Techcrunch supremo Michael Arrington has suspended Techcrunch UK and fired editor Sam Sethi following negative coverage of the Le Web 3 conference. In particular, conference organiser Loic Le Meur told Sam he was an ‘asshole’ in a comment on the blog following criticism of the conference. Arrington apparently decided that Sethi’s decision to draw attention to this comment rather than delete it as per Le Meur’s and his own preference was just cause for the sack. Updated: podcast interview here.
TechCrunch UK, just a few months old, has been tremendously successful in creating a community for local UK & Ireland Entrepreneurs. However, today I put the blog on hold and terminated our relationship with editor Sam Sethi.
Coverage of the conference across the blogosphere was extremely negative. Far more negative than Sam’s account. The row seems to be more about the editorial chain of command than the tenor of the coverage.
There’s a considerable moral battlefield here, especially as it applies to blogs. The blog format, by its nature, is ‘fast and loose’: tempers sometimes fray; people are a bit more spontaneous than they’d wish was recorded in a permanent form. Is it OK to delete posts? Is it OK to ask for comments to be withdrawn? Both are implicated here. We all say incautious things we’d rather we hadn’t from time to time. The Blogosphere, with its curious mix of immediacy and permanance, personal and public, challenges all established social conventions when it comes to those kinds of conversation.
I only met Sam once, but he appears to have done a great job of uniting the UK’s tech entrepreneurs and possessed considerable charisma. I’m sure he’ll be fine, going forward.
[...] Here’s a summary of the story. Here’s Mike Arrington’s take. Here’s Sam Sethi’s take. Now here’s mine, which I posted this as a comment at Pat Phelan’s blog: [...]
I have to say that I find this whole episode extremely bizarre. Something must have ‘been said’ or else I can’t see enough reason to bin / stall a really successful and energetic UK blog. Storm in a teacup? Baffling.
As you say, Sam will be fine – he’s a very impressive entrepreneur and I wish him all the best with his next venture.
Check out Mike Butcher’s ‘Open Letter to Michael Arrington’.
http://mbites.com/an-open-letter-to-mike-arrington
Spot on, IMHO.
[...] I have no big opinion one way or the other about this whole TechCrunch UK (a technology blog) situation. To sum up, you’re better off reading this article and this one at twopointtouch. But there are some lessons to be learned about opinion writing on the internet. [...]
[...] If you want greater details, just go to Technorati and search the leweb3 tag. It goes on and on and on. Also, I think Ian Delaney, who I previously and incorrectly chided for complaining about the conference,has been doing a superior job of calmly reporting it, here. [...]
[...] If you want greater details, just go to Technorati and search the leweb3 tag. It goes on and on and on. Also, I think Ian Delaney, who I previously and incorrectly chided for complaining about the conference,has been doing a superior job of calmly reporting it, here. [...]