Michael Arrington's surprising generosity toward Flock — the social browser whose interface he described as "pure magic" — may finally be about to pay off. Word is that Bessemer's David Cowan, who backed the browser software maker, is backing Arrington's Techcrunch site itself. Bessemer will be joined, we hear, by Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital, and several other investors, in a small round in the low seven figures. To be fair to Arrington, he's reported on reverses at Flock, too; but that probably won't reassure the startups that beg the touchy tech tastemaker for coverage. They hardly need another reason to blame Arrington's business interests, when the tech reviewer fails to respond to wine, flowers and tears.

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