I find it interesting that the rest of the world is just now learning about said video. It’s been almost a year…

Stupid reason to pull it… But thank god. 1938 is a waste of bandwidth.

I don’t get Arrington’s fascination or friendship with Loren.

Maybe he just doesn’t want a puppet made of him.

black tech blogs just like the parody video exist:

http://www.niggaknow.com/category/technology

gotta love the media.

That video is extremely dis-tasteful. Crossing the line..

All things considered, that video is very racist. I personally don’t see what the big deal is though. People take things too seriously.

Last comment… “my company”…

You’re a dude with a camera…

Oh wait, a laptop with a built in camera.

The production quality is shit. Professional comedian? The guy video blogs and makes fun of others ventures. What bull$hit!

why can black people say that word and people accept it in rap songs and they call themselves that all the time but a white person says it and its blasphemy? just wondering…

If a black guy made that video, it would be laughed at, and probably promoted…!

I thought it was hilarious, but that’s because I have a sense of humor.

These “civil rights activists” are the only people keeping the notion of racism alive with their reverse discrimination… Get over it already and rejoice in the fact that you’re going to have a black president!

Get a sense of humor Verizon, and the rest of you liberals…

I’d like to see Loren’s “history” of promoting racism. Aside from one satirical video? I doubt there is any. I don’t know Loren, but my father’s family is from the same small town on Long Island, and it’s not “that kind of place.” Despite all the crap about ShelPuppet, I will not accept that Loren Feldman is a Racist. However, I will say that Verizon is guilty of cowardice and reactionary tendencies. Perhaps still smarting from the NARAL Short Code debacle?

One video? One year old video? That’s all it took?

And Loren’s content isn’t even pushed. You want it? You view it. Imus is broadcasted - the ultimate “push.”

Please. How about we organize a day of protest and withhold our Verizon bills for a bit. Ordinary non-activists have clout, too.

anon and jimmeee, you need to relax. the video was fun and Jim is right, if chappelle did it, it would have been labeled as hilarious…

but we are turning this into a race thing, and it really is not. nice job from verizon, they proved to be a stand-up company.

What’s with the conspiracy theory about “and it wouldn’t surprise me if someone helped organize the early stages of this protest.”?? Seriously, if “someone” had that power - wouldn’t they have used it some time in the past 6 months?

More probable is that someone saw Loren’s content on Verizon VCast - googled him, and up popped the TechNigga controversy. It’s not like it’s exactly “hidden.” Hell, put Loren Feldman into Google and it’s the 3rd entry:

“Loren Feldman: TechNigga and the Don Imus of Silicon Valley
I want to apologize to all the black tech bloggers It could have been any ethnic group It could have.
valleywag.com/tech/loren-feldman/technigga-and-the-don-imus-of-silicon-valley-287091.php -”

It’s not like it needed some secret cabal for someone who wasn’t necessarily aware of it last year to hear about it and get offended.

It’s too bad for Loren though. But nothing goes away on the internet, does it?

Im glad that somebody finally stood up and said something, i was wondering why everybody thought that video was ok?

He hasn’t had the best couple of weeks. Cnet and now this.

He is still one of the few people on the web that make me laugh.

What a shame! i bet shel israel was behind this crap.

screw em loren! you don’t need the money

Well, I apologize in advance over this…but I feel strongly about this topic so I’m going to break the golden blogger rule and post a link in the comments to my post on the topic…

http://www.tomstechblog.com/po.....tness.aspx

I hate people who post links to their blogs in the comments to get hits but in this one case I’m breaking my own rule and doing it anyway. I’d appreciate if anyone seeing this gave it a read and really thought long and hard about what it means to ACTUALLY support free speech (rather than just give it lip service)

Loren is a no talent fool. He sits in front of a built-in iSight camera on a MacBook and acts like he’s a video production company.. What a poser.

It was funny to hear him talking about composing a shot and “white balance” when shooting video as he bagged on Shel.. As if he’s doing some kind of major filmmaking, and as if he can even adjust white balance on his built-in iSight CCD.

I think he needs to get a job.

To be honest I was curious why the hell 1938 Media clips were even on VCast. Would you download Loren Feldman vids to your cellphone? Sure the guy is a riot and I don’t think the sketch in question was over the line in the least but I just thought it was a weird deal from the start.

