Valleywag has run a number of posts recently that mostly have served to make me look like an ass. Many of these have been flat out factually incorrect, and sometimes the blog has run retractions.
That’s ok, it comes with having a high profile blog. But now it looks like Nick Douglas, who writes the blog, is emailing startups to see if I’ve secretly invested in them in preparation for a hit piece. An email string that was forwarded to me is below (with names redacted).
Valleywag’s singling out of TechCrunch and their promotion of non-stories is annoying, but I also now question Valleywag’s and parent company Gawker’s real intentions. TechCrunch competes with a number of Gawker sites and I’ve announced my intention to launch more sites in the future, becoming a direct Gawker competitor. I therefore question Gawker’s true intentions when running these attack posts.
For what it’s worth, any conficts of interest are spelled out clearly on the TechCrunch About Page. Any accusations that I am promoting or slamming startups for any reason other than I enjoy doing it will be taken very seriously. Nick, if you are going to engage in libel, be sure you have your facts straight. This isn’t funny anymore.
From:
Date: July 30, 2006 10:52:00 AM PDT
To: “Mike Arrington”
Subject: Fwd: Does Michael Arrington have a stake in your company?fyi
looks like nick might be running a hit piece on you. I told him that you are not an investor.
From: [nick douglas]
Date: July 30, 2006 11:32:13 AM PDT
To:
Subject: Re: Does Michael Arrington have a stake in your company?Thanks for the info. I’ll try to be fair, in that special Gawker Media
way, about Arrington.On 7/30/06, wrote:
nick – I respect mike.He is not an investor in xxxxx.
more importantly, I believe mike is a person of very high integrity and it
would be a shame if your blog tried to state otherwise. He is one of the
good guys in silicon valley who is truly interested in technology.From: “Nick Douglas”
Date: July 30, 2006 9:36:09 AM PDT
To:
Subject: Does Michael Arrington have a stake in your company?On Valleywag, I’m about to switch to some more serious questioning of Michael Arrington’s methods. As part of that questioning, I’d like to confirm whether Michael Arrington is an investor or advisor to xxxxx.
Note that if he is, this means nothing bad about xxxxx but raises some questions about Arrington. This information would be used as part of a longer series investigating Arrington’s relationships with many companies. Yours will not be singled out.
This is strike 2 for Valleywag in just 3 days. The post on Friday about deleting comments was flat-out wrong, and now this.
Targetting you can be for two reasons, the first is because of what you said, the second because there isn’t much else to write about in the valley. I think it may be the later
I second what was said in the email about you being trusted, dozens of startups and other companies trust you with news and other sensitive information each day.
Never put down to conspiracy what can be explained by incompetence.
Why is it lame for Valleywag to ask these questions? Sounds very much like he’s fact-checking a legitimate issue.
This isn’t fact checking, its digging for dirt. Is he doing this for other blogs as well? I suspect not. And even if he is, it’s still completely inappropriate. It’s a witch hunt.
Can’t we just all boom along??
“Sounds very much like he’s fact-checking a legitimate issue. ”
Fact checking would imply that there is a fact being checked. This is dirt-digging.
Get over yourself. You run a highly influential site AND you invest in companies. And you think journalists shouldn’t dig around to see if there are conflicts of interest?
Go Web 2.0 and WELCOME the attention — if you are clean, then no problem — but sniffing around for a story isn’t cheap, its just journalism.
by asking to be left alone for a while I need to “get over myself”?
Agree. In the absence of news or a slow news day Valleywag looks desperate to fulfill the minimum posting requirements, hence the endless boring hot-or-not contests, daily linkblogs surprisingly similar to techmeme list of top links, and forwarded e-mail. I guess every publication needs to jump the shark every once in a while, and for Valleywag it’s your persona.
On the contrary, TechCrunch is getting lame… not to mention that the design gave me cataracts.
Always nice to hear from 9rules.
I was always told that slagging-off your competition was hugely un-professional and counter-productive. Seems like Valleywag are hugely un-professional and probably annoyed at your ability to maintain an independant stance…
PS: TechCrunch looks better than 9Rules’ site
Uh, ain’t he just doing his job?! This makes me respect Nick’s work even more – he’s looking for real sources, just like a real grown up journalist would do.
I thought it was bad enough to publish a personal email that was mistakenly sent to him. But this is gutter journalism.
I like reading funny stuff, and usually valleywag is. But I definitely draw the line when it comes to personal and vicious character attacks.
If there’s nothing untoward afoot, then you don’t have anything to worry about. You should welcome transparency and invite others to validate it.
Maybe you’re both lame.
If Valleywag wasn’t positioning itself as a gossip blog, then I’d be upset as well… but it is. Valleywag openly proclaims itself to be all about the latest gossip in the tech industry. It seems that Valleywag is going by the philosophy that if you can’t report on any gossip, make it yourself. The National Enquirer and similar publications have done it for years.
btw – can you change frog-like design…please.
Do you publish a list of all the outfits you have a stake in or advise? That would be a simple way to put this issue to bed…
Just to let you know that 9rules comment was not done by any of the 9rules crew. You know I have no problem saying bad things about you with my own name
Dude:
The lady doth protest too much…c’mon, everyone who reads TechCrunch knows there is a hidden agenda in there — whether its no good schwag at start-up party or didn’t get laid at launch party…you have an axe to grind.
You shouldn’t have to show your portfolio. Sweet mother, it’s ValleyWag; not the IRS. Nick is nothing more than the sally jesse raphael of the valley, who no one takes serious. You’re doing a great job traveling the high road and ignoring his constant jabs. Stay the course.
Lately it seems that a majority of valleywag is written about techcrunch. If mike and techcrunch weren’t around, that guy would have nothing to write about.
Ibid, Evan.
When was Valleywag not lame? Access Hollywood for Silicon Valley. Who needs that? Gossip is rarely productive and never intelligent.
Nick took a pop at me last week, as well. I guess this is why Denton pays him the big bucks
as technology grows more popular there are those whom seek to profit from it like this bull boy who is saying total crap about mr arington to get hits on his website
Methinks this cartoon would be apropos:
http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/003138.html