I think we've passed the point for publicity stunt speculation. There's enough blood spilled that this couldn't have been the intent.
Fair enough. Replace "publicity stunt" with "drama". Stuff being leaked and shady things happening are not new things to happen on TechCrunch by any means.
So far there is only ink spilled -- not blood. ('Blood' would in this case be large legal fees or judgments.)
It's certainly an effective way to get people to link/come to Techcrunch.
The novelty is that Arrington often documents the failures of others, but is now documenting a failure of his own.