Another Opinion on Mike’s TechCrunch

I’m a fan of TechCrunch and Mike Arrington and what he has created from nothing.

In a relatively short time he has developed a very strong readership and with that some serious influence in the whole web 2.0 genre.

So it’s obvious that getting written up on TechCrunch is on top of every new startups list. But I just have to laugh when startups whip up a press release and fire it off to TechCrunch and expect, yes expect, it to be covered. When it doesn’t they get cranky and usually start mouthing off.


Press coverage ain’t that easy, folks. Even in the blogosphere. I’d suggest heading over to Amazon or your favorite Barnes & Noble bookstore and checking out some PR books to see how it’s done.

Lately, Mike Arrington is being hated upon big time. Shouts of conflict of interest, non-
disclosure and generally being a prick is being thrown around.

My view: Well done Mike, you must be doing something right.

The beauty of blogging – and remember folks, TechCrunch is a blog – is that it is opinionated, and guess what … Mike is as opinionated as they come.

Mike writes what he wants to write – at the end of the day it’s the readers who will decide if he’s up to par. So far I think the readers are saying that he’s doing a good job of it.

The whole conflict of interest and disclosure issue is a murky one. I’ve had my say on PayPerPost (my only problem with it is the disclosure issue). It’s not as black and white as it would appear.

In an ideal world every potential conflict would be disclosed up front. But where does the buck stop. I know a friend of a friend of a fiend who’s starting up a web business. A good blog friend has launched an ebook. I had heated words once with someone who’s starting up now.

Do I bring in my biases when I’m writing these up. Damn right I do.

The blogosphere is essentially a free-for-all. It’s still the wild, wild west out there. There are no rules. We’re all a bunch of highly opinionated columnists. There is no rule book. It’s not really an ideal situation for my liking but that’s the way it is.

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So for those out there who hate this guy give it a rest. Your petty jealousies are in clear view.

To those who say Arrington is a prick or brushes people off – might I suggest developing a thicker skin. Remember everyone wants a piece of him. Everyone!

I actually applaud him for being so open and opinionated on CrunchNotes. Call it arrogance, but I’ll call it a voice … and that’s all we want: an opinionated voice.

But I’ll end it with a comment I read at CrunchNotes…

As Paris Hilton once said, ‘€œYou know you’€™ve made it when people who don’€™t even know you, hate you!’€?

PS: Mike – now you better do a positive write-up about my new snazzy, shiny web2.0ish start-up or I take it all back. :-)

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