Dare Obasanjo, a Microsoft employee and the son of a former President of Nigeria, doesn’t like it when people disagree with him. I found that out in 2007 when Obasanjo vandalized the TechCrunch Wikipedia page in response to a post we wrote that was mildly critical of Microsoft’s hiring of a blogger to edit certain Wikipedia entries relating to Open Office standards. His actions as an individual and as a representative of Microsoft were outrageous.
Today he writes a post accusing us of “encouraging…garbage” on TechCrunch because we’ve reported on the market fall over the last week, pointing to three examples (out of over 100 posts last week) where we chronicle the fall of Yahoo and Google stock, and the Seesmic layoffs. A number of other blogs jumped on the bandwagon, calling for the negativity to stop (obviously none of these writers read TechCrunch this last week).
“The last thing we need is popular blogs AND the mass media spreading despair and schadenfreude at a time like this,” he says.
Our job isn’t to cheerlead the startup scene no matter what happens. Our job is to report the news as it happens and add our opinion as we feel is appropriate. So even if we were reporting nothing but doom and gloom, the criticism isn’t appropriate.
But in fact we’ve been fairly cheerful over the last week, reporting on a couple of dozen new startups and products, focusing as much as possible on the positive, and trying to defocus the mobs from blaming the venture capitalists for what’s happening in the markets.
In other words, the tone of our coverage hasn’t changed.
So what happened? You guessed it. We dared to disagree with something the Obasanjo had to say over on TechCrunchIT, which he immediately characterized as a personal attack. A few days later- zap! – he finds three posts that aren’t all roses and butterflies and makes a subtle accusation that suggests TechCrunch may be partly to blame for the hysteria in the market right now.
In fact, his post, which ostensibly calls for everyone to be positive no matter what, is really just a clever way of inciting the mob to blame (in this case) TechCrunch for the market problems.
This isn’t ok from anyone, and it really isn’t ok from a high profile Microsoft blogger. This is the second time Obasanjo has attacked us when we disagreed with him. It’s one thing to disagree. But it’s another to attack (first Wikipedia, then this F’d company comparison) when you face disagreement. And when you represent a company, whether you like it or not, you do it under their brand. In this case, given the weakness of Obasanjo’s argument, and the fact that he just had a one sided flame war with TechCrunchIT, his motives were clear. It’s time for Microsoft to stop this nonsense.
Dare is not that high up in MS. What he said was stupid, so lets leave it at that. Stupid is as stupid does. What he said does not remotely point to an attack by MS on TC (which may be something Dare did in the past).
Most of his blogging is biased and is rarely critical of MS. But can you blame him for that given MS borg-like-culture, there is a good reason miniMSFT is anonymous.
I think you Mike are blowing a few silly words by a silly MS cheerleader out of proportion.
Should MS fire him? Nopes, its his personal blog, does not reveal any MS strategy or proprietary information, is not on MSDN on Channel 9/10/, etc.
MS has nothing to do with this post as far as I can see.
Why would Dare care about TC reporting Yahoo’s stock is in the toilet… Hmm maybe he owns lots of stock or MSofties just wants it to go down further so that they can pick it up?
Sir – he’s nothing to us. Most of your readers hadn’t heard of him until you printed this. I didn’t even know Microsoft had a cadre of bloggers (in fact, I keep forgetting that Microsoft has web sites other than the Windows Update site). Please leave him in his enraged obscurity, and have your fun by continuing to piss him off.
Very disappointed……let this site have comments from all sides. What is the fuss about?
1. The freedom of press covers Michael to report whatever the bleep he wants.
2. News here are well checked and balanced. They are sometimes biased towards their own opinion about stuff but that’s freedom of speech.
3. Point fingers where they belong. The market is crashing globally and as a whole. I really doubt that whatever Michael has to say about a lot of stuff is THE ONLY thing investors check before pouring venture capital.
4. As in any standard employee agreement or contract, there are clauses that state that everything you do as a part of one company belong to the company. While Mr. Dare has the right to say whatever he wants (and even not support it with facts), this comments indeed could be traced back to Microsoft. This will not mean that Mr. Ballmer (or anyone at Microsoft) explicitly told Mr. Dare to write what he wrote, but it’s in the company’s best interest to distance from said comments.
5. It’s indeed sad when people think that the best way to express their ideas is by stereotyping. Not all Americans are war mongering obese brutes, not all Nigerians are scammers, not everyone will send $1000 dollars when asked by mail.
6. Putting lipstick on a pig won’t make it nothing else than a pig (yeah, I paraphrased it). If the stocks, the market, the global economy paint a dark picture, it won’t matter how many smileys you add to the post, nor will it help people to make smart choices.
7. You don’t like TechCrunch, by all means, don’t come back. In the words of a vlogger, PhillyD, “I hope that the LHC does create a Black Hole, but one that sucks all the stupid people… That might mean that i will lose maybe half of my audience but i think i can live with that”.
To Mike (and i’ll try to translate it as best as i can, but you should check this quote on the Quixote):
Sancho: “And if the dogs bark, my lord?”.
Don Quixote: “If the dogs bark, Sancho my friend, it will be a sign that we are marching forward”.
Keep up the good work!
