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>By way of a similar example, most people think Daring Fireball is biased. It doesn't appear to have anything to do with Gruber's investments, just his passion.
by cube13 15y ago
>By way of a similar example, most people think Daring Fireball is biased. It doesn't appear to have anything to do with Gruber's investments, just his passion. Some people avoid his writing because of his bias, some embrace it, and some--like me--try to include it in a portfolio of things I read.
The difference between TechCrunch and Daring Fireball is that Gruber presents Daring Fireball as his personal blog. It's not presented as a news source. Gruber is more of a pundit than a journalist, and he wears his biases on his sleeves, showing them to everyone. He's using the soapbox that DF gives him to push his views.
TC, on the other hand, is presenting itself as a news site. The people on it, unless they are offering commentary, are supposed to be Journalists. Their reporting should strive to not be biased, which includes reporting any potential conflicts of interest(i.e. investing) in a company within the coverage of the company. A reader should think that the coverage on the site is noteworthy because it is news, and should not have to question the author's intentions or reasons for featuring it.
Otherwise, it's just advertisement at best. At worst, it's just self enrichment by the author. I should note that I'm fine with with this, if the site presents themselves as such. If you're going to be biased, announce it to the universe. Don't hide behind being a "journalist" as your reason for not disclosing anything.
- raganwald 15y agoAs a matter of personal morality, I would say this. I don't believe that journalists need to >try to be< unbiased. However, if I were talking to someone who does believe that journalists need to >try to be< unbiased, I would be careful not to claim that my own writing is journalism. No matter what I believe the word means, knowingly misleading someone else is wrong. I don't know if Arrington knowingly misleads people by claiming to be a journalist, but if he is deliberately setting an expectation of lack of bias and lack of personal interest in order to profit from that, well, we can both agree that regardless of what journalism means to me or to Arrington, it is wrong to set a false expectation.
- cube13 15y agoI said that the journalists should try to be unbiased, not that they themselves should be. It's a very subtle difference, but I know that it's impossible for them not to be unbiased. They are human, after all. The problem that I have with Arrington being allowed to invest in silicon valley startups, while maintaining his role as an editor of TC is that it presents a pretty clear conflict of interest. That knowledge alone would make me, a reader, question the intent behind any story. It makes it hard to take any of their coverage seriously, because for all I know, Arrington could be using his readership to enrich himself over actually reporting interesting news.