Arianna finally free to speak mind in TechCrunch-AOL imbroglio

The TechCrunch/AOL saga's been an easy way to attract readers of late, but I never wanted to get into it because I had no questions. It's always been obvious that Mike Arrington was an active investor who used his site to that end, even to the point of publicly attacking entrepreneurs who he doesn't like. It's always been obvious that writers there are excellent and hard-working journalists, whatever Arrington's own gameplan. And it's obvious that his critics are correct about the ethical problems it generates--even if many of them are, if not similarly conflicted, themselves rivals on the PR-fed tech beat and therefore full of sour grapes.

But just when it was all going away, Arianna Huffington finally has some thoughts, presented in the form of an attack on the WSJ's coverage of the affair, which she thought was shoddy and gossipy. In her view, she got rid of Arrington to enforce journalistic ethics: "It's Not About the Personalities, It's About the Principle."

This has nothing to do with personalities, either Mike Arrington's or mine. In fact, until he decided to launch his new fund, TechCrunch lived very happily, without the slightest clash, within the Huffington Post Media Group. ..

Given that this defense of principle appears the same day Forbes reported that Huffington Post is hiring children to work for it free of charge, I finally have a question! I have posed it in the form of a rare Pet Shop Boys B-side (above).

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