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Comment by kylelibra | Hacker News Reader

Well written and articulated argument. How is Arrington's investing different than a corporation owning a news station and that news station not disclosing that every time they cover something else owned by the corporation? I feel like this happens all the time without much uproar. I'm not saying what Mike is doing is right or wrong, I'm undecided, but I like Kara's take on it.

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agreed, not sure why this is comment is getting down voted. Journalists need to disclose such facts. Conflicts of interest are real. For that matter conflicts of interest aren't limited solely to journalism to begin with.

After all, Eric Schmidt had to step down from Apple board when google started to compete in that area out of concerns of conflict of interest. Why does Arrington get a pass?

http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/03/technology/schmidt_google_ap...

Isn't Arrington disclosing his conflicts of interests, though? AND going out of his way to not report on them?

He was even outed by one of his own as an investor and didn't do anything to stop it.

Where's the problem here?

> He was even outed by one of his own as an investor and didn't do anything to stop it.

Journalists who are using full disclosure, shouldn't need to be outed. They are supposed to be upfront about such things. Outing suggests he was not.

Second, mere disclosure doesn't prevent a conflict of interest.

I am rather curious where you get your news from. Every TV networks and major newspaper in the country (including PBS) has business interests.

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