This article was published on December 14, 2007

Arrington and Sethi throwing mud


Arrington and Sethi throwing mud

You could feel it in the air, and yes today this bubble burst.

Sam Sethi, former chief editor of Techcrunch UK, decided to close down Blognation, exactly one year after Michael Arrington (Editor in Chief TechCrunch) fired him.

First of all I have to say that I know both guys pretty well and that I’ve always had fun catching up with both.

“Sam, there is just no justification for you or this post, you’re just an asshole”
Loic Lemeur

So a very short recap of what happened (as far as I know).
Sam Sethi started TechCrunch UK in 2006 together with Mike Butcher, covering UK based and European startups.
TechCrunch was partner of LeWeb3 conference in Paris and Sam Sethi posted a blog about The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Loic LeMeur (initiator of LeWeb3) wasn’t amused with this post and commented “Sam, there is just no justification for you or this post, you’re just an asshole”. The whole blogosphere jumped on it instantly. Then Arrington requested to delete the comment and Sethi refused. In the end he got fired, apparently because of a lot of other things that have happened.

Afterwards Sam Sethi started Blognation and hired a team of journalists to write for Blognation. He claimed to have had funding, but in the end he didn’t have any cash to pay his journalists.

Well both parties have written about it, decide for yourself.

Arringtons story is here: The Fact and Fiction of Sam Sethi
Sam Sethi’s story is here: Here’s to You Mr(s) Arrington, Goodbye and Good Luck Startups

Blogging and the web are about openness and transparency, not about lies, scams and taking other people down. I think this ‘storm’ will pass by and that everybody will forget about Blognation and this whole mud throwing thing. We’ll get back to normal life and write about all the cool things going on in the tech scene.

Update: Please take a look at the comment of Oliver Starr, who was one of the many victims of Sethi.

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