I find it fascinating how the very qualities that lead people to call Michael Arrington an asshole are dramatically in evidence here. It takes a staggering immu

I find it fascinating how the very qualities that lead people to call Michael Arrington an asshole are dramatically in evidence here. It takes a staggering immunity to social mores to walk in on a meeting of rich and powerful friends, friends who are connected to his own business in many ways (read: friends with leverage) and behave the way MA says he did, let alone go home and write that article. Very few people could do it. I'm not sure I could, to put it mildly. I particularly doubt if many (any) of Arrington's competitors ever would. It may take a character disorder to be able to act this way. In an age when journalists grade themselves by which power-brokers deign to have lunch with them (anybody see David Brooks prattling about this on Charlie Rose the other night? lunch and dinner, he said) it's impressive to see anyone act like this. Especially if what he's saying is true and this really is a matter of right and wrong.