Peter Hyman

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Peter Hyman is an American cultural reporter and journalist. He is the author of The Reluctant Metrosexual: Dispatches From An Almost Hip Life (ISBN 0-8129-7163-9), which was published in August 2004. A former Vanity Fair staffer and senior editor at Drill, he has written feature articles, critical reviews and humor pieces for The New York Times, The New York Observer, Details, Spin, Radar, The San Francisco Chronicle and various others. In addition to his work as a writer he is the host and producer of "New York States of Mind", a monthly talk show series sponsored by the 92nd Street Y, in New York City. He is also active on the comedy and humor reading circuit in lower Manhattan.

In January 2006 he published an article in Spin magazine which broke news regarding the death of comedian Mitch Hedberg.

Hyman is a graduate of the University of Michigan and New York University, where he earned a masters degree in journalism. He resides in Brooklyn.

[edit] Gawker Controversy

On 5/18/07, media blog Gawker.com posted an entry in which they allege that Hyman was sending Gawker 'tips' to the site posing as a female named 'Margo Leitner.' Hyman (as Leitner) would suggest that Gawker link to articles he had written for various publications as a form of viral marketing.

New York Sun writer David Blum described the incident thusly:

"Gawker unmasked Mr. Hyman by printing a series of suspiciously promotional emails about his work over a period of months — all from the same address. It was silly, of course, for Mr. Hyman to have hidden behind a phony female persona, and in the end Gawker's gotcha moment seemed fair punishment. But can Mr. Hyman be blamed for his attempt at a viral marketing campaign for himself? Thirteen million blogs now fight for attention every day on the Internet, and it has never been more commonplace than this moment in history for a writer's words to disappear without notice."