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07 Sep 2011 00:06

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Tech: Michael Arrington to AOL: You guys said editorial independence!

  • cause Facing an editorial crisis caused by the announcement of something called the CrunchFund, AOL forced Michael Arrington to step away from his baby, TechCrunch, in an attempt to ease up on an apparent conflict of interest that gave Arianna Huffington fits.
  • reaction Arrington isn’t having that. Earlier today, he reiterated the editorial independence AOL was supposed to give him. He gave them three options: Keep TechCrunch editorially independent, sell the site back to the shareholders, or he walks. Boom.  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Sep 2011 13:13

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Tech: Michael Arrington, TechCrunch another example of incestuous tech ethics

  • As we wait to see just how involved Arrington will remain, as a media company that should supposedly hold up some sort of journalistic ethics, AOL is coming out looking quite sleazy.
  • The Atlantic Wire’s Rebecca Greenfield • Offering her take on the debacle revolving around Michael Arrington and TechCrunch. Here’s the issue we see, as outsiders: Michael Arrington has always been as much of a player in Silicon Valley as he’s been a journalist, so there’s always been a small conflict of interest there. But by making the “player” element a bigger part of his job title by creating a venture capital fund, he makes himself a target. But wait. Tech journalism is already incestuous and ethically broken. A few examples: Business Insider’s Henry Blodget was once a financial analyst barred from the securities market for fraud. The WSJ’s Kara Swisher is married to a female Google exec (which she discloses). And Gizmodo parent Gawker Media pays for stories that can draw millions of eyeballs to their sites. The difference is that AOL, which bought TechCrunch a year ago, is a big company that knows better. Or should. And the end result is that it makes AOL look really bad. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Sep 2010 20:38

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Tech: TechCrunch sells to AOL: Now they can focus on writing

  • They run the largest blogging network in the world and if we sold to them we’d never have to worry about tech issues again. We could focus our engineering resources on higher end things and I, for one, could spend more of my day writing and a lot less time dealing with other stuff.
  • Techcrunch founder Michael Arrington • Explaining why he agreed to let AOL buy his company. Simply put – he thinks AOL’s content vision is really compatible with what the company already does. But the really interesting part? TechCrunch will be ensured editorial freedom from AOL. Arrington says that AOL CEO Tim Armstrong thought “was important that we feel free to criticize AOL when we think they deserve it. And the agreement we signed with AOL fully reflects this.” That’s a big deal. Who knows how much TechCrunch sold for? Who cares? Having such a strong backbone of support makes the whole thing worth it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Sep 2010 23:52

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Tech: Michael Arrington doesn’t need on-the-record sources, thank you

  • This is a difficult post to write, because I call nearly every person in that room a friend. But these actions are so completely inappropriate it has to be called out.
  • Michael “something happened somewhere” Arrington • Describing a situation which potentially sounds very damaging to a number of angel investors in Silicon Valley. The way Arrington describes it, and he was careful not to name names, was that a group of investors were discussing ways to wield their collective influence to prevent venture capitalists from swooping in, or Y Combinator from getting too much power in the startup sphere. If true, these acts are illegal. Arrington reportedly heard about the discussion, showed up, and watched the room go quiet on him. Caught? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Aug 2010 09:29

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Tech: Remember the CrunchPad/Joojoo? Some lawsuit stuff just happened

  • Remember the CrunchPad? That thing that became the JooJoo without the branding of TechCrunch’s main dude? Of course you do. Anyway, some court stuff recently happened in the case, tossing away most of TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington’s claims, but keeping a big, important one: The companies were business partners and had responsibilities to one another. Fusion Garage, the guys behind the JooJoo, are idiots that totally cost themselves good press and overcharged for a device now forgotten in the iPad’s wake, but that’s besides the point. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 May 2010 11:12

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Tech: Are Facebook’s privacy issues getting overblown by a mob mentality?

  • It’s completely out of hand, and it’s just another example of an online mob getting out of control. I’m embarrassed to see people I respect stopping one step short of calling for physical violence against Zuckerberg.
  • TechCrunch guy Michael Arrington • Regarding the seemingly high level of rage some have focused on Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg, especially after these years-old messages leaked to the press. We’re with Arrington. We think people are completely overreacting and looking for a way to completely discredit the Facebook founder because they don’t like recent changes to his service. Granted, privacy is a weird thing with Facebook, but the backlash is just getting over-the-top. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 6 Comments • Permalink

25 Apr 2010 10:19

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Tech: Is Facebook’s Open Graph the new Microsoft Windows?

  • Their vision of an open graph of people and things (with Facebook at the center) is becoming reality, and debates by technologists won’t change that. Facebook is taking over our identity and we are going along with that happily. It will take a new technology paradigm to disrupt what Facebook is doing.
  • TechCrunch king Michael Arrington • Discussing why Facebook is in a dominant position in the industry, and why they’re in a position to convince everyone to use their Open Graph and like button mechanism. He compares what Facebook is doing to Microsoft Windows, and suggests that, despite complaints about various details of the concept, they’ve got the market lynchpinned. “Someday, maybe a decade from now,” he writes, “some new technology will rise and allow other companies to threaten Facebook. But until then there is little to stop them. Their march to dominance has just begun.” Do you guys think this is true? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 

02 Jan 2010 21:08

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Politics: Caving in to the TSA: Should bloggers fight to protect sources?

  • Anyone working with Frischling now knows that he’ll respect your confidentiality, just so long as it’s not inconvenient to his liberty. And that’s not respect at all. He let all bloggers down the other day when he willingly handed over his computer to the government.
  • TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington • Regarding travel blogger Steven Frischling, who caved to TSA investigators regarding documents that he released in the wake of the underwear bomber last week. Arrington feels that Frischling let down a lot of bloggers by not fighting the subpoena and instead caving in. The situation has been resolved, with the TSA dropping the subpoenas (fellow travel blogger Chris Elliot didn’t cave), but Arrington feels that bloggers need to fight to protect their sources in cases like this – and as a tech blog on the front line of situations like this (although not as life-or-death), he has some experience with this. We’re with him, but would like to point out that there’s not a lot of institutional support for many bloggers in the same way as traditional journalists. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Dec 2009 22:29

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Tech: SEO, Demand Media, “fast food content,” and the loss of quality

  • These models create a race to the bottom situation, where anyone who spends time and effort on their content is pushed out of business. We’re not there yet, but I see it coming. And just as old media is complaining about us, look for us to start complaining about the new jerks.
  • TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington • On the rise of “fast-food content” – information that’s turned into commodity, with no thought put into quality but focus put into SEO alone. Don’t believe us? It’s already here, kinda. It’s called Demand Media. Where everything is recycled so many times that the good content goes away and we’re stuck eating crappy, good enough media burgers. With genetically modified URLs. (ReadWriteWeb also noticed this trend.) Our thoughts: Wouldn’t it be great to know you’re surfing the Web and getting more than snake oil? Because, hey, SEO is nice and all, but content with a clever approach is even better. Also, we’re convinced that Google and Microsoft will fix the SEO problem someday and figure out quality-based algorithms to curb the rise of crap content. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink

15 Nov 2009 21:23

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Tech: TechCrunch better launch the CrunchPad soon or something

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  • It’s a pretty damn good idea, but if TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington can’t get this thing out the door before his competition (which may or may not include Apple), it might be for naught. The CrunchPad is reportedly near completion and hovering between the $300-$400 price range, which isn’t a bad price. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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