After a fraught public spat that included rape and abuse allegations and captured tech watchers on both coasts, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington has filed a law suit against his former girlfriend, Jenn Allen, for attempting to “smear plaintiff’s name on the internet, to destroy his reputation, and to deter third persons from associating with him,” according to a lawsuit uncovered by Valleywag. Read More
A year and a half after bailing on the blog life during the Great TechCrunch Conflagration of ’11, MG Siegler is wading deeper into the world of venture capital. He announced today that he’s heading to Google Ventures as a general partner. He’ll join Kevin Rose and Wesley Chan, focused on seed and early-stage investments.
Mr. Siegler said he’d “continue to work closely with CrunchFund” on investments they’ve already made as well as writing the occasional column for TechCrunch, because apparently that place is actually the Hotel California. But perish the thought of his revealing confidential info from inside the notoriously secretive GOOG: Read More
Techcrunch founder and venture capitalist Michael Arrington posted a letter to his Uncrunched blog this evening regarding statements made by his ex-girlfriend, RTist.com founder Jenn Allen. In March, Ms. Allen alleged on her Facebook page that Mr. Arrington physically abused her. She later stated in the comments of a Gawker post that he also raped her.
A subsequent Gawker story also outlined claims that Mr. Arrington had abused other women, including ex-girlfriend Meghan Asha. He was also investigated in 1999 for misconduct against a female coworker when working at the company RealNames. Read More
Last week, allegations of past abuse surfaced against TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington. Late last night, he addressed those claims, posting a response on his own blog, UnCrunched. It’s a denial in the strongest, most straightforward language: Read More
Update, 4/8/13: Michael Arrington has responded with a denial of all allegations, and his ex, Meghan Asha, has issued her own denial of the allegations ”made on [her] behalf.” More here.
On Monday, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington’s ex-girlfriend publicly accused him of physical abuse and followed up with accusations of rape. As yet, there’s Read More
Mike Arrington, founder of TechCrunch, is not having a good week. That’s because Homeland Security, that most reviled of federal bureaus, has taken his boat. We know this because he has taken to his blog with an outraged testament titled, “THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY STOLE MY BOAT TODAY.” Read More
This morning, The Verge published a damning report on an apparent conflict of interest in CNET’s “Best of CES” awards.
The post claimed that CNET’s editorial staff, which votes on the award, crowned Dish Network’s Hopper set-top box device the winner. But before the staff could reveal its decision, CBS–CNET’s parent company–interceded because of litigation filed by CBS and other networks over the Hopper’s ability to skip past commercials. Read More
How does one properly convey just how miffed you are by a newspaper’s attempt to make money? By starting a blog post thusly, “Fuckers I am so sick of reporting on incremental tech news for fucking two years now.”
So began TechCrunch blogger Alexia Tsotsis’ invective-laced late-night rant about the New York Times decision to bring its paywall over to Flipboard, written, if Ms. Tsotsis is to be believed, “in between the downing of tonight’s two bottles of wine.” Read More
Damn, we thought for sure the next big exit from the ashes of the house that Arrington built was going to be Alexia Tsotsis, but it looks like heads are rolling closer to the top instead. Editor-in-chief Erick Schonfeld, the “man without hap” that many doubted could match Mike Arrington’s bluster swagger, is out as editor-in-chief of TechCrunch.
In aberration from the typical TechCrunch good-bye post, which is becoming something of a genre, Mr. Schonfeld didn’t pen his own farewell. Rather it was written, mere minutes ago, by Ms. Tsotsis and her new boss, Eric Eldon. Mr. Eldon is a former editor at VentureBeat and, unlike Mr. Schonfeld’s promotion, it looks like ex-Crunchers approve. Read More
Around this time last year, Daily Intel got a hold of a leaked staff memo from Jesse Angelo, editor-in-chief of The Daily. The Arab Spring, or rather U.S. audience’s interest in the Arab Spring was winding down a bit and Mr. Angelo wrote, rather flippantly, “Folks, Egypt is over – time for us to get focused on covering America.” He followed that up with the laughable instruction to, “Find me something new, different, exclusive and awesome. Find me the oldest dog in America, or the richest man in South Dakota.”
Well, now it appears some tech reporters in our fair city may be under the same pie-in-the-sky mandate. On A VC yesterday, Mr. Wilson shared an email from a “major media company,” in search of a sexier story than the repetitive, pom-pom-waving fare: Read More
