TechCrunch: Your SXSW Twitter-Embedded Reporter: "Here's what i think..."

An Open Letter to Mike Arrington:

Mike, we miss you.  Please visit soon.

I hope whatever malady or depression keeping you out of the public eye passes quickly, and i'd love to buy you a beer the next time you're out & about in San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, or Austin, or anywhere outside a 5-mile radius of Atherton, CA.

But.

"Here's what i think happened..." is not hard-hitting reportage at its best.

I just don't see how you think you're able to put a story together about what happened at SXSW and the Lacy-Zuckerberg interview without being here to see it & experience it first-hand yourself.  It's just not the kind of thing you're going to get a grasp on from one-thousand miles away, or from a phone conversation or video clip or twittercast.

in fact i'd say it's a bit questionable to present your interpretation of what happened as the likely scene that went down, rather than pieced together from a video clip & a half-dozen twitter conversations almost a half-continent away.  i doubt the folks reporting on Obama-Clinton debates or Iraq get taken seriously if they watch from afar & say "here's what i think happened".  NFW.

Ninety percent of Life Blogging is Just Showing Up.

Furthermore, i don't see how you can characterize that video clip -- with or without the flirting, overly familiar & inappropriate behavior, with or without the rambling non-questions & half-insults, with or without the audience's completely exasperated reaction, and finally with or without sarah turning on them like a cornered mountain lion -- as anything but a complete meltdown.

In abject contrast, i thought your interview of Mark at TechCrunch40 last year was 180-degrees different: it was spontaneous, insightful, on-topic, interesting, and engrossing in the extreme. 

I had a front-row seat for that event, and i wouldn't have given it up for the world.  Whether or not you consider yourself a geek, i thought you had a solid connection with Mark that made for a great interview. Kudos to you.

But somehow lately, something doesn't seem right.  Recently there was a private event in SF i attended that was a real blast, and based on previous conversations i was really hoping & looking forward to having you come join us.  While i know you're always quite busy & get invited to a gazillion events, i must admit i was disappointed when we found out you weren't going to be able to make it.  And then again for SXSW, i was a bit surprised you weren't making the trip out to Austin for a terrific weekend which i'm sure you would have enjoyed tremendously (zuck interview or otherwise).

In closing i'd just like to wrapup by saying mike: the door is wide open.  I wonder sometimes if you haven't gotten so famous we'll never again see the prankster side of mr. arrington, pictured at right masquerading as a certain french angel investor with a curious taste for web 2.0 startups.

in any case mike: i wish you well. 

but more than that, wish you were here.

Comments

[Jeremiah Owyang]

Mike

I'd love for you to come out again too, I'd like to talk with you about where you see the overall industry is heading.

[Martin Wells]

Wouldn't you get sick of being mobbed?

[hackerdude]

You're still just sensationalising Mac. It was a bad interview dude, but nowhere near as bad as you're straining to make it out to be.

Your point - with or without the psychedelic colors, with or without the sensationalist lingo, with or without the cursing - is ridiculous and Mr Arrington is still more famous than you.

Amen

[Charles Adler]

Dave, agreed. I was actually a bit shocked that Arrington bothered to write an opinion piece that was merely based on reading everyone else's blog. Sure, he's entitled to his opinion (we all are, right?) but what's the point of conjecture on a topic like this?

pointless I'd say, and disappointing.