Nothing livens up a Saturday like a spirited round of personal insulting and counterbashing all caused by a mild critique on a trivial issue combined with a personal attack response. TechMeme‘s close to making this the top story, which frankly is a defect as these personal battles will get far more coverage than “real” news. Same problem with network news – people want the prurient garbage more than the significant stuff, and as a profit entity the peoples get what the peoples want.
Matt’s got the scoop and the correct analysis. Duncan’s approach to all this is one of the reasons blogging is both more interesting than traditional journalism but also more suspect.
Joe Duck 
“Duncan’s approach to all this is one of the reasons blogging is both more interesting than traditional journalism but also more suspect.”
i have a different point of view. to me, this “traditional journalism versus blogging” debate is no longer relevant. simply put, if the stuff is good, people will read it. if it’s garbage or filled with invective and cheap shots, people will go elsewhere. i didn’t find riley’s post illuminating at all. if his resort to the “C” word was supposed to establish his tough guy bonafides, they failed. it was just nasty stuff. his credibility suffers enormously when he tears into people like that.
Deron I think we agree or I didn’t write clearly above.
I don’t think Duncan’s attack was illuminating at all, and for me the c* word is pretty much inappropriate in all all contexts and certainly it was nasty here.
This episode will change the way I read Duncan’s stuff at TechCrunch and not for the better.