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.

We might never have noticed Alexia Tsotsis‘ post on AOL’s TechCrunch about marketing strategy for the film The Source Code if a publicist at Summit Pictures hadn’t tried to dictate editorial content. But they did.

Said publicist complained about the “snarky” post to the employee at AOL’s Moviefone, who had connected Tsotsis with Summit. Moviefone then emailed Tsotsis and asked her to “tone down” the story.

Tsotsis, who you may remember from her stints at LA Weekly and SF Weekly, understandably decided against rewriting a story to please a movie studio. Instead, she published the request from Moviefone:

First wanted to thank you for covering Source Code/attending the party, etc. But also wanted to raise a concern that Summit had about the piece that ran. They felt it was a little snarky and wondered if any of the snark can be toned down? I wasn’t able to view the video interviews but I think their issue is just with some of the text. Let me know if you’re able to take another look at it and make any edits. I know of course that TechCrunch has its own voice and editorial standards, so if you have good reasons not to change anything that’s fine, I just need to get back to Summit with some sort of information. Let me know.

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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.”

The NFL has officially banned all unauthorized use of the phrase armchair quarterback. Also, off sides, end zone, punt on 3rd down, and most other figures of speech drawn from the game industry game of football. Thnk we’re kidding? Listen to the disclaimer above.

So, maybe we’re exaggerating a tiny bit. TechCrunch has the actual story.