problem, though. No, she is not under any obligation, but c'mon - if you asked me what 2 plus 2 equals, I am not obligated to answer that question, either, but it's a simple question and answer, so most people would just answer the question if asked it. People don't randomly block other people on Twitter for no reason. She HAD to have a reason to block me. And Jen and Paul don't seem to understand that the way to make me GO AWAY is to simply answer the question! WHY did Jen block me on Twitter? Just tell me, and I will delete this post and go away.

To everyone reading this: do a search of both @JenZoratti and @beauhajavitch on Twitter. Do you see anything there that would cause Jen to block me? She is even answering my tweets in some cases in the past. Once, I used a funny phrase jokingly warning her that someone "would go all North Korea on her" and she responded saying she didn't know what that meant, and I responded back saying I had been planning on doing a tweet about something to her, and before my internet session I heard someone say "go all North Korea on you" on TV and thought it was funny and would work in that tweet. I say that here because that exchange did not cause her to block me. The last time her name came up automatically, re: autofill (signifying someone is not blocking you) when tweeting was when I did a tweet about her story about Earl's letting people park their cars there overnight and what the snowplow operators would think of that. After that, I didn't have a reason to tweet her for a while, and sometimes I look at my Twitter list and say, "I haven't seen that person in my timeline in a while," and check them out. That was the case with Jen, and that's how I found out she was blocking me.

And that's that. When Jen tells me WHY she is blocking me on Twitter, this post will be deleted. But it sure looks like this post will stay here forever.

P.S. Since there might be people on Twitter who don't go on The Beau Zone, and aren't reading this, those people - and you - might notice I continue to tweet "to" Jen (regarding stories she's written), which Twitter still allows, it's just that I have to completely type her handle - no autofill - because the general public doesn't know she is blocking me. Only you, reading this, know. (And I do plan to do a Facebook post that is only a link to this post, and hopefully that is okay with the faceless Facebook's bots, if that's what any future trouble I could have with Facebook is all about.) It's usually at the same time I am tweeting others, increasing the chances of those others replying or retweeting, meaning everyone out there is seeing those tweets EXCEPT Jen. I figure if she's going to block me, she should pay the price. Everyone will see my tweets "to her" EXCEPT her. Serves her right. And everyone reading this will see those tweets if you do a Twitter search on both our handles, or any relevant hashtags, as well. (My original email to Jen asking her why was written Sept. 4, 2017.)

I sure hate wasting time on negative issues like this. I want everyone including me to be positive, think positive, and go through the day with smiles on our faces and love in our hearts. But some things or people won't let us do that. That's a fact we just have to learn to live with, I guess.