It was big news two weeks ago. Somehow, Michael Arrington’s CrunchFund jump and the subsequent drama that has unfolded since has stayed at the top of tech news for longer than Steve Jobs resigning as CEO of Apple.
Accusations are flying. People are quitting publicly. Resignations are being accepted publicly. Analysis of the resignations and the acceptance of the resignations are being posted publicly. This has gotten out of hand.
Techcrunch is not the only publication that allows editorial freedom. My editor supports Michael Arrington, Erick Schonfeld, and just about everyone involved other than AOL (who created this debacle in the first place). He won’t scold me for posting that this is getting absolutely ridiculous and needs to just fade away as quickly as possible.
We get it. Arrington was TechCrunch. Without him, the site won’t be the same. It’s time to see what it will become. Writers “falling on their sword” out of some misguided stroke of principal is simply not news. It’s showboating. It’s grandstanding. It’s pitiful in every sense of the word as it pertains to journalism and the time has come (i.e. right now) to grow up and move on.
I hope Schonfeld is successful. It’s sad that he’s already being given speedbumps as he tries to steer the bus back on course. Some will say that he needs to tell his side of the story now that Arrington and his former-employees/groupies leave the site and attempt to disparage it as much as possible on their way out, but I don’t really care. Clean house if you have to, Erick. Find those who are loyal to the publication and the readers. Get rid of those who want to whine about Michael Arrington somehow getting the shaft despite the fact that he made a play that was guaranteed to not end well for someone.
It’s time to stop talking about this. I get a bad taste in my mouth writing about myself, but, as MG Siegler aptly titled his response to the response of the response, it’s “what needs to be said.”
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