Bet Shel is getting a chuckle out of this one. What I can’t wait for is Feldman’s next video (most likely) making fun of all of this.

Yeah dude Loren looks like an ignorant f%^k in that video…

it’s still kind of funny. In a, man this is really depressing kind of way…

Anybody notice that Loren is HIGH AS A KITE?

He looks like he took 3 bong hits.
1. The eye color.
2. The slow blink.
3. That’s really pot he’s smokin’.

The term is now a Rap term (not the difference in the spelling)…

It has been primarily used in Rap music since the 1980s

It has become so widespread that hip hop loving teens of ALL races are now using it to refer to their buddies or in the same way the the Rock world uses the word ‘Dude”….

In the 70s, it was “My Man”

Loren,

Karma’s a bitch ain’t it?

Conspiracy about organizing the early stages of the protest?

This is from his CrunchBase profile:

http://www.crunchbase.com/person/loren-feldman

“Feldman was a featured video blogger at The Huffington Post and formerly at Podtech. He was prominently featured on Valleywag for his controversial TechNigga video.”

Give me a break. He hung his hat on it and now he hung himself on it.

This is the second time that that very offensive video has come back to bite Feldman. I’m very glad that Verizon got wind of Feldman’s hypocrisy and dumped him.

Visine should have sponsored that clip.

A pothead with a laptop.

That’s it.

I do believe that the video wasn’t ok, it definitely wasn’t the worst.
I never quite understood why the hell he was on VCast in the first place.

“When I first started watching your videos I was amused because you did a good job of pointing out how silly the whole ‘Web 2.0′ thing is, and I couldn’t agree more. Lately it seems like you’re becoming just as silly as all those people you love to trash, and I’ve lost all interest… shame.”

This is a comment from Alex on Feldman’s latest blog post, and I couldn’t agree more.

The humor’s too “edgy” for mainstream corporate sponsorship.

If you want to go big, you have to go broad. And going broad means going for the least-offensive, no shock-value stuff.

I’ve never liked Feldman’s stuff and have wondered if he suffers from mild retardation. But that video is funny, perhaps even clever (love the twitter riff). I couldn’t help but laugh.

I don’t see it as racist at all. You either find it funny and ok; or not funny and label him an idiot. But let the man do his thing and either succeed or fail by the results.

Loren is the Carrot Top of the web. Except he’s not as handsome as Carrot Top.

Yeah, that video is a “technically” racist video.

If he made fun of white and asian people too, it might have been okay but it was a video only about black people, that’s where the problem lies.

Heck, I know lots of black people who don’t rap and don’t smoke weed, why is that video even online? It’s kinda degrading to black people as a whole.

@Jimmee,
Yeah, I can see that, he took a hit on the video. Cough…cough…

you can call who you want to nigga, but face the consequences. really, you have friends, and you may refer to each other as bitches, or hoes, or some other term that you Would NOT go up to a stranger and call. Seriously, girls do it all the time calling each other bitches, and fellas call other friends names. please don’t get brand new, because you cant walk up on the street and call a black man a nigga.

Be like Nike, and JUST DO IT!

“and it wouldn’t surprise me if someone helped organize the early stages of this protest.”

fuck the conspiracy theory, verizon didn’t like the TechNigga video and Loren got cut, that’s it. Why on earth Shel was part of this story boggles the mind. Loren’s a funny guy, definitely stoned in some of his videos as pointed out in earlier posts, if he wants total independence he’s got it. Along with that comes responsibility for his content, he made it, he should stand behind it. The rest of the world doesn’t give a fuck about Loren and Shel’s feud like they didn’t care about Kathy Sierra or any of Dave Winers spats. It’s all a silicon valley soap opera that doesn’t matter in the big scheme of things. Seriously Michael if your in the top 100 influences according to Time magazine this shit is so pointless, do something good, help some humans in the world.

I like Loren. At first I didn’t, but I do. He brings some cool and a bit of soul and laughs to this whole ’social’ thing and I appreciate that. I look forward to watching his videos. He has a fan in me.

check out what he’s listening to at muxtape as well. great music taste

the black blogger spoof wasn’t funny. the spirit behind it was off, in my opinion. i don’t mind offensive, it just wasn’t that funny and it was ill spirited. It made me feel bad for just watching it - it was just bad comedy. In my opinion.

