As anyone who has read my critically acclaimed, Pulitzer-Prize-winning book will know, I have not always been the paragon of honesty I am today.
Truth be told, in the past I have been guilty of prevarication on an Olympian scale in almost all aspects of my life. In business, in relationships, in friendships and even – during one epically drunken evening in a London pub a couple of years ago – in all three at the same time, leading to hilarious consequences, no small amount of heartache and the beginning of my journey of self-improvement. It’s a long story. You should buy it.
Given my past indiscretions, then, it’s both perfectly fitting and deliciously ironic how much I hate being lied to. Or rather, how much I hate discovering that I’ve been lied to. I really can’t put into words how furious it makes me; with the liar, the lie and with myself for believing them both. I could probably forgive you for cheating on my sister (I don’t have a sister) or running over my cat (I don’t have a cat), providing you’re honest with me about it. But the moment you lie, and I find out about it, we’re done.
So you can imagine how I felt this week when I found out I’d been lied to multiple times by not one but two separate people, regarding two different stories I was trying to report. I won’t name names on this occasion, for reasons I’ll get to, but the details are important.
The first liar presented himself to me on Monday when Lacy and I were working on a story about European music house-of-cards Spotify. Ordinarily I am more than able to resist the temptation of doing actual journalism, but a source very close to the company had reached out to me with details of their latest fundraising round and so I felt I had something uncharacteristically useful to contribute to Sarah’s solid reporting of the story. The source was willing to tell me all that he knew on the proviso that I wouldn’t quote him directly or identify him in any way. With every reason to trust him – or rather no reason not to – I agreed.
(Journalism students will have correctly determined that he was asking for a neat subset of “off the record” sourcing called the Chatham House Rule. Well done journalism students, go to the top of your irrelevant class.)
A few hours later, as is good practise when dealing with unattributable information, I spoke to another well-placed source for verification. “Here’s what I’ve heard from my source,” I said, before spelling out what my Deep Throat had told me. The second source listened intently but with a look of increasing confusion spreading across her face.
“Wait,” she said, “did you get this stuff from __________, by any chance”?
“I’m not going to talk about sources,” I said.
She laughed, for an uncomfortably long time. “Yeah, you’ve obviously been talking to __________. He does this all the time – exaggerates or out-and-out lies to reporters off the record, knowing he won’t be quoted. He thinks he’s some Machiavellian character but the truth is he’s just not very good at it.”
No. He most certainly is not.
Moving right along, and if you follow me on Twitter you can probably guess the identity of my second liar of the week. You might even have read the open letter I wrote to him on my blog, but let’s keep his name off TechCrunch just this once. Sufficed to say he’s someone with whom I’ve had numerous conversations – some on the record, others off – in which he’s told me his side of what is a very weird and very painful story of lies, betrayal and start-ups-gone-bad. In return I’d given him a fair hearing and, I thought, reported the facts in a way that was fair to all parties.
But as time went on, his version of events began to unravel. More and more independent information that I received pointed to the fact that I’d been mislead – and on a few comical occasions the liar’s new lies even began to contradict his previous ones.
I mean, seriously. Being fooled by one off the record liar in a week is unfortunate, two starts to look like carelessness. You can imagine how angry I felt.
And yet with that anger came a sudden realisation: with almost every lie I’ve ever been told professionally, the circumstances have been the same. The person telling it has always insisted on being off the record, ostensibly because the information they’re giving me is so sensitive that they would risk losing their livelihood if they were revealed as the source. But really because they are talking out of their ass with a serious agenda and don’t want to be exposed as a liar. It’s happened to me maybe fifty times, and I’m not even a real reporter.
What seems to have been forgotten in the past few years, by both sources and reporters, is that an off the record agreement is not a one-way deal which allows an interested party to spin a story without any risk that it will come back and bite them on the ass. Rather it’s a contract between two parties, designed to ensure that the truth can be told, in keeping with the public interest, without fear of oppression.
It’s a way for a source to feel safe in revealing, honestly, what they know, in return for agreement that the reporter would go to jail before identifying him or her. The reporter is agreeing to take all the heat for the story; to put their ass on the line for the source – and the price of having the reporter take that risk is total honesty. Think Mark Felt and Bob Woodward; that’s how it’s supposed to work.
