Deep Jive Interests

So in my own haste to write down my own humble thoughts about Mike Arrington and the current bash-a-thon (or love-a-thon, depending on your point of view), I neglected to pore over a few details.

Namely, that MothersClick had some sour grapes over the cold shoulder and not getting “Crunched”, despite numerous efforts at getting Mr. Arrington’s attention (clearly, they didn’t stroll out Miss Universe-quality material — and Mike? You’re never going to live that down)

And — that sour grapes had turned into down right venom at Mr. Arrington “Crunching” the hell out of their competitor Maya’s space, who may or may not have had personal connections with Mr. Arrington himself (perhaps Maya’s goods are Miss Universe quality? — What did I tell you? Not living that down, Mike).

Well, ever wondered what MotherClick’s PR firm told them to do?

In light of Edelman’s blogging buffoonery, one wonders what sort of angle / spin / story / act / strategy / song-and-dance that PR firm tried to opine on what was the best way of approaching and managing Mr. Arrington.

Even though MothersClick had done all the right traditional marketing maneuvers at that PR firm’s behest, it sounds like they were still utterly obssessed with getting Crunched.

[ASIDE: PR Squared doesn't mention their client by name -- so sorry for outing you on this one, but its all over the blogosphere]

So, what was their counsel?

Surprisingly level-headed. It sounds like they told him to let it go.

In fact, though, our advice to the client PRIOR to the incident was, “Your judgment is impaired. Step away from the keyboard. Leave TechCrunch alone. Let Arrington run his blog, you should go run your business.” The client agreed, but later suffered a late-night spasm of righteous indignation — near an Internet connection.

But at this point, their client went off the deep end:

But the client was obsessed with TechCrunch. Without consulting their SHIFT team, the company’s founder left a critical comment at TechCrunch. The client basically questioned Arrington’s integrity. This comment got picked up by ValleyWag. Which got picked up by Digg. Which led to Mr. Arrington posting at-length in defense of his integrity.

Furthermore, their opinion has been thusly:

Our advice AFTER the incident was, “Apologize. Publicly. Now. Then, step away from the keyboard. Throw yourself on the mercy of the blogosphere and cross your fingers.”

Well, that’s what I love about the blogosphere; you never know who’s blogging, and what they’re going to blog about.

The issue around Mike Arrington’s latest rant has drawn its share of controversy from both sides; some saying that Mr. Arrington is far too arbitrary bordering on elitest, while others congratulate him on the work he’s done, arguing that he can do damn well as he pleases.

The piece that set Mike off is a perspective we haven’t seen yet — and I’m curious to see where the blogosphere falls on this issue as well; clearly MothersClick is largely unrepentant for their opinions in spite of what their PR firm suggested.

But IS apologizing the right thing to do?

I guess if I was in public relations and I KNEW there were only a few key “kingmakers” in the web2.0 realm, I would also lie prostate and beg for forgiveness as well. If TechCrunch is noticeably arbitrary in who it reviews, then I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be cast in any black list (if such a list exists … hmmm … I wonder if that list does exist?)

That is, if Mike Arrington’s role is more than a blogger with pithy posts (or seemingly pithy posts), but someone with real connections, his ire, like any other “real” A-lister could have dramatically dire consequences.

If VC / Angel funding and the Crunch / Malik / Marshall crowd is as tight as the old boys club it seems to be, then its not a far stretch where you could envision someone saying (while brandishing an indigant fist in the air) “they’ll never work in this town again!”

So I understand where the PR firm is coming from.

No matter what happens to MothersClick, they’ve still got clients to represent — and they’ve still got to play in the same pool as last time, no matter how it might be tainted with another client’s metaphorical waste products.

On the other hand, there’s something to be said for standing up for yourself and what you believe in. And in many cases, your integrity is the capital that trust is built on — which is the only real currency in the blogosphere anyway.

Question is – is it worth getting anti-crunched?