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I agree that he should be careful about the editorial conflict of interest issue. This is assuming he hasn't already cleared it with AOL. I do think that it is

I agree that he should be careful about the editorial conflict of interest issue. This is assuming he hasn't already cleared it with AOL. I do think that it is a conflict of interest, but in a similar sense that HN is run by YC and an inordinate amount of YC startup news is poured through here. I'm not saying that PG et al are causing this to happen directly, but it is not a coincidence. I think the point I'm trying to make here is that you can't scold Arrington without acknowledging that this already happens -- either directly or indirectly.

cube13 15y ago
>...in a similar sense that HN is run by YC and an inordinate amount of YC startup news is poured through here. The difference being that YC doesn't try to hide it at all on HN. YC ads cannot be commented on, and YC related stories are(generally) noted in the titles. HN is essentially an advertising channel for both YC and YC funded companies. The problem is that Techcrunch has positioned itself as a news reporting site, not Michael Arrington's Super Startup Investment Blog(tm). So it should be held to a higher standard than YC, especially when it comes to investments. At the bare minimum, I think that Arrington should(assuming he doesn't leave TC to work on this) disclose his fund's involvement in anything that TC is covering. This goes not only for his personal articles, but anything that any TC reporter is covering.
- coderdude 15y ago
  He does say "The easiest way for me to handle this is to be up front about all of these investments and disclose it in posts, which I've done and will continue to do..." So at the very least he has acknowledged that disclosure is important.