And yet, until now, the big difference between the “off the record” contract and any other binding contract is that the former didn’t carry any penalties whatsoever for breach. Even if all evidence points to an anonymous source being 100% full of shit, the fact remains that the reporter has agreed in advance not to identify them. Sure, I’ll never trust either of my two liars again, but they’re still free to scamper off to another reporter and peddle the same bullshit with a decent chance it’ll be published, at least as a rumour.
Every technology and business reporter I’ve spoken to this week about the off the record problem has their own story to tell about bullshitting sources, and every single one says they don’t know what to do about it. They just consider it one of the risks of the game.
Well enough’s enough. The one-sided contract ends here.
From now on, if you tell me something off the record and I later discover that you’ve knowingly mislead me, our contract of anonymity is immediately void, for breach. That means that everything you’ve told me about the story becomes on the record, and fully attributable.
Every.
Single.
Thing.
I will call you out on your lies and I will embarrass the hell out of you, to the point that no reporter – or any other right-thinking human being – will ever believe a word you say ever again. If there’s any justice in the world, you’ll also be fired. And have your sister cheated on, and your cat run over.
This new policy starts today, and over the coming days and weeks I’ll be taking my message on the road, selling the idea to every other reporter I meet. It’s time those of us who write about business and technology begin holding ourselves to the same standards we expect from any other kind of reporting, and it’s time to indict those backroom bullshitters who think that journalists are their own private press machines.
Consider yourself warned, liars. Your free ride stops here. Because God knows, if there’s one person more unwise to bullshit than a bullshitter, it’s a reformed bullshitter.
And, yes, you can absolutely quote me on that.
I work for techcrunch and I know you’re going to be sacked next week. I’m telling you this off the record, of course.
Seriously. WTF is this drivel? A lengthy essay about how you are a crappy journalist? It’s amazing that Arrington pays you to recount your therapy sessions on TC. I feel bad for your shrink. He/She must cringe when you enter the building.
Paul: From now on, if you tell me something on the record and I later discover that you’ve knowingly mislead me, our contract of anonymity is immediately void, for breach. That means that everything you’ve told me about the story becomes on the record, and fully attributable.
I think you meant for “if you tell me something OFF the….” as to mean that if you lie, you’ll be outed.
This was extremely well written and I will absolutely give you all the credit it the world, consider you the CETBO officer [Cheif End To Bullshitting Offiver]
well FML – you’ve already changed it. well done sir.
You know, speaking off the record of course, …
I totally agree with you Paul – I hate discovering I’ve been lied to – it sucks, it really does.
Great piece!
HollyM
http://www.thessayist.com
Don’t quote me on this, but I am probably going to start writing for TechCrunch soon. Really soon. Just, for now, that’s off the record, because other places I write for might be unhappy. But it’ll be great to have you as a trusted colleague. Please though, this is just on background for your story on “Ten Stupendous Up-and-Comers for 2009.”
Wait, did this guy really just call himself both Stupendous and an Up-and-Comer?
I think this policy should have been enforced a long time ago. Reporters/writers don’t need to listen to those who wanna be able to tell their friends, “Yeah that was me who leaked that story.” Find some other way to make yourself feel important if all you’re going to spread is lies.
What the self-absorbed Paul Carr doesn’t apparently know (or is ignoring) is that journalists burn sources who lie. The whole point is to alert other journalists that this person is a liar. No “from this point forward,” and this has always been known by people who care to pay attention.
Lucky for Paul Carr’s sources, TechCrunch doesn’t hire journalists and he’s free to compromise his ethics to preserve…something. I’m guessing access, just like hacks in the MSM (Tim Russert), but he’s also preserving the source’s ability to lie to other writers.
So the main takeaway from this post is that Paul Carr does not subscribe to journalism’s code of ethics and that he calls his co-writer by her last name.
> What the self-absorbed Paul Carr doesn’t apparently know (or is ignoring) is that journalists burn sources who lie.
Note that “burn” means “tell a couple of friends”. Journalists love to talk tough.
