Amid criticism, TechCrunch founder takes a break

San Francisco Chronicle media writer Dan Fost wrote that TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington, who has broken some big business stories in the past year, plans to take a break to evaluate investments and his life.

Fost wrote, “Most intriguing about Arrington’s hiatus is the timing, coming on the heels of two months of nearly nonstop criticism — what Arrington called on his personal blog ‘a fresh wave of TechCrunch hate.’ A San Francisco parenting Web site, Mothersclick, cried favoritism when Arrington ignored it but wrote about a competitor, Maya’s Mom, whose founder had worked with him in a previous job. (Arrington initially disclosed his friendship with the founder but later took it off his site, sparking even louder criticism.)

“Old-school journalists question Arrington’s ethics and potential for conflicts of interest. He even engaged in a high-profile dustup with the New York Times at an Online News Association conference in October in which he accused the Times of ethical lapses but later backed down. Blogger and author Nick Carr charged that while Arrington discloses his investments when he writes about companies, he doesn’t always disclose those investments when he writes — sometimes negatively — about their competitors. Tech gossip blog Valleywag has a field day with each alleged transgression.

“Arrington struck back on his blog, writing that his friendships and his activity as an entrepreneur and investor help him get access to inside information.”

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