4 ms·
File this in the category of "questions I never would've thought to ask". There is a fine line between being a blog and being a journalistic organization. Some
by cletus 16y ago
File this in the category of "questions I never would've thought to ask".
There is a fine line between being a blog and being a journalistic organization. Some argue the former is a case of the latter. In the latter, there is clearly an ethical obligation to disclose any conflicts of interest. Many journalists are either required to or choose not to voluntary (to avoid the appearance of impropriety) invest in anything they're covering.
So while bloggers may not fall under the same umbrella, ethical bloggers I believe would either avoid such potential conflicts of interest or at least disclose them.
It's a real problem here because the issue isn't simply the coverage itself but what companies get coverage and what don't. There's nothing to disclose on for a story that isn't written. For startups this is a huge problem.
What's more, I think AOL views itself as a journalistic organization. As such, I'd be surprised if Arrington's angel investments didn't run afoul of AOL's ethics policies.
Basically it looks to me like Arrington has gotten his big payout and he's not so much interested in his earnout. Basically, I think he wants AOL to fire him. He'd no doubt get some kind of acceleration on any vested stock or earn out and I think he'd be happy with that.
Whatever the case, I think for TechCrunch to survive and be taken seriously (as seriously as it ever was at least) it needs someone at the helm who, well, gives a shit. That isn't Arrington.
- dotBen 16y agoAs such, I'd be surprised if Arrington's angel investments didn't run afoul of AOL's ethics policies. ... Basically, I think he wants AOL to fire him. Nah, I believe him when he says he wants to stick around, esp because "they pay [him] good money" (his words). When it comes to contracts and policies, everything is negotiable and open to exceptions if you have the clout. So much in business strategy is about identifying and using leverage. I've had some fairly public interactions with Mike in the comments of his "disclosure" piece, and my guess is he'll just keep on doing both and aol will maintain the status quo so long as TC continues to get the traffic and make the numbers.
- knowtheory 16y agoI think you're asking the wrong question. The correct question is who is Arrington's constituency? It's not the general public. He doesn't care about ethical investing standards and bias. Motherfucker is biased. Very biased. He represents the Silicon Valley bubble. But he's okay with that. And he wants to know what's going on within the bubble. I agree that we should do away with the pretense that TechCrunch is some how journalism, but i think that investor advocacy isn't a bad thing. It's just not journalism. In a way though, it doesn't matter. We live in the era of Fox News, "Caveat Investor", and advocacy journalism as a business tactic. AOL ultimately cares about eyeballs, not journalism. Do you think Arianna cares about ethics and journalistic standards? I think she cares about eyeballs, and getting a certain set of POVs out.