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Comment by pdeuchler | Hacker News Reader

You're missing the bigger issue. Siegler and Arrington have not left their positions at CrunchFund (where they invest in the companies they report on)- the main reason they left in the first place. Such journalistic conflicts of interest are not ethical or accepted within the Journalism/Tech industry.

AOL has simply waited for the uproar to die down to restate Arrington/Siegler... insulting, frankly.

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I don't see your point. They're returning as columnists, not full-time writers neither managers. If they state clearly their investments and don't talk about them in TC, I don't see why wouldn't that be OK (independently of your opinions about their writing). Their opinion and thinking can be valuable for other topics.

Because like it or not, Siegler and Arrington are irreparably and intimately tied to TechCrunch.

Do you honestly expect Average Joe to go to a TC article written by Arrington (aka the Founder of TC) and not associate him with TC? Not conflate his opinions with TC?

I don't care what they preface their columns with... there's nothing they can do to avoid people associating their opinions and positions with TC, even subconsciously. Even as independents over the past couple months people still associate what they say with TC.

Of course, AOL knows this perfectly well and went ahead anyway.

Its a show obviously. Picking a fight is one of the most basic marketing tricks but I applaud them for pulling it off in such a smooth manner. Even Steve Jobs badmouthed Android for marketing purposes.

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