You gotta read this to believe it. TechCrunch is one of the most popular geek blogs on the net. Recently a seventeen year old TechCrunch intern was caught trying to get a company to buy a computer for him in exchange for news coverage on the site. Oops. Solution? Fire the kid and move on, right? Not if you’re Michael Arrington. If you’re Michael Arrington the solution is PUBLIC HUMILIATION by posting a melodramatic apology to your “community of readers” and then posting a link to the kid’s blog when he apologizes! My open letter on the TechCrunch blog to Arrington:
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Letter to Michael Arrington on his TechCrunch blog:
Arrington, you are an amateur!
“We are all shaken here at TechCrunch – this is someone who was our friend and who we trusted to be honest with our readers. ”
Sigh. Ok. Principles of Drama 101.
First of all the kid wasn’t dishonest with your readers. You said so yourself. So stop slandering him. Apology #2 you owe the community.
Second, you showed complete lack of professional maturity when you posted this article–even though you didn’t divulge his identity. This was a private company matter and should have been handled as such. Do you even have an HR department? Nothing this kid did warranted your superfluous “apology.” All you had to do was let him go quietly. Apology #3 you owe the community.
Third, I’m SHOCKED you are “happy” the kid chose to blog about this and then posted the link to his blog on your site!! Are you insane? Where is your sense of judgment? The kid is committing career suicide and you are helping him! Apology #4 you owe the community and the kid.
I only hope for your sake this young man has a strong support system and doesn’t cave in over this.
Public humiliation is NOT–and will never be–the answer to professional disputes and even terminations.
The internet has given noobs like Arrington WAY TOO MUCH power to defame people and I for one wholly disapprove
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My letter to the teenage accused:
Dear xxxxx, it’s ok. This is NOT the big deal Arrington has made it out to be. You screwed up and you should have been terminated. Period. Arrington crossed the line by posting about it and you should not have given him permission to post the link to your blog. All of this was completely unnecessary.
Dude keep your head up. I made some huge mistakes as a teen too. Life goes on. This will pass. You’re a good person who used poor judgment. It’s ok.
Email me ANYTIME if you need an ear or shoulder. I’m totally here to talk you through this anonymously or otherwise.
KEEP YOUR HEAD UP
Also email Arrington and tell him you reconsidered. Get the link to your site off his blog. Totally unnecessary.
Your friend,
Mark @ tunajuice.com
This entry was written by , posted on February 5, 2010 at 10:53 am, filed under Stank of the Week and tagged michael arrington, public humiliation, techcrunch. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
Great article! Great letters! You are so right that Arrington is an amateur! He’d be so f i r e d if he did this at any other company!