Let the TechCrunch Retreat Begin February 28th, 2009
Not to gloat in any way, but did we not see this coming? Following the worst month in TechCrunch history, Michael (Founder, editor) is backtracking a little. Do you remember when he scheduled the TC50 at the same time as DemoFall last year? Not anymore.
“I’ll certainly go to (DemoFall),” Arrington said Thursday. “I think we’re on different weeks this year.”
Oh really? Backing off from that frontal confrontation? Offering to go to their conference? Come now, does this sound like the Arrington we remember? The man who left us this gem of a blog post before he took off for a month?
“I hope that some of my peers will realize that competitive pressures do not give them carte blanche to accuse us and others of literally anything that pops into their head and repeat it publicly or privately.” [Source]
Either his time in Hawaii has brought his ego into check, or he is worried about the brand suicide that has been going on around the TechCrunch headquarters. Either way, one thing to be sure of is that this is a new tone. Before he left, Michael actually called for professional fair play. He was being sincere. Sadly, Erick Schonfeld did not get the memo, as we all saw [fair and balanced my ass, that post gave Fox News a competitor for sleaze].
I hope that Arrington is going to come back, and clean the house. Perhaps what we are seeing here is the beginning of a move away from the current mode of operation at TC. It seems that whenever Michael loosens the reins on the main blog, it gets worse. Take it as a complement Arrington, you make that blog. TechCrunchIT and CrunchGear run well by themselves, but TechCrunch is your deal. We all go there to read what you write.
Erick, we have had words in the past. But, I want to move past it. I enjoyed watching the TechCrunch Cloud event, and I think that you have a great future ahead at TC. I hope we can move forward not as adversaries, but peers. There is no need to divide up the internet along the CenterNetworks editorial line.
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*update*
Hello TechMeme friends! Thanks for dropping by, feel free to read around.
- Alex
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