> The whole point is to alert other journalists that this person is a liar.
If that was the point, there’d be a mechanism that actually did so. Instead, it’s rumor and innuendo.
Carr’s policy is better than the journalist preening in a couple of ways.
(1) It doesn’t treat journalists as special.
(2) Carr is putting his name on “{source} lies” statements.
(3) It isn’t misleading or contain factual errors.
1) yawn
2) somebody put an end to this obsession with journalism (it’s a blog)
3) i thought this was a tech blog
4) this is an open letter – is there going to be an article?
When Dan Lyon’s posts to a web log is that journalism? A web log is a type of web site, and journalism is a profession, so what you say in 2) makes no sense.
There are simply professionals and amateurs, and what the medium is doesn’t matter.
i was saying that, as this is is a tech blog, the talk about journalistic deontology is irrelevance
what’s with all these “we are writers hear us roar” rants lately… no one cares about your profession just do your damn job and report tech stuff… if someone is messing with you call him out. STOP WASTING MY DAMN TIME WITH THESE RANTS TECHIES DON’T CARE
+1
Don’t worry. Your complete inability to use punctuation properly has already demonstrated your disregard for writing. Obviously, techies and writers are two mutually exclusive groups.
And god forbid we know anything about the morals and ethos of the publication we read. I’d hate to have an informed opinion as to who I’m listening to and why I should trust them over anyone else. That would mean I could use those critical thinking skills I developed.
I hate those.
you can do better than that. no one can tell you who and why to trust
+1
I’m a techie and I care so stfu and skip to the next story next time.
Bloggers adopting formal journalism rules may well be what saves the media industry now that the incumbents have decided to commit suicide via paywalls.
Sam
+1
i’m a nobody and i care.
if i didn’t care i wouldn’t have clicked the story link.
if i didn’t care i wouldn’t have read the entire write up and all the links provided within the story.
if i didn’t care i would not be on tc giving this site hits, or even lurking this website and not commenting (for some of you out there).
if i didn’t care i wouldn’t comment.
some people really don’t understand what they pay mind to and what they don’t pay any mind to. or even saying with the use of the word, care, in “i don’t care”, but then they do something to contradict their statement. i am making this “some people…” comment in observing this website, and also being a self accepted hypocrite as well as an accepted bullshiter, but also a truth believer. it’s all contradictory, but then i am also a self accepted imperfect. joing me in my crusade, lol (the crusade is bs ok).
if i didn’t care i would not be typing this up.
if some people didn’t care they would not be posting comments on this website under a single name or multiple names and asking questions like “is this news” trying to get a response to an already answered question, making that question redundant and entirely rhetorical. it’s okay if after you finish reading something you post the question, “is this news?” but maybe then back it up with your position of what is news, especially to you, and then ask yourself the better questions of why you are commenting on this website/why you visited this website. because if you didn’t care you wouldn’t be here. there’s a determination by the creation of this website/this company that there is a focus/purpose, and it is to post news/information about x, x, x, relating to this x subject matter. you may not care about what they write up and post (whether they are articles or not…i’m still deciding because articles used to only be attributed to what was written on paper but now are also atrributed to web stories, reports, opinion editorials, etc), but somewhere someone is reading this as a news piece. some people might read this and say that i right too much, it’s too long, it’s irrelevant, it’s incoherent, i’m a loser to be typing this (i didn’t retype those definitions. lol.) just like those losers who post under multiple alias’ and ask questions like why are you posting this, why is this news, this isn’t news, etc…well you know what thank you very much. i already know all that. i am quite capable of writing in complete sentence and using grammar but i choose not to because it doesn’t fit with my online persona. yeah it’s a disservice to me, but you know what, thanks for your concern but i really don’t care. lol. if i didn’t care i wouldn’t hahaha say that and show you what is actually true. obviously. what i should have written which would be more accurate, is that i don’t care enough. now i’m going to post my actual original comment without reading the comments (will do after) so i can talk about shankers who are complete worthless pieces of shit, like the people paul carr wrote about.
