Comment by alaskamiller | Hacker News Reader

Comment by alaskamiller | Hacker News Reader

All these tech "blogs" -- TechCrunch, VentureBeat, GigaOm, Mashable -- operate with real budget and hire real people who rely on real paychecks to go through the weeks. When you're playing with real money, it's not time or place to fuck around.

When I was working at a big blog, the major takeaway I got was that everyone will be engaging in an inevitable attrition war. And in that war, many will pull some crazy shit to get to the top. The sites themselves need to continuously generate pageviews day after day. They need to posture and project that they're more and more influential. The biggest offender, consistently, has been TechCrunch. They publish stuff that has explicit no publish requests, they break embargoes that hinders around real businesses' launch times, and they censure over petty beef with another tech blog.

Oh, don't forget the fact that TechCrunch is no longer about startups -- it's the new CNet, without the class and without the journalistic integrity.

That big blog you worked for was Valleywag...and you're complaining that TC lacks integrity.

For what it's worth -- having worked on the flipside -- Valleywag did uphold journalistic integrity to a better degree.

VW protected and respected the wishes of the sources, fact-checked as much as we could with multiple sources -- it was especially hilarious watching people blame VW on this to try to get away with their bullshit, and respect amongst the other writers in the industry.

I would suggest you try working for them for awhile but, meh, it doesn't really matter.

There's more to integrity than fact-checking. Valleywag built an audience on insults, gossip and scandal. I would not call that a great example of integrity.

Valleywag : The Daily Show :: TechCrunch : FoxNews

Considering the publisher kept insisting it was a gossip rag that happened to have on board legit journalists that switched in and out of writing gossip, blind items, and poignant analysis... I'm not sure what to tell you.

Ummm... Yeah...

About Valley Wag respecting the wishes of the sources and fact-checking multiple sources. Not so much in my case.

I wrote a comment here on HN about the Yahoo/Microsoft merger based on a conversation I had with a friend that worked at Yahoo. I made the mistake of posting some identifiable information about my friend.

Valley Wag picked up my 7 line comment, and turned it in to two separate stories on the Yahoo/Microsoft merger. They sourced one article to my comment, and included identifiable information about my friend. The second article did some "analysis" and speculation based on the information obtained in the first article.

I was worried that my fried would get laid off, so I wrote Valley Wag and politely asked them to remove identifiable information about my friend.

I was stunned by the nastiness in response from Valley Wag. I was told that I maybe I should think before I post on HN, and they had the freedom of speech to post whatever they wanted, etc... It was my mistake that I posted the information, and if my friend lost his job because of what I said, it was my fault.

PG was nice enough to edit the identifying information out of my comment. My friend did indeed get a pink slip, although I don't think it had anything to do with the Valley Wag stuff. And Valley Wag stories got banned here a few months later.

@alaskamiller: My interactions weren't with you. So, no hard feelings. Next one is on me at Hackers and Founders. :)

I'm trying to recall that particular incident. Was it Paul Boutin that wrote it? I should drag myself away from the desk and show up for those H&F meetups again soon. We'll chat about it.

Looking forward to it. As I said, next one is on me.

Yes, I remember the incident.

Valleywag does have more integrity than TC. At least they post honest reviews of companies, instead of fluffing up miserable companies. For an example of this, check out the coverage TC (and nearly every other tech blog) gave to Mahalo Answers. Lame service, yet they are out there touting like an innovation because Mike and JC are friends and business partners.

There's a difference between class and integrity.

Valleywag has no class what so ever. It's sleazy and happily so.

However they do have integrity. Paul Boutin's a real journalist. They, and I'd argue most of the Gawker writers, bring an outsiders view of the world to their coverage that's sorely lacking in a lot of the news. Deadspin's the same story. It's sleazy, low-grade and base. However they are honest and very serious about their facts.

What you choose to cover makes you "classy" or not. That's a genre.

How you cover it shows whether or not you've got integrity.

Also, while I admire what Arrington has done with TC to no end. I have to point out that whenever you question his journalistic integrity, his response is to duck the question and say he's not a journalist, he's a blogger. Meh.

Surprised no one called me out on this.

Yeah. I was wondering if you were serious or just playing devil's advocate. Apparently at least 16 people thought your semantic swordsmanship passed for a real defense :-)

Well I was serious. I've no way of knowing exactly how many times VWag burned people, but they're at least going after people in a way that few are. Like I said, its sleazy and low, but they're going after people, not puffing up their buddies projects and shrugging their shoulders when people complain.

I think it's pretty obvious that they both lack integrity (in the complete sense of the word).

When Valleywag (Owen) published an unsubstantiated rumor that Matt Mullenweg was cheating on Glenda, that wasn't lack of class. That was malicious disregard for the truth, unless Owen knew it was false, in which case it was outright lying. Integrity excludes malicious disregard for the truth.

You think CNet has "class" and "journalistic integrity"? Wow.

For an organization of over 2000 people. Yes.

NYT, WaPo, and even CNN have considerably more class and integrity than CNet, IMHO -- and outside the media world, there are many organizations of 2000+ people I have more respect for.

compared to TC? Yes.

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