It's not all roses for a tech publisher during a bubble, you know. Sure, the advertising buys just roll in. But Michael Arrington, founder of the Valley's most influential news site, is feeling harassed by over-eager startups. "They show up at our front door with a bottle of wine or flowers. They instruct their PR firms to do anything necessary to get a story. More than once I've had a CEO break down and cry on the phone when we said we weren't covering them. And more than once, I folded and wrote about them after those conversations." Oh, enough with the whining.

First of all, as experienced reporters such as Kara Swisher note, it is indeed possible to say no. "Let's practice: No," the Wall Street Journal veteran writes. "Nope. Sorry. Uh-uh. Zip. Zero. Nada. I'm sorry, what's UGC? Wait, I have a call on the other line." And rejection isn't just an option, it's an obligation. To the extent that Arrington cares about the credibility of Techcrunch, he needs to learn how to ignore the lamest startups, and sometimes even to slam them.

Second, Arrington should enjoy the attention, and the money, while it lasts. However tiring the pitches of over-eager startups, they are the ones who will pay for events such as Techcrunch 20, Arrington's September showcase for startups. I'm sure the Valley bachelor humors the female publicists ordered to do "anything necessary" to get a story. There are many things worse than being the hot publication during a boom: try having to beg for attendees to a conference that's no longer the ticket. Tony Perkins of Always On, or Alex Vieux of Red Herring, can explain how miserable that is.

And, finally, it's absurd for Arrington to be complaining about a tech frenzy that he did so much himself to promote. He is the one who loyally repeated Photobucket's pitch that, even at 50 times last year's revenues, the company was "a steal". And it's such unquestioning coverage that has encouraged other entrepreneurs to start ventures on little more than the hope of an irrational acquirer. Arrington is like Mickey Mouse, in Fantasia: as did the cartoon character in the Disney movie, the Techcrunch founder has cast a spell that's gone wrong; and it's too late to put the magic back in the bottle.