@16 Tom - I think your off, way off. This is a free market and you can align your brand, and sit at lunch with who ever you want for whatever reason. He made a bad choice with an ill advised post - I wouldn’t blame Verizon for that. Ball-less, maybe. Cowards? Perhaps..I don’t know. BUt comparing them to what Iran is doing is warped logic and random.

The video is stupid and racist. Watch David Chappelle or Russell Peters do a parody of race and it is funny, no matter how many lines it crosses. Most effective racial comedy exaggerates stereotypes, racial tension, and cultural differences to create awkward and/or ironic skits. However, this video just insults.

the best video was about seesmic. everything else was… lets say “stupid”. verizon is right with terminating the partnership.

All bad comedy is always offensive. When it has a racist angle, it makes it that much worse.

Loren stepped out of his element on this one and it showed. No reason to crucify the guy but if I was Verizon I would have done the same. There’s no upside to keeping him.

I’m sure he’ll bounce back with a great Kara Swisher parody or maybe a ‘day in the life’ of Jason Calacanis…plenty of material out there. Just stick to the nerd herd.

Racist or not, the video certainly wasn’t funny.

If Chappelle did the exact same video, I’d still say it wasn’t funny.

what a load of crap. if a black guy did the skit it would be fine. but since a white guy did it, it’s racist. It was a joke people -a joke about that whole subculture of ‘bling’ and ho’s and ridiculous overdone rap videos and it’s not limited to a skin color -I seem to recall eminem fitting right in with that whole deal.

If he did a ‘white trash’ video, would Verizon have pulled it? I think not. It’s the so-called ‘civil rights’ groups that have hijacked real civil rights issues and turned the whole thing in to a fear based fiasco of Al Sharpton induced race baiting causing huge corporations to turn into scared little girls.

@james – You’re making exactly the opposite point. It is a free market and people shouldn’t try to bully companies into taking away options because they don’t like those options. If those options are unwanted by people the market will make that determination. Those people who try to take those options away are people who don’t care about freedoms like a free market or freedom of speech they just want a market where everything is approved by them.

The question isn’t the morality of Verizon it’s the morality of those who are forcing Verizon to capitulate to their will.

As far as the Iran comparison my point was to highlight the warped definition of those who claim someone has the right to free speech and then prevent that speech from being heard. My exact statement was “By that definition the Iranians trying to kill people for blogging are free speech advocates.” And I don’t see how that isn’t absolutely true.

With freedom of speech comes the huge responsibility. If people don’t make proper judgments while exercising their right to speech, they have to face the consequences. Freedom to hold gun doesn’t mean freedom to shoot anyone you like. Similarly, freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom to insult anyone you like. If people have difficulty understanding this basic aspect of any civilized society, I suggest that they go back to high school and continue their education from there.

you go, keef

@Tom, you are contradicting yourself. It is a free market and companies need not get bullied by people. It is just a fact that companies in a free market system worry about customers and they take action based on how their brand name will be affected in the marketplace. Your argument doesn’t hold here.

The truth is whatever happens on Channel 4 KNBC.

For those of you comparing Feldman’s use of the “N” word to hip-hop artists & Dave Chappelle.. that’s not a plausible argument. Hip-hop carries a label for its “adult content”.. consumers have a choice to decide if they want to listen to Hip-Hop. Fedlman on the other hand, attacks his subjects as a way to generate a reaction & push views to his blog.

Lame.

It’s pretty funny given that Loren made fun of Shel for losing his sponsor (turns out that Shel actually didn’t lose his sponsor;) someone’s got to say it: karma’s a bitch.

the video is mean spirited, and condescending, to say the least. I think James@32 said it best. Despite the video, I don’t believe Feldman is racist in any way, it was just unnecessary.
And holden, you’ve proved once again you have the mental age of 13. STFU.

Well said, keef (37)

Break it down Valleywag! Seriously, look at the history, GeekMommy has it right.

http://tinyurl.com/27gmbc

Its racist. I am shocked by how many people in these comments gave some sort of “if a black guy did it no one would mind” answer. Do you really need that explained to you?

I will make sure these activists pay, 1938media is comedy and nothing but it. Fuck you Shel Israel for doing this you deuchebag.

