Godspeed, Adrian Dater. Godspeed.

“Well, the communications must have been real. She was, if her Twitter account was to be believed, quite upset with Dater for his actions and she launched a personal campaign to see that he was fired. And apparently he was.”

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As I reported here yesterday, veteran Denver Post Avalanche beat writer Adrian Dater got himself into hot water via Twitter – and not for the first time. Dater had been suspended at the beginning of the hockey season for sparring with another scribe on the social media site and for using foul language. This time his transgression was flirting with a hockey hottie via DM and text and asking her for the uncropped version of her sexy avatar.

The woman who exposed Dater for contacting her did so in light of another writer, Steve Lapore, being canned for his creeping on women over the web. Mario Camacho, the female hockey fan, published photos on Twitter of direct communications she allegedly had from Dater.

Well, the communications must have been real. She was, if her Twitter account was to be believed, quite upset with Dater for his actions and she launched a personal campaign to see that he was fired. And apparently he was.

I have spoken to one contact who claims that the Denver Post is still evaluating how Dater should be disciplined but the scribe himself posted to his Facebook page today a message to friends and family claiming to have been fired from the paper.

It’s a damn shame. Dater was the freelance writer who broke the story of the Nordiques moving to Colorado way back in 1995. He has been here for everything and has followed the Avalanche franchise through good times and bad. He recently traveled to Sweden to chronicle Peter Forsberg’s experience as he was enshrined into the hockey Hall of Fame.

Dater was an excellent beat writer – one that made a terrible mistake. He failed to realize the permanence of the electronic record – that everything we say or do on the web has a life of its own and that once it’s out there we can’t reign it in. Did he deserve to be fired? Probably not – and he might not have been had he not so recently been suspended.
In his Facebook post Dater referred to substance abuse issues. I know all about those. I have been through treatment myself. Here’s wishing Adrian Dater the best in recovery. Godspeed, Adrian Dater.

Written by Colin D.