Tmrrw I'll write about my favorite ice cream flavor & then spend three days dealing with press attacks about how unethical I am.

— Michael Arrington (@arrington) February 14, 2012

If you love Internet drama—and why wouldn't you? It's so spiritually refreshing and intellectually fulfilling!—don't miss the current "Silicon Valley tech reporter/investor" throw-down happening at multiple showcases near you. Here's a pretty good entry point: "This started when Nick Bilton of the New York Times posted an item criticizing Path, which had been caught up in a firestorm when it emerged that Path had been uploading entire address books from people’s iPhones. Bilton made the legitimate point [...]

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currently having a super secret meeting with myselfWed Sep 22 20:18:35 via TweetDeckBrad Feldbfeld

Early this week, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington posted about a secret meeting at San Francisco restaurant Bin 38 attended by "ten or so of the highest profile angel investors in Silicon Valley." This precipitated what has become known as AngelGate. Arrington claimed that these angel investors have been colluding in secret to ensure that deal valuations are kept low. Also discussed were how to arrest the growing power of Y Combinator, how to keep [...]

If the ship (or at least the captain of the ship) is going down, if founder Michael Arrington is really fired from AOL, then why is "his" (technically: Arianna Huffington's) site TechCrunch still publishing? The first thing you do when the corporate overlords freak out on your publication is conduct a work stoppage. The conclusion you would draw is: that's a lot of people who could lose their jobs, and they don't feel like Arrington could protect them. (He couldn't, likely. They work for AOL.) So apparently the demands made by Arrington—essentially, "sell me back my site or let me do whatever I want"—are not being met. [...]

Things just got EXTRA exciting in the drama that is unfolding between TechCrunch, its parent company AOL and Michael Arrington, the co-editor of the site and the new manager of a multi-million-dollar startup investment thingie. (AOL said that Arrington would no longer be the editor since his new role; he clearly disagrees!) So just now Arrington says they can either be free to do whatever they want WHATSOEVER, and not report to the Huffington Post— or AOL can sell the site back to its original owners. Crazy thing is? He's taking the absolutely correct hard line. AOL said TechCrunch would be independent; that is now not true. Good for [...]