(i haven’t started my google detox yet so i can still do this. lol)
http://www.goog...on&ct=title
information about recent and important events; “they awaited news of the outcome”
information reported in a newspaper or news magazine; “the news of my death was greatly exaggerated”
news program: a program devoted to current events, often using interviews and commentary; “we watch the 7 o’clock news every night”
informal information of any kind that is not previously known to someone; “it was news to me”
newsworthiness: the quality of being sufficiently interesting to be reported in news bulletins; “the judge conceded the newsworthiness of the trial”; “he is no longer news in the fashion world”
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
The News International is the second largest English language newspaper in Pakistan. The News has an ABC certified circulation of 140,000. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_News_(Karachi)
The News was a short-lived New Wave band formed in 1977, by Sal Smith (lead vocals, guitar), Graham Culpin (bass), Lindsay Elliott (drums) (previously with Cockney Rebel), Richard James Burgess (of Landscape) (drums) and Michael Taylor (keyboards).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_News_(band)
The News was an afternoon daily tabloid newspaper in the city of Adelaide, South Australia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_News_(Adelaide)
NeWS (for Network extensible Window System) was a windowing system developed by Sun Microsystems in the mid 1980s. Originally known as “SunDew”, its primary authors were James Gosling and David S. H. Rosenthal. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeWS
A News (formerly A-Channel News) is the name of local newscasts on the A television system in Canada.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_News_(TV_series)
Portsmouth News is the only paid-for newspaper in Portsmouth, England. It is produced by Johnston Press, owners of Portsmouth Publishing & Printing at their headquarters in Hilsea, Portsmouth. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_News_(Portsmouth)
The Network of European Worldshops (NEWS!) was established in 1994 and coordinates the cooperation between Worldshops in Europe. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEWS!
Lerner Newspapers, once the largest chain of weekly newspapers in the world, was a force in community journalism in Chicago from 1926 to 2005.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_News_(Chicago)
Choate Rosemary Hall (commonly referred to as Choate) is a private, college-preparatory, coeducational boarding school located in Wallingford, Connecticut. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_News_(major_publication_at_Choate;_weekly_newspaper)
A News, originally known simply as “news,” was the first widely distributed program for serving and reading Usenet newsgroups. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_News
Can we have this guy stop posting on Tech Crunch already? What a wanker.
liar.
off the record, i totally enjoy reading Paul Carr’s column every week! Well done! Excellent writing again..
Personally, when i want people to believe me i put quotes around it and give it to Mark Twain. There are a few of mine in here i’m sure…
http://www.quot.../subjects/lies/
Just to illustrate:-
“Say the fuck what you like until the day get yourself infamous.” – Mark Twain.
There, that wasn’t so difficult was it?
i was reading something an article…although i can’t really say it was because it was written like how i write on this website, about lisa ling calling in to cnn to talk about her sister. she spoke to erica hill on the ac 360 show, and this author kept writting and lisa said….instead of saying and lisa said, “…..” so that people would actually know what lisa said…because you know what she did she reparced the interview because she hadn’t gotten that interview so she couldn’t do the “…..”…but you know even i know cnn provides a transcript, and when i need to i use it. so i don’t understand why this adult who is imparting “news” cannot quote from that transcript and use it as a source. and then quote the mother fn thing. so i read it and laughed because if i had written something like that and submitted it to my english teacher she would dock me so many marks. seriously. i know i am just being anal but that author could have done that and saved herself/himself the trouble of then reading into what said person had said. i mean if i didn’t say something and some mother f’n journo or fake reporter said “Mertz says….” i would punch them. lol. i wouldn’t hit them but i’d get pissed. this is what i was wrote in one my comments in the previous write up about a new news company being an aggregate thread.
Paul, you’re the epitome of Paul Mall.
Paul,
If you were a piece of bacon I’d dip you in chocolate and sell you at redneck carnivals.
Paul
Love the way you wrote about off the record sources, but your premise has a flaw.
You ARE a reporter. Of course people will lie to you to get their side of the story published.
If the voice of Techcrunch was not powerful, why else would people contact a mere writer with inside information? In this age, where traditional media is dying, all of us are journalists for the new media, but some like you have much bigger megaphones. Your anger at being lied to demonstrates you posess some sort of journalistic standards…. albeit newfound.