@Krish – That’s not true. Companies are paranoid and if anything even appears to be controversial they’ll back away. That isn’t the market making a determination that’s a few higher ups making a determination.

As far as your Freedom of Speech argument, there are certainly consequences to speaking out but the question here is the morality of the people dolling out those consequences. If someone says they support John McCain and are then beaten up by Obama supporters you wouldn’t say they should have been more responsible about their freedom of speech. The same is true here. As obnoxious as most people probably found the Techn**** video to be I wouldn’t say it rises to the level of deserving punishment. The fact that some people have taken it upon themselves to impose punishment shows the weak morality of those people.

Carlos Mencia does it in every show on Comedy Central and there’s no problem with it… hum.. I think there’s the shaddow of Shel Israel behind this …

that being said, most jewish are indeed racists. they’re both victims of antisemitism and racists. they call all the non-jewish ‘goys’ always in a condescending tone, and ask any jeweish if he’d invite an asian at home for diner or worse, accept his daughter to marry an asian… you’ll see the reaction. in fact, i think we’re all racists to a certain point. blacks, asians, jewishs, whites all have something to say about others. but the highest degree of evolution is self-deprecating humor. jewishs are pretty good at it, and blacks too.

USA is really fvcked up, ruled by politically correctness.

@Krish - one more thing that Adrienne’s comment made me think of which is Don Imus. That wasn’t the market making the determination to fire him it was a scared corporation. Now he’s back and bigger than ever because when the market did make the determination he was very much liked.

(For the record, I hate Don Imus with a passion, but the point still stands)

Lets break it down: The contextual background is that this industry (technology, blogging, web 2.0 startups) is generally led by white males - so suggesting that a black person’s tech blog would be run by a stoned author writing about a prostitution tracking site should qualify as being racist. While it could be funny (which it’s not) because it’s somewhat satirical, the fact remains that probably 95% of this video’s audience isn’t black, so it really just comes across as distasteful - especially given there’s no specific cultural significance at this particular moment. None of this necessarily makes Feldman racist (he’s probably not), but the video is still in poor taste.

This isn’t about whether a 1938 Media video was racist, and not about free speech either.

It’s about protecting a brand. Verizon is a mainstream corporation in the phone and digital distribution business. Not in content/media. They cannot accept to have their brand image messed up by content that a significant minority (make that 0.1% of their costumers) finds unacceptable.

This case is not different from marketing campaigns distancing themselves from athletes, models or rock stars taking drugs, having under-age sex, etc.

And in a way it’s not very different from TechCrunch moving Gillmor from the main blog, where he was starting to seriously destroy value, to TechCrunchIT.

Loren: if you want to be in mainstream properties like Verizon and Cnet, then BE mainstream. If not — there are enough places on the Internet to serve your niche audience.

Wow, get a bunch of people to threaten to boycott over racism charges and you can put anyone out of a job.

Those “civil rights” activists should get a life.

Feldman is still a schmuck.

I wouldn’t want to be Loren’s ass right now, what with all these things coming back around to bite it.

That was a racist video. And TC gave it some free marketing by blogging about it. Golden rule to “bury” something: Do not talk about it.

@Wolke – I agree with you but I don’t. If you are looking at this from a moral perspective there are actually three aspects. The morality of the people threatening to boycott, the morality of Verizon and the Morality of Loren in making the video.

I agree that Verizon doesn’t have any real culpability here. It’s the famous business school saying that corporations by definition are sociopaths. They act solely out of self preservation and therefore have no moral dimension to them.

On Loren’s part, the question is was the video racist. I don’t think it was but that would be the moral dilemma there.

Finally you have the protestors and they are where Freedom of Speech comes in. Is it right for them do remove everyone’s ability to get content simply because they don’t like it? I personally think no but it could go either way.

We are about to elect an African-American as our leader, and this guy, who hangs out with the tech elite, does this kind of stuff, and people actually defend him…sigh…

To those who still have no clue as to why people think this video is racist, especially who are leaning toward voting for Obama, I dare you to show it to the good Senator and ask him what he thinks. If you are going to vote for McCain, I can understand why you don’t think this is racist.

Mr. Feldman wrote the script, acted it out, filmed it, edited it, put it up on the video site, and kept it up — the whole process speaks clearly of his intent. Verizon is smart to run away from this pathetically anachronistic intent.

boo hoo.

