Why does TechCrunch allow its reporters to work for startups?

Sam Biddle of Valleywag writes about how TechCrunch reporter Josh Constine is being allowed to work for a startup in an area that he writes about.

Biddle writes, “When I asked Tsotsis what AOL—which owns TechCrunch—thought about this, she said ‘it’s not clear whether [AOL’s ethical policy] blanket applies to us.’ I asked if I could read TechCrunch’s ethics policy in its entirety, and she said ‘no.’ AOL didn’t reply to me at all.

“TechCrunch—along with many other tech publications—treats the disclosure like a magical fetish object with fixing properties beyond anyone’s understanding: A cross to ward off the ethics vampires. Or, better, a Hail Mary to absolve its murmurer of sin. But writing a disclosure doesn’t really fix anything, especially in the reading-challenged world of Silicon Valley. Constine is still free to write about startups at the most prominent startup-centric publication in the world while simultaneously working for one. People still read TechCrunch and take it seriously.

“It’s rotten. TechCrunch treats its readers like suckers, and maybe they are. But tech writing is about more than just Constine’s creepy positivity: It’s about lots of money, and actual jobs, and the future of the most exciting part of our economy. Just because TechCrunch doesn’t seem to take its integrity seriously doesn’t mean you shouldn’t demand better. Your audience shouldn’t be Josh Constine’s lemonade stand.”

Read more here.