TechCrunch Intern Admits To Asking For Compensation For Writing Posts

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Feb 05, 2010, 6:10 AM UTC

vaksel wrote: post #3

kloncks wrote: post #2

To be very fair, I love how honest and forthcoming Mike was with this news. That was hard and he could have covered it up. To all the deniers and Mike-haters out there, I think this only goes to show the type of person he is. Also, I love how the identity of the intern wasn't disclosed. Not only does it allow him to make amends and learn from his mistakes, it also shows the level of professionalism that stems from Te…

screw that, unethical behavior like this needs to be exposed...if Mike won't say who it is, I will: if you want to know who it is go here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1102828

Post by pavs » Fri, Feb 05, 2010, 6:12 AM UTC

Post by staunch » Fri, Feb 05, 2010, 6:18 AM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #12

In the full knowledge that this opinion will be unpopular: the crime here is not selling coverage. The crime here is selling coverage obviously while being an intern. The media, including Techcrunch, sells coverage as a matter of routine. Sure, we'd be happy to cover your new gadget, but we'll need an exclusive on that. The exclusive will be worth, at the margin, 50,000 uniques we won't lose to Endgadget (and the att…

Post by pvg » Fri, Feb 05, 2010, 6:19 AM UTC

fuzzmeister wrote: post #4

vaksel wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

screw that, unethical behavior like this needs to be exposed...if Mike won't say who it is, I will: if you want to know who it is go here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1102828

We all make mistakes as a teenager, often involving a lack of ethics. He just happened to do it in a very public way. As Michael said, hopefully he will learn from this situation.

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Feb 05, 2010, 6:21 AM UTC

pvg wrote: post #17

fuzzmeister wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We all make mistakes as a teenager, often involving a lack of ethics. He just happened to do it in a very public way. As Michael said, hopefully he will learn from this situation.

You're making it sound like it's some sort of minor slip-up that happened to get publicized. Say you make a habit of accepting expensive dinners from a source who is interested in you writing about them. Or embellishing a story a little. Or say you even take a MacBook Air from a source at their suggestion. Those are lapses in ethical judgment. Running around repeatedly asking for people to give you stuff so you write…