I am amazed, but not surprised, by all the people who think (or at least act like they think) that “it” is the media’s fault or Arrington’s fault or whatever. It’s sad, but beautiful (in an ugly kind of way), a rare glimpse to the herd’s core way of looking at things: denial, blame, and no responsibility for their own actions.
When the herd cries out like this, like a mob of scared and angry 2-year olds, feeling the pain of their buy-and-hold “strategy,” but wanting to blame someone else, like they always do, feeling like if we just stop talking about it, it will go away and they can get back to their Matrix-like existence, it means we are at an important emotional extreme.
But what can we do with that knowledge?
The appearance of this behavior at this time, after a slow-motion stock-market capitulation, is a buy signal. It can’t be taken alone, but the other elements appear to be in alignment now. Whether it will be “the” bear market low is another question, but the sheeple have just rung the dinner bell. Let’s eat!
Cheers,
Chrisco
PS: If any sheeple are reading this, do NOT act on this “buy” signal, as it will just be another example of you not thinking for yourself, listening to someone else, etc. Plus there are other components that you need to be aware of (as mentioned above, this signal does not stand alone and is not guaranteed, of course, it’s just probabilistic).
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy
What has his dad got to do with the current spat between Dare and Mike? Please leave his dad out of this.
Michael Arrington, have you tried contacting Dare to resolve this? Please let me know. If you not, let’s try to work this out. Give me a shout.
Michael Arrington, have you tried contacting Dare to resolve this? Please let me know. If not, let’s try to work this out. Give me a shout.
Great pic of Dare Obasanjo above ….ooh, hold on .. is that a Chihuahua ?
I think everyone should totally keep nigeria out of this. Come’on! What has all these gotta do with his dad?
Link Bait anyone?
I think that Microsoft would pay someone to attack TechCrunch is just plain stupid. I mean your saying that anyone working for a company should not blog because their views cannot be taken seriously and must be that of the company they are working for.
So long as I remember you reported on the real world issues happening in the market. As an entrepreneur I need to be informed of what is the reality on the ground and can handle applying the facts to my business and life – no need to hid the truth from me so I don’t feel bad! In fact how the financial crisis did and can affect tech startups is very important for me and something I did not find any of the major news outlets covering last week.
Keep up the good work TechCrunch.
Only 55 VC Funds Raised Money In The Third Quarter (Down 29 Percent).
“Steve Ballmer – October 12th, 2008 at 3:39 pm PDT
You are a voice, and to write negative posts that show no hope for 80% of the readers who come here to get excited about what is happening is not right.”
Its a blog, not a cheerleading squad.
Fox News isn’t right or wrong either, its news with commentary.
Don’t like it? Turn on The Daily Show or Colbert…
That said, Mike I have a pragmatic suggestion: The New York Times has William Kristol write Op Eds, and that makes for good conversation, sometimes heated. While Yahoo has been on the ropes, I’ve often wished someone could speak for developers about all Yahoo has done for the open source community – an informed counter-opinion as it were.
Sure companies should make money for shareholders, but there is also something to be said for what they do in other areas…Yahoo and Google have enabled developers in a way that would have been unimaginable a decade ago…
my 2¢.
chris
Mike: keep the truth coming, and use your own voice!
Everyone is entitled to blog, and it won’t take take a single grumpy guy to change the great reputation that TechCrunch enjoys. Dare won’t affect the discerning reader, whether or not MS is his employer, his Dad an ex-pres or the benevolent way he delivers his happy-happy-happy news.
Why waste your time with this guy?
What is this s***t about “Free Speech”???
This is Mike’s blog!!! He can do whatever he pleases with it… To paraphrase Louis DePalma [Danny DeVito] in “Taxi” –You want ‘freedom of speech’? Go to America, just outside the door…
There!
weird…
http://gatesand...s.blogspot.com/
@Tony – that 15 year old kid is totally cool.
Interviewer: ‘How come Norwegians write so much software?”
Kid: ‘We have very long winters in Norway’
Interviewer: ‘Don’t you have girlfriends here?’
Kid: ‘Yes, but they program too’
What a star.
Well, abrasive style is noticeable in all three articles mentioned in TechCrunch tunrs into FuckedCompany 2.0 post. People react differently to difficult times. I am not sure that Dare’s sentiment for how to perform in this age of crisis is not the right one.
@envy – Dare’s opinions and actions are beyond innocent. He is a grown man and yes, he behaved like a maladjusted teenager [changing Wikipedia pages, etc.] with unacceptable maliciousness. He should be fired.
In my days at MS and then Oracle, I worked closely with a few [male and female] Nigerians and I was constantly intrigued by a certain cold harshness about them. I credited this to cultural differences.
Obasanjo’s maliciousness amounts to, yes, purposeful online terrorism. Some of you guys would not like my words, but again, this is the land of the free, and this is not about me is about Dare Obasanjo’s behavior and actions, which could be perfectly fine in Nigeria. Not here in the US.
We all know there is only one way to deal with terrorists, of any kind. Obasanjo must be fired.
Matt
eff is my 32nd handle.
Dare Obasanjo
Why would Microsoft pay Dare to write those things then?
Don’t try and use logic in the middle of an emotional fight.
Sorry for the rant. I am an idiot. I am an idiot. I am an idiot. I am an idiot.
I know –I’ll be back in a few minutes.