Michael Arrington - FishbowlLA

TechCrunch Founder Michael Arrington: Arianna Huffington is a ‘Touchy Psychopath’

Matthew Fleischer — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:47:54 +0000

TechCrunch found Michael Arrington, who was fired from the site he founded last September, is not pleased with what he perceives to be the decapitation of TechCrunch’s editorial team by Arianna Huffington. Arrington took to his blog yesterday to protest the recent firing of TechCrunch editor Erick Schonfeld, calling Huffington “a very touchy psychopath conducting a game of musical chairs to the death.”

TechCrunch CEO Resigns; Is Boss Arianna Huffington to Blame?

Pandora Young — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:19:44 +0000

TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington certainly thinks so. Heather Harde, the “business brains” behind TechCrunch, is leaving the company she helped turn into a multi-million dollar business. Arrington, who was noisily fired by Huffington in September, contends this most recent departure at AOL is another casualty “of Arianna’s ego.” The CEO of one of AOL’s most profitable properties should’ve “been embraced and treasured,” he says on his blog, but instead had to deal “with constant verbal abuse from HuffPo execs” who “refer to her by the ‘c’ word.”

Aol needs to decide whether it exists for the benefit of stockholders, users and employees, or whether it exists for the greater glorification of Arianna Huffington. She’s waging this political power war inside of Aol against anyone who stands “against” her. But no one’s fighting back because that’s not how they see the world. Instead they just drift off, to create real value at other companies who actually value them.

Harde became TechCruch CEO in 2007, and helped broker last year’s sale of the company to AOL for $30 million. Since the acquisition, she has also served as general manager of AOL’s technology properties. Harde’s last day at the company will be December 31.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

5 Things You Need to Know This Week: Glenn Beck, Bilbo Baggins, and Amazon’s Tablet

Andrew Gauthier — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 11:51:43 +0000

In this week’s episode of 5 Things You Need to Know This Week, we talk about fantasy football, Fashion Week, Tim “Stretch” Armstrong, and Glenn Beck‘s new children’s show.

For more videos, check out Mediabistro.tv, and be sure to follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Media Isn’t Buying TechCrunch Founder’s Victim Routine

Pandora Young — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:50:27 +0000

Michael Arrington, the founding editor of TechCrunch, has been making plenty of noise since being relieved of his duties by Arianna Huffington last week. Her reason for ousting Arrington was his new $20 million venture capitol fund, brazenly called CrunchFund, which invests in some of the same companies TechCrunch covers. AOL, who bought TechCrunch from Arrington last year, has invested approximately $10 million into the new fund.

Can you say conflict of interest? Huffington could, and promptly canned Arrington.

Arrington is trying to recast himself as a noble journalist, fighting for editorial control of his website. In a melodramatic TechCrunch blog post yesterday, demanding AOL failed to restore his editorial independence or sell the site back to him.

Media critics seem to be collectively rolling their eyes. The Business Insider writes: “This is equivalent to an employee who has been fired demanding that, if the division he just got fired from is not immediately stripped from his former boss’s control and placed back under his control, he’ll quit.” David Carr of the New York Times declares TechCrunch and AOL’s association with CrunchFund as “almost comically over the line.”

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Newsweek’s Most Notorious Bloggers

Tina Dupuy — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:46:35 +0000

We’d argue that when you are a struggling weekly news magazine – all bloggers to you are “notorious.” Or nefarious. Usurpers. Whatever.

The magazine says Perez Hilton, Michael Arrington, Andrew Sullivan and Michael Wolff make the list among others.

Read the whole piece here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

LAT In 90 Seconds

Greg — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:46:36 +0000

Power To The Bloggers: Jessica Guynn profiles TechCrunch creator/blogger Michael Arrington who “decided to parlay his considerable clout into a different kind of currency. He thrust Silicon Valley onto the national political scene in December when he took the unusual step of mounting a campaign of his own: a ‘tech president primary.”

Tell Us All About It: Wanna know what LAT reporter Michelle Quinn thinks of the new iPhone? She doesn’t hide much with this lede: “Apple Inc. is giving iPhone customers more for less.”

Memorial Service: From the obit page (we think — it’s hard to tell online): “A memorial service for writer Elaine Dundy, a novelist and memoirist who wrote about her stormy marriage to critic Kenneth Tynan and their life among the rich and famous, will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at Pierce Bros. mortuary, 1218 Glendon Ave., Westwood. Dundy died of a heart attack May 1 at her Los Angeles home. She was 86.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.