If you haven't heard yet, or felt the wrath of having your firm's domain name outed as a PR spammer, Gina Trapani the editor of Gawker Media's LifeHacker blog has created a wiki to show other bloggers how to block pitches. Trapani is tired of PR people pitching her at her personal address.

It turns out she mentioned her blocking methods before in a comment on Valleywag during the kerfuffle over the Chris Anderson/LongTail spammers list, but didn't draw as much response from the PR world.

On the front lines of this debate over How to Pitch a Blogger, and How to Block PR Firms is Todd Defren of Shift Communications, a shop with considerable tech and social media chops, and one of the domains on the list.

Defren figured out over the weekend that Trapini's personal email is listed on Cision, one of the major PR databases. He also posted a screengrab of the Cision page on Flickr to make that point, and graciously took it down at her request, then protested on Twitter: "@ginatrapani's request, removed pic of her Cision entry from Flickr. Wish she'd been as nice about messing with others' reputations."

As I was on phone talking with researcher at Cision to verify how exactly they collect contact info, the wiki was updated explaining the same thing: people at Cision add information to journalist profiles based on what they find on web searches, as well as opt-in methods.

We'll stay on this story as it develops, and stay neutral. Blocking is a little harsh but there are some terrible mail-merge style pitches getting spewed out there. For now ironically, one of the best place to go for web2.0 How-To remains Defren's PR-Squared blog.

If you're a blogger and you want to see if Cision has your information, call 312-922-2400 and ask for research. I just did, and added my phone number. Bring on the pitches, but read PR-Squared first.

(William J. Holstein does not like PR's "little Jennifers")

Prolific business writer and former Editor-in-Chief of Chief Executive and Directorship magazines William J. Holstein has expanded and edited his original rant against "Jasons and Jennifers" in public relations to include just "26 and 27-year-old 'Little Jennifers,'" according to his retread in a recent issue of the Bulldog Reporter.

We thought this warranted a "Shoot the Messenger" post to see if PRNewser readers agree this piece required ageism and sexism to make a point. He published it to promote his book "Manage the Media".

You can find the link, and full text to his original Chief Exec column on The Flack.

Is your name Jennifer? We'd love to hear what you think. Email us.

You can also send well-wishes to Holstein directly via his Yahoo! email.

Yours Truly,
Jason

PRNewser is happy to introduce a new feature titled (not entitled; we hear you Ken Wheaton) "Shoot the Messenger".

We will blog, as well as solicit exclusive stories from frustrated journalists as well as errant publicists willing to cop to a gaffe. We'll also seek out juicy tales of PR people who are fed up with shoddy treatment from those they pitch (we assume off the record).

Could the rising number of complaints be from journalists be that people in the workforce who identify themselves as working in PR outnumber journalists by 2 to 1? Could it be that journalists have more ways to vent frustrations beyond deleting your email or not returning your calls?

We hope STM will be one part education, one part forum, with just a smidge of schadenfreude.

Are you a source? Tell us why a messenger needs to be shot, or why you shouldn't be in the crosshairs. Anonymity guaranteed as always. Send your stories and suggestions here.

While you have a think, enjoy the adorable Shoot the Messenger flash game and throw fireballs at those demonic flying PR people: