Michael Arrington: The Boxer Who Punches, But Doesn’t Want to Get Punched Back

Posted by Tony Cardone in Internet on Jan 30th, 2009 | View Comments

michael_arrington Michael Arrington has a lot of power over startups these days. If you’re completely oblivious to who he is, he’s the brains behind TechCrunch, the a website that features web 2.0 startups and the like. Much like a CNET review, Arrington’s 250-word blog posts can doom a startup or send it to new heights. I’m not the only one who’s saying this, as Time magazine ranked him in the top 100 most influential people, Forbes ranked him the #10 most powerful, and Wired named him the fourth most powerful blogger in the world. It seems as if he was up late the other night and let loose on the blogging community in general.

The lawyer-turned-blogger entails his encounter with a person (Arrington thinks a potential startup employee) who spits in his face. It was a disgusting, vile thing to do to anyone, much less one of the most powerful pens on the internet. Disturbed and a bit peeved, he understandibly lashes out, blaming his bad mood on a combination of the flu, lack of sleep and jet lag. Personally, I pity the man in such a condition. Honestly, though, what should one expect? Going to a digital design conference in Germany may not have been the best idea in those situations. I don’t think Arrington realizes that there is no other way to fight a negative review than to personally confront the man himself. And when that person gets a nasty look from the man who just singlehandedly demolished his life’s work, well, tempers have flared in worse ways. As for the mentally deranged person that he had to deal with, I am glad everything has turned out okay.

What irks me more is what follows that. Here’s a quote from Arrington:

Startups that don’t get the coverage they want and competing journalists and bloggers tend to accuse us of the most ridiculous things. It hasn’t been worth our time to respond to these accusations; I always assumed that our work and integrity would speak for itself. But as we’ve grown and become more successful the attacks have also grown. On any given day, when I care to look, dozens of highly negative comments are made about me, TechCrunch or one of our employees in our comments, on Twitter, or on blogs or other sites.

Really, Michael? It’s definitely okay for you to to slam the New York Times’ journalism policies and then go out making Digg being sold rumors several times (still waiting on that “reliable source”). Another prime example is Rafe Needleman’s piece over at CNET’s Webware blog asking users to vote on the most hated man on the internet. Within a day, Arrington was on his high horse slamming CNET for doing a story on Steve Jobs’ health. The CNET article, which is entitled “Valleywag: Steve Jobs undergoing surgery Monday,” was posted by CNET’s Apple blogger Tom Krazit, who was merely reposting TechCrunch competitor Valleywag’s article on his supposed surgery. Rafe even predicted it. In a comment on the “Most Hated” article, he wrote down what he thought the response would be of the people on his list. Here’s what he put for Arrington: “Story will get under his skin, and he’ll find a way to get back at me later. Wrong on the “later” part. He posted this item slamming CNET today: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/26/report-steve-jobs-is-in-the-office-today/”.

I think Arrington, who has a comfortable lead in the ‘most hated’ poll, typically gets his way with nearly everything, but bit off more than he can chew in attacking the most reliable technology news site in CNET. This time, he decides, he’s taking a break because the world’s against him. I don’t like dirty tactics and find them repugnant, but this is Michael Arrington, the king of dirty tactics, calling others out. I think Arrington should use the time off to step back and be sure that he is being a real journalist reporting real stories rather than a gossip column. I hope he can find his way back to reputable journalism. Chron.com’s Dwight Silverman said it best: “Don’t be surprised if, when you start throwing bombs, your targets pick up the explosives and hurl them back at you.”