TechCrunch “Macbook AirGate”
I read with interest today about the Macbook AirGate scandal on TechCrunch. Basically it tells a story of how one of their interns, a young guy named Daniel Brusilovsky had allegedly asked for a Macbook Air in return for writing a post about a startup. TechCrunch got wind of this, the intern admitted it and now all posts from the intern have been removed.
Now, as soon as I read this, I thought I may know what post they are referring to. I clearly remember in November last year reading a post on TechCrunch about new tech site TechnoBuffalo. The TechCrunch review stood out to me because (forgive me TechnoBuffalo) TechnoBuffalo is nothing new, exciting or imaginative. It’s a tech blog and IMHO an average one at best, certain not newsworthy in any shape, way or form. There are thousands of tech blogs just like it and as far as I know, none have ever graced the pages of TechCrunch. So for those reasons I remember thinking at the time that someone was definitely calling in a favour somewhere as it just stood out a million miles as a post that should never have appeared on TechCrunch. I also remember that lots of TechCrunch readers left similar comments on the blog post itself. It seemed that nobody could understand why the post ever appeared in the first place.
Then today I read about Daniel at TechCrunch and “MacBook AirGate” and the first thing I think of is that TechnoBuffalo post. I wonder…
A quick search of TechCrunch finds that the original TechnoBuffalo post has disappeared. TechCrunch said that they had removed all posts by the intern so its possible that this is one of his. Luckily the Google cache of the original post is still up (gotta love Google). As you will see, the post is written by the intern in question, Daniel Brusilovsky.
Now I’m not saying that Techno Buffalo were the ones who gave Daniel a Macbook Air in return for a review. I have no evidence of this and I’m certainly not making any allegations. I’m simply saying that if you looked at the above evidence you could be forgiven for thinking that was the case.
The problem I have, is not with Techno Buffalo or with Daniel but with TechCrunch. If I, and others (judging by the original comments now sadly deleted, that were made on the post) then why couldn’t the TechCrunch editors? Surely TechCrunch has better editorial control in place than that? Especially for junior members of the team and interns. This whole thing wouldn’t bother me as much is it wasn’t for the fact that TechCrunch position themselves as being impartial and even go so far as accusing others of less than impartial reviews when receiving free products.
At least my bribe posts are clearly labelled 
What I’m listening to right now: Usher — Little Freak (Feat. Nicki Minaj)
Post from Kieron’s Blog
Original post by Kieron
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