Use of the word “nigga” aside, Feldman crossed the line with the stereotypes. He took a concept that could have been good, even funny and enlightening, and reduced it to lame pimp jokes. Bottom line, it was racist.

people say “it is a joke until people get hurt”
in this video for the most part it only a “comedy thing”
but when someone or somegroup taki it seriously
everything will mess up no more humor..

@23 excellent point! I mean seriously, who is this guy? Whatever “little” brand value he had left is practically gone now. No one is going to touch him with a 10 foot pole.. IMUS 2.0 .. ROFL

This goes to show you how large & wide the media is. Who actually was reached via the internet versus main stream media. Yes, Lorens video was back a while ago, so the question is why wasn’t he taken off then? Possibly because he didn’t have the “Verizon” deal at that time. Loren built himself up on controversy -trying to be an “Internet Shock Jock”, but pushing too far and ending up just a cop-off of what happened to Imus, and Kramer (Seinfeld).

Yeah, Loren may have had an agenda, to prove a point about “social media” - basically gain attention through controversy and pushing buttons, and have the balls to do so. But the question stands, do you really fully understand the consequences?

Here are the truths:
1. Many of you say spit out: “Dave Chappelle”, or “if a black guy did it, then it would be funny”, and the “N” word is used in “rap” music. However, you may be interested to know that the “N” word is NOT being used in rap music anymore, as well as “bitch” & “Hoe”, as there has been a movement to downgrade these words and abolish them; movements by Rev. Jess Jackson, Rap Mogul Russel Simmons, Al Sharpton, comedians even Dave Chappelle himself. So the truth is that everyone is not fully connected and know the real trend that is happening.

2. Absolutely, if a “black guy” did it, it would be funny. However, it would not be parodied in the format of Loren did it. I challenge any commenter here to watch 10 episodes of Def Comedy Jam, you may see my point. You don’t see Jeff Foxworthy doing these types of parodies do you? Would it still be funny if Loren created a video called - Cracker-Licious?

3. Distasteful? Read # 2 again. Then realize what is actually happening in the African American community. Lebron James - building a billion dollar empire, Dave Chappelle - already built his empire, Tiger Woods — building his empire –names too large? Russell Simmons, P. Diddy, Jay-Z, Soulja Boy –all building empires. You may say - yea that’s music & sports not “blogging & internet”. The point is 1.) laying foundations, and 2.) African Americans do NOT portray themselves in that way.

4. This goes to show that either the “Cliques” and Tight Groups created via blogging haven’t really spilled over to all audiences yet. It shows that the deal 1938 Media received was based on the praise of followers from the “cliques & tight groups” rather than “Controversy and a loyal following”.

But the biggest issue is the “N” word use in “TechN***”. This is an extreme No No. And I am requesting that Mike, you place some asterisks in the word. I can guarantee that just that title alone is NOT good publicity.

What should piss all of you off more is the fact that 1938 Media was potentially getting paid good money for the content he was producing. So, what does it really take to get a deal? “The Cliques” or “The Clicks”?

Overall, the video may not be racist, it is more of ignorance, and pathetically stereotypical. Either way, a goal was achieved, attract attention, grab some clicks, to grow the clique — $100 dolla bill ya’ll……..

Feldman is an imbecile with a low IQ..

His folks probably didn’t beat him enough as a kid.

The reason it took so long to have the vdieo blocked / banned / whatever is that outside a very small number of people (maybe 5 or 6 thousand ?) nobody actually cares !!!

As for a conspiracy, who knows ? maybe loren got what was coming to him ….

@loic (lemeur): he who sits in the glass house

What are you going to do when users on Seesmic call your personal friend, the French President, a Nazi and a Kapo? After all, he is trying to make the Internet in the EU a concentration camp going way beyond RIAA demands and truly destroying free speech (because the proposed rules will have *every* communication listened to, not just keep a single brand’s web property clean).

Plus, with all the support Sarkozy gets from French right-wing media mogul’s and with his planned destruction of the French public TV and radio, there is not going to be much freedom of speech left in France soon.

Loic, frankly, you better not talk about freedom of speech! You are one of the idiots who made that desaster in France possible.

