I guess what the Sydney Morning Herald taketh away, the Wall Street Journal can giveth:
Two years ago, Mr. Arrington, a onetime lawyer and Internet executive, was living the life of a surf bum in southern California. Today, the 36-year-old has become one of the most influential people in Silicon Valley. Like a latter-day Henry Blodget, the onetime star Wall Street analyst who helped fuel the late 1990s dot-com frenzy, Mr. Arrington uses his TechCrunch blog to determine the destinies of new start-ups and to fan the flames of the current Internet boom.
For many Silicon Valley venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, TechCrunch has become a must read. Internet companies mentioned on the blog often report huge increases in business after they're featured. Others get unsolicited calls from venture capitalists who want to give them money. Last month, it was credited with being the first to report the rumors that search-giant Google Inc. was considering buying the online-video site YouTube Inc. for $1.6 billion.
Of course, in a Crunchnote on the story, Arrington seems irritated by the Journal's "fascination around the economics of our business and the conflicts/disclosure issue," which seems odd. First of all, isn't that the basis for how TechCrunch is different than the mainstream media and, second, it's just a graf in a pretty long article. It's actually quite neutral. The same, however, can't be said about this vicious attack:
Some investors worry Mr. Arrington and his ilk may contribute to an investment bubble that could end badly. In May, Josh Kopelman, an investor with First Round Capital in Philadelphia, warned on his blog that many Web companies today "run a big risk of designing a product/service that is targeted at too small of an audience," namely subscribers to Mr. Arrington's TechCrunch blog. (The number of subscribers, then 53,651, has since grown to 133,000, according to the site.) The TechCrunch blog has also spawned its own minipublicity loop, with other bloggers rehashing many of the tidbits Mr. Arrington reports and posting photos from his backyard keg parties. [emphasis mine]
Hey! What's with the "rehashing" crack, Journal?
Readers, there's a war going on between the mainstream media dinosaurs, and the young blogging Turks like Global Nerdy! To the barricades, comrades!
Tags: TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, Arrington