The public falling-out between Michael Arrington and former TechCrunch UK co-editor Sam Sethi looks like it could become a matter for lawyers.
(If you need to catch up with the background, see the related posts links below.)
The latest development is Michael’s side of the story in which he offers some opinions about Sam’s character and makes a pretty serious allegation concerning missing sponsors’ money. Sam says it’s not true.
Saying such things in a public blog post seems very silly to me, unless there’s proof. If not, is it libellous? I’m not a lawyer, hard to say.
In any event, is this really the place to conduct this disagreement? Every Tom, Dick and Harry with an opinion is weighing in with comments to the post, too (well, it is a blog). And lots of commentary elsewhwere.
I’ve been following this quickly-developing story since Le Web 3 last week, and posting commentary, because I think it has relevance to the blogosphere, business blogging and social media. This development, though, appears to move it more into the realm of a contract dispute. And with yes-you-did, no-I-didn’t claim and counter claim, I don’t think it helps anyone’s reputation or credibility.
Still of interest, nevertheless, given the role of blogs as this saga plays out.
Related posts:
3 responses to “TechCrunch dirty laundry”
Please read my response on http://www.vecosys.com and also on CrunchNotes. This is a very serious allegation and has NO merit. I will be taking action against Arrington unless I get a public apology.
To be VERY clear. I have not taken any monies and this is now a very personal issue regarding my reputation and credibility.
I did read both your responses, Sam. It seems to me that your comment here is the clearest statement you’ve made publicly that indicates what your next step may be.
I hate seeing this situation, this very public and escalating falling out between you and Michael. I’ve been reading TechCrunch since it began last year, and TechCrunch UK since that started a few months ago. I have enormous respect for both of you as two people who have good insight into areas of business and technology that interests me a lot and who write great content.
I really do hope some calm prevails and you both step back from the brink before it gets really ugly.
Peace and goodwill at Christmas, etc.
[…] The big TechCrunch falling-out was a lively story in the blogosphere late last year when Michael Arrington shut down the UK site. In the four months since then, former TechCrunch UK editor Sam Sethi and co-editor Mike Butcher have moved on, filling the gap with their own sites focusing on tech start-ups, among other things. […]