Tech Blogger Receives Death Threats
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The WJS is reporting that TechCrunch founder is taking a brake after receiving death threats. Michael Arrington, the founder of TechCrunch, states that some unhappy readers as well as other bloggers have turned against him causing him to stop his TechCrunch blog. Though he didn’t state how long the blog would be closed, it could be sometime before we see the blog once again.
So what happended to cause all of this drama? According to the WJS it states that:
“Whoever is the top blog will get attacked by everyone else and that’ll just be the way it is,” Mr. Arrington said. “We really need to think about, the community of bloggers, if we’re going to continue to slay our own for competitive reasons.”
Mr. Arrington downplayed any connection between the role his site has taken on — giving buzz to tech startups — and the emotional responses he gets from unhappy readers. Rather, he contends that unfounded allegations from his peers that TechCrunch accepts payment or other favors for stories make him a target.
“I think there are crazy people out there, like the guy that threatened to kill me,” Mr. Arrington said. “I just wish that people wouldn’t suggest to the crazy people that I’m a good target.” Mr. Arrington did not suggest that any tech site actually urged people to harm him. But he did name a handful of tech blogs that he thought had published matter that damaged his site’s reputation, including AllThingsD.com, which is owned by Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
I have enjoyed past article by TechCrunch and hope he gets his site and reputation back up. What do you think? Should he close his site or just ignore the critics and threats?
Comments welcome.

6 Comments
oztech
January 29th, 2009
at 7:40am
I think he’s just being dramatic to get more attention to his blog. Nothing like going away for a while to generate publicity. Then when he starts writing again, even more press.
Ron Schenone
January 29th, 2009
at 1:55pm
oztech, Good point.
Jeff
January 29th, 2009
at 5:13pm
Yeah, I have to agree, he’s being over dramatic, and will probably start soon anyway, but death threats are mostly scare and terrorism tactics (sorry for the buzz word). They just want him to stop because they are mad, and threats like that are pretty strong ones, even though most people have no way to act on it.
Keep going I say, and if they come after you then its not just the blog thats the issue.
Ron Schenone
January 29th, 2009
at 5:29pm
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Jeff.
David
February 2nd, 2009
at 9:28am
I know where you live Mr Schenone…
Ron Schenone
February 2nd, 2009
at 1:35pm
Hello David,
Thanks for dropping by and for the laugh.