A rose by any other name is still a rose. Have fun reporting!
“You ARE a reporter. Of course people will lie to you to get their side of the story published.”
yeah well it’s the times we live in i guess because it’s really unfortunate that we have to assume people are liars. it’s worse for people in his profession, but generally speaking it’s just kinda unfortunate that we all have to me more mistrustful, more cyncical about people’s morals. some people think it’s paranoid to live on the assumption that you are being lied to, but it’s called being aware of the reality. people lie. oh well. i’m used to it enough so i just get over it, but i don’t hang around people like me, and if i do i make sure they know that yeah i lie, because i own up to it, and i expect them to tell me if they lie. if they hoodwink me, i don’t deal with them.
from one bullshitter to another bullshitter, “if you lie to me then let it be known that you are a c**t.”
yeah my friends hate me. oh well. atleast they know the deal, and there are lots of people in the world i can befriend. i’m not hard up. lol.
I hope you find many converts to your two main themes in your 3 weeks: (1) no anonymous posts and (2) anonymous sources (only until you have verified that you have been lied to). Character, truth and integrity are worthwhile precepts. If somebody lies to you (and they will) now, you can have even more fun with them. Some of your sources may dry up though — b/c the truth is a twisty serpent with different interpretations. But then again, a lie is a lie and we all know when we tell them….
I’m with you 100% as far as you go. What’s missing is the thin line of newsprint that reporters seem to stand behind, such that when one of them goes off and prints bullshit straight from one unverified source, other journalists don’t call them on it.
I can’t tell you how many bullshit casestudies paid for be vendors get handed to reports (Dan Lyons comes to mind in his former role) and just printed as if gospel — sometimes deliberately to draw the flame back and gain attention.
Where’s the rest of the “press” when this goes on?
Sure, someone who lies “off the record” should immediately be put on the record. I’m with you. But lets shine that sunlight a lot more universally, yes?
Is this how you keep readers on the weekend? BS get rid of this nut.
It’s a column dip shit. You don’t like it, move on.
sad to see this is your 3rd week lets see if you do comeback for a forth. over the last few weeks I have enjoyed reading your column Paul
Want some cheese to go with your whine?
In other words you got fooled twice and feel pretty sore about it.
Tough shit, soldier. That’s life.
That is the beauty with blogs, we can write whatever we like. Usually blogs are themed unless we have a bad day then we rant, but usually the rants are within the themed blog.
This would have probably fit better somewhere else.
no if you facebook user’s comment above yours you’ll see that it all ties in.
insert ‘look’ before facebook
Off the record:
All you liars out there, go f*** yourself.
lol thanks. most liars who know they are liars and not the one’s who delude themself know this.
I can’t believe I pay you to write advertisements for your book. how exactly did this happen?
You obviously never read his Guardian column then.
It could be worse it could be an advertisement for puppets and Julia Allison
Simple: That was before he reformed. :p
Simple: he lied to you.
The deal was: I pay you whatever you write while the readers appreciate it and Techcrunch is not sued by your fault, correct?
he made it hard for you to say no.
i checked my library and they don’t have the book so i put it on request and will get them to carry the book.
in the meantime i ordered it at my local bookstore.
Well, you could always charge him for a full page ad if, or rather when, he mentions his book again.
Maybe there’s another way. Perhaps you could keep track of a signal-to-noise ratio of each source. If ol-george tells you he chopped down the cherry tree, well, you can believe him. On the other hand, if some chap in a pub in london, we’ll call him “Paul” (just for example) tells you about his Pulitzer, perhaps he’s not believable.
Reports talk and could perhaps share s/n or their sources without ratting them out.
This was the single worst post ever on TC. There is a reason Arrington has CrunchNotes – you should do the same coward.
you’re such a bitch. Seriously.
My question is: “How do these ‘liars’ get to be such key figures in reporters lives in the first place?”
You mention how they’re going to go on to other reporters who will eat up their garbage.
wat???
From reading your ‘rant’(?), it sounds like any ding-dong can get the ear of a top-level blogger or reporter, but I know that is not the case.
