Michael Arrington is quick to accuse others of co-option by media conglomerates. The prickly Techcrunch publisher, who can make or break startups with his reviews of web apps, yesterday described the New York Times as ethically challenged; and berated Jeff Jarvis and Rafat Ali, two other writer-entrepreneurs, of fabricating stories about him in order to suck up to the newspaper. Amusing, particularly because we hear that Arrington was himself in discussions with a media giant that dwarfs the New York Times. Ross Levinsohn, the man who bought social network site Myspace for Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, toyed with the idea of investing in Techcrunch, the company that owns the influential tech news site and Crunchgear, a gadget site that competes with Gawker Media's Gizmodo. Levinsohn, whose reputation within News Corp never matched his image in the press, was never that serious, but he kept Arrington dangling, as long as Fox Interactive's investments continued to receive flattering coverage. And you wonder why Ross gets these blowjobs, says a Fox Interactive insider.

Contact information for this author is not available.