TechCrunch Is A Fame-Hungry, Media-Manipulating Hypocrite | Hacker News Reader

TechCrunch Is A Fame-Hungry, Media-Manipulating Hypocrite

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49 pointsericingram21 comments

The TechCrunch post he is attacking here at no point attacks "the concept of publishing leaked state secrets". It attacks Assange. The article wants you to separate Wikileaks from Assange, but the author apparently cannot do it himself.

Of course, this is in no way endorsing TechCrunch, which is fucking terrible.

Again, this was just the last straw, not the entire pile of evidence. A quick search will reveal plenty of attacks on "the concept of publishing leaked state secrets".

I thought this was just some linkbait article, but the title is a quote lifted from TechCrunch, and it makes a pretty good point about a spectacular failure of common sense on the part of one of TechCrunch's most controversial authors.

To be fair, Paul Carr has written many other articles, some of which are very sharp and to the point, and doesn't usually pander to the mainstream media views, so this is fairly unusual for him.

That said, anyone who's surprised that TC is fame-hungry hasn't been around the block :-)

You only give 1 example why TechCrunch is a Fame-Hungry, Media-Manipulating Hypocrite you shouldn't read.

If they spit out news every few minutes this is only a marginal reason.

It is possible that every media has editorial where they give opinions on stories. As long as you know you are reading an editorial it is ok. You don't have to agree with everyones opinion.

Think this is weak shot on Techcrunch and you could have done better!

Maybe that came off wrong, but I didn't mean the speed of TC posts to indicate anything specific. It was more of a take on the quote used by author Paul Carr.

Maybe I could have done better flaming TC, but my main point was to make my argument for Assange and show my frustration for TechCrunch.

To take the loop from don't like the comment on Assange from an editorial jumping to Techcrunch sucks is a little bit far fetched.

"Fame-Hungry, Media-Manipulating Hypocrite" is a quote from Paul Carr in the TC article itself. The title of this post is a play on that quote and IMHO a very clever one.

TechCrunch is pretty awful, blanked it out a long time ago after a few too many articles that had a headline along the lines of "[X] is the real Facebook Killer" or "This Bill Will Be the End of Personal Freedoms on the Internet FOREVERRR!!!!" (I'm just paraphrasing from the top of my head) ...too much hype, too much hyperbole, not enough Journalism.

TechCrunch, or Paul Carr?

You seem to be more upset at the subject matter of the post and the fact that it's in opposition to your personal opinion.

As I said in my post, it was just the last straw. I've been reading attacks on Wikileaks and Assange on TechCrunch for a while now. I thought it was finally time to act.

That doesn't really answer nhangen's question or the assertion that he made.

And so far what have you done? You deleted one link and added another. Then wrote a nasty blog explaining to the world your vague reasoning for your actions. It's kinda funny really. You acted and might sway 5-10 people. A drop in the bucket.

How about instead, you compile these articles you claim attack wikileaks releasing data instead of telling people to do the searches. Why don't you act and put forth some real effort and get this guy fired if he is as bad as you say? Or is it now when people say "It was time to act" they really mean they are going to write a nasty gram and post it on HN to get upvoted?

By "act", I meant write my opinion down.

So anyone that attacks Wikileaks is a media whore?

Giles Bowket made almost the same point, but he was much funnier:

http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2008/05/never-hate-only-eve...

While this post doesn't really link to a 'bad' article in TechCrunch I think it's good to bring up the lack of substance some most of these TechCrunch posts are containing.

I go to TechCrunch in the hope I'll find some new startup working on some new and zany problem but are instead either greeted with something along the lines of how awesome Angry Birds is, why Android is better than iOS or picking up some story thats been dissected to death either in HN or Engadget.

I wish they'd take on the idea of Alt.Engadget and funnel their weird posts to a separate site when ever they feel like they want to say something random (Alexia seems to be the one that does this the most).

(Having said that, today there seems a to be a pretty good day for TC with some interesting posts but other days it can be quite deceptive.)

I'm having trouble imagining a scenario in which this is not exactly what Paul Carr (the Techcrunch author) wanted. The whole article was designed to stir up controversy and get people's blood pumping. Because controversial posts drive traffic.

As far as losing readers they might lose a handful who were (a) already passively angry and (b) had this as their hot button issue. But 99% of people in the tech community know Techcrunch courts controversy at this point and have either chosen to accept that and continue to read or have already left. I don't think a lot of people are going to

So in the end Techcrunch wins this round (as they usually do on these things)

I look at Techcrunch like this.

TechCrunch is TMZ for our industry.

On one end there is the phenomenal up to the minute, you can't find this anywhere else, everyone will be talking about it nonstop for a week, they scooped everybody stuff

ala the path scoop from yesterday http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/02/google-tried-to-buy-path-fo...

and then there is the tech/startup industry and industry celebrity gossip.

If you look at as such you won't be so surprised and offended when you read it.

The whole dedicated to obsessively profiling startups mission is a ploy to drive page impressions, sell tickets to award ceremonies, and launch conferences. Page views are more important then writing about boring startups.

You can subscribe to author-specific feeds on techcrunch. I subscribe only to Arrington's posts with http://techcrunch.com/author/tcmarrington/feed/

My last straw was the fight with Engadget. Mashable will do.

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