Please don’t loose heart, there ARE good people out there.
i wonder, how does the “NSFW” series constitute news?
It doesn’t. Quite the opposite, it’s long-term analysis.
And Paul speaking about himself, too. I think all of us are free psychologists for him.
I come to this site to read tech news, not journalism boo-hoo drama.
Paul grow some nuts and quick being an “olympic” hypocrit you sack.
Arrington fire this sack.
Karma’s a bitch
Three weeks over. Aren’t you fired yet?
You are trying to jump the shark every week in a very pretentious manner.
I just wonder how this article/writer adds value to TC.
Paul is great, just read the comments, there’s as much passion here as in a Mac v PC flame fest.
Paul, you are a very good writer and I consider TC to be a premier site for technology news. However, must you use vulgaritiesin titles and articles? Again, your writing is very good–but when authors resort to vulgaries, except in novels, they diminish both the article and the author. The point can be made more effectively without vulgarities.
Again, I appreciate your writing and TC–I just hate to see vulgarities reduce what is otherwise good writing and professional journalism.
Bullshit.
truth is never vulgar
So if someone tells you something in confidence that they believe is true, but you later discover that it’s inaccurate, you’ll expose them and potentially destroy their career?
“knowingly mislead” is what he’s saying, but nonetheless it’s going to be hard to find out it was definitely “knowingly”
Uhhh, hopefully.
I have been reading TechCrunch for years, took a few months hiatus and come back to see this article. I’m not posting (a first for me) because of the article, but because of a few replies to it. Reading the comments here there are a few “Techies don’t care” posts.
Where I come from, there are nerds and there are geeks, both are techies. Nerds talk about Tech stuff and that’s about it, they have no social skills. Geeks, well, we talk about sports, women, politics, and yes, things like the state of journalism.
I like this article, a lot. Its got the street I came from in it, and the professional in it that I am now. If we put a little more street into our daily diplomatic professional walk on eggshell lives, things just work better.
This new policy is a white-collar baseball bat, and I fucking like it. -You little bitch!
this article’s target audience is circa 10 people in silicon valley. it’s kind of abuse to use the author’s weekly column on a very popular tech blog for that.
Who are these 10 people, I want names.
what tenthings? are you serious?
i read that and went thought wow.
yeah the target audience must only be 10 people in tin valley.
Re: Nerds/Geeks: I always invert them. Geeks are the ones with no social skills, Nerds are the obsessive ones. Whatevs, though: we’re speaking the same basic language.
Paul, that seems like a real downer professionally.
Source: “I know some fact, but no one can know it came from me.”
Paul: “Ok, but if you lie to me, I’m going to destroy you in print.”
Source: “Nevermind.”
It seems like a quiet life. Isn’t your job to sift through the shit looking for the pony?
——
I’d rather you DESTROY the $80 juice cleanse company… that’d be great sport.
i agree. i really really really don’t like all these cleanse companies. who told you i wanted to clear my body of waste. stop advertising to me.
I agree, I guess, and it’s kind of nice to read stuff not about tech for once and learn about how you guys get your info, but don’t you only post on Saturday’s? In other words, from August 2-14 we only get a drawn out “i don’t like liars?”
Don’t journalists do pesky things like research to make sure they’re not spreading other people’s bullshit?
I know you normally resist doing ‘actual journalism’, but how about you use your source’s off-the-record comments to guide a deeper investigation, with facts you’ve taken the time to prove yourself?
Alternatively, you could just do it your way: indiscriminately publish anything you’re told and wash your hands of the responsibility if you’re ever called out on it – thus dropping someone else in it and potentially jeopardizing their career while seeming to stand up for ‘integrity’ or some shit.
That sounds much easier, doesn’t it?
Did it occur to you that it was in the process of doing the aforementioned research that Paul discovered it was bullshit?
Sounds like “actual journalism” to me – plenty of people would have printed it without question, inflating the [perceived] value of Spotify and ultimately screwing some poor investor out of their hard earned.
The blogosphere needs more “actual journalism” and thanks Paul for bringing us some – it’s a natural progression following TC’s rejection of embargos.