@ 55 re. “Loren: if you want to be in mainstream properties like Verizon and Cnet, then BE mainstream. If not — there are enough places on the Internet to serve your niche audience.”

this isn’t about being main stream: these corp’s want guys like loren feldman - guys that aren’t main stream, that are part of this “swell” or “blogosphere” or “social thing” going on…Loren is perfect for that opportunity, this is the perfect time and that’s why this is sad: they will not be associated with racial epitaphs scarring their brands. end of story. game over. get over it. that’s it. their not being bullied, their being ‘in business’. The market dictates action.

The conversation at Verizon: “great, hire him..do the deal..but ONE word about that tech nigga spoof….ONE word and that guy is GONE” They knew it was there. They got called out for it. And they pulled it. Done.

Do you think that #51 is really Loic? I mean Loic can spell….
And you can put any name or website you like into the reply form - ooh look my name links to seesmic

PS I just put in his name to prove a point

corporations are impersonal entities that fear controversy

case dismissed

and a good wakeup call for mr feldman i would imagine, but beside the point

Mr. Arrington, you let this guy stay in your house, knowing he has this kind of history? Wow.

Choose who you hang out with carefully. You are no longer in a college dorm.

Yo Feldman, bring that act to my ‘hood.. I dare ya.

@Tom (#59)
I don’t care whether Loren’s video is racist or not. There are lot’s of places on the Internets where he can still publish it — no need for Verizon (or TechCrunch for that matter). There are sites for American Nazis and for Muslim extremists, so Loren can have (and already has) his place. There are even places for child molesters, so why doesn’t he target his next “comedy” at that pristine audience.

The question is whether I can be bothered by looking at this ugly fuck when I get up in the morning to read TechCrunch. Being gay, I insist that any male breasts I see during breakfast must be shaved and muscled.

(And that’s the kind of decision Verizon had to make as well).

Good riddance, Feldman is a waste of everyone’s time.

Whether Feldman’s level of racism rises above the levels found in most of us is difficult to say. However, from his body of work on the web it does seem as if he is quick to negatively judge others. What might make this slightly acceptable to some people is that he does it humorously. One thing is for sure: If one is quick to deride others it usually invites derision quickly back to him.

@#71/72
I’ve seen enough (English) spelling errors from Loic.
He does seem to spell well in French, though.

@51: Not all Jewish people are racist. Only some are… those that are supremacists and believe they are ‘the chosen ones’ and all that other BS. They manly subscribe to Talmudic teachings.

As for Loren, heh… karma… dude… ain’t life a biatch?!

Loren Feldman is a no talent hack. What the hell was Verizon thinking when they considered playing his videos anyway? They were NEVER funny.

Wonder how these pro-Loren comments would change if the video was called any of the following:

TechKike
TechChink
TechSlope
TechSpic
TechJap
TechCracka
TechWASP
TechLez
TechFag
Tech______ (insert derogatory slang)

Loren is not funny and never was. He thinks he’s raspy, 3 packs a day voice and dice clay wannabe humor is enough to amuse the masses? Only reason anyone follows him is to find find out why the hell arrington or any other big boys do.

What goes around, comes around. That’s all I’m saying.

I know this is completely off topic, but does Loren Feldman remind anyone else of Watto?

Check it out: http://www.menschions.com/

Loic I’m disappointed. you’re France’s most prominent web guy so don’t give me that “most jews are indeed racists” thing.

back to the subject matter, this approach to fight racism simply doesn’t work. now that video got much increased coverage, and people who are pro or against it take a stand, which just increases tension.
if we lived in a truly open-minded and diverse world, people would just find that video “not funny” instead of “insulting”.

Ok, here’s the thing. Humor can be used to break through taboos, to allow people to laugh at themselves and not take themselves so seriously. It can be liberating. Humor can also be used to poke fun at other people, to strengthen the base feelings that there’s something really really different about another group of people and though we’re all too mature to get worked up over it, we can definately have a good laugh about it. It can be divisive.

So is it up to the network to become an arbiter of good taste? It’s possible that the guy who made the commercial decision to cancel the deal with 1938Media is more rascist than Feldman. Commercial interests have made hypocrites out of people before. So, no that’s not the best way.

However I am equally wary of people like the writer of this article crying about the dictatorship of political correctness. It gives you an excuse to laugh at others without taking responsibility for