Sam
well atleast he recognized it. maybe he’s reworking that story and getting actual credible information.
if someone has some connection to something that will be seen as a coonflict of interest, be straight up about it, and also if you’re biased (although some people can tell when they read something that is biased…some people just don’t use their brains) like that guy who did the napster, spotify write up, please start your piece with that. i mean after reading that post, i also read comments saying f you and your bias post why is tc putting this here, and it made me laugh again. so many funny things on this website.
Hey Paul,
I’m a huge fan of your weekly columns, keep it up man. As a fellow reformed bullshitter, I can also say that I feel your pain whenever I find that I’ve been duped.
Can you just whine on your own damn time? I’m pretty sure what you’re dealing with isn’t the first time someone in this world has dealt with it. Ever hear that quote about how there really is nothing original in this world? I guess you’re just trying to publicly save your ass?
Can you whine on your own damn time?
oh and by the way… buy my book.
yeah he’s just trying to “publicly save his ass”. lol.
With all due respect to his fans, I find Mr. Carr’s articles provide nothing to the site other than a minor sheen of self-importance so prevalent among “celebrated” “new media” “journalists”.
When a source lies to you, burn it.
If any reporter promises a source “I will not identify you even if you lie to me,” it’s because he knows what he ends up publishing might be wrong–but he wants to publish it anyway, with the plausible deniability of an anonymous source.
Wringing one’s hands over this just propagates the notion that we have an ethical responsibility to protect liars in pursuit of some greater journalistic truth. But the truth is that doing this just makes us clearing houses for bullshit.
Paul Carr’s column on TC is the worst thing to happen to TC since Sarah Lacy joined. Soon, the whole TC will be crowded with these fools who are just promoting themselves.
just as I thought, he makes fun of journalism students and calls them irrelevant. That’s why he’s not ashamed (indeed, he’s rather proud) of the fact that he’s “unqualified” to be a journalist (see last week’s rant). He views journalism degrees as rubbish and prefers instead “credibility” which he went to lengths last week to demonstrate that he has.
lol. i know lots of journalists and people going to school right now to get into that profession and even they say the same thing. same with the profs (granted some of them just want you to quit because they don’t want to teach idiots, but some of them want you to quit because they don’t want to teach). he can say that. he does the job. i could say that as an observer and consumer of news, but i don’t because i don’t have the personal experience. but i do like sometimes to fool people and show them how unprofessional they are. i mean if you’re allowing me to be your source and you don’t research me, lol, it’s at your own hands. don’t get mad when i go and expose you for being an idiot/too trusting. yeah yeah karma’s a bitch. i’ll get mine. i look forward to it.
Omg! this post is equal to the 75% information available on wikipedia and 10% of of total the internet.
bro, can’t you write concisely ….. 2ndly TC is not amazon bookstore !
I had lot of people putting lot of stuff OF THE RECORD on my website
The first thing to ask is: WHY is this source bringing me this information?
It is very, very rare for the reason to be anything altruistic or truly in the public interest. Common reasons include: disgruntled employees or partners with an ax to grind, an executive with an overblown ego, attention-seekers, supply-chain leaks (hijacking coverage…I think the Crunchpad experienced this recently), or even sometimes the company itself…wanting news out there but unwilling to officially announce it for whatever reason.
I’m always extra skeptical if a story quotes an anonymous source. While they are occasionally the good guys, mostly I get the idea an anonymous source is some little worm who got left behind, slinking around getting his revenge.
“I’m always extra skeptical if a story quotes an anonymous source. While they are occasionally the good guys, mostly I get the idea an anonymous source is some little worm.”
same here. i agree. i usually just say spinless pieces of shit, but if journo’s didn’t use anonymous sources, most of the news we read will be gone.
Nothing is ever off the record online.
Nice article. I enjoy them much more than most of the stuff on Techcrunch.
I 100% agree.
Hey Arrington,
are you going to post a comment every saturday saying, “Hey do I pay you to write ___”. We get it. We get it.
hahaha you noticed that too.
well maybe paul will get himself fired from this job.
great bloddy post. stop the bullshit, cheers from chile