If there ever was a bullshit excuse, especially today considering the accelerated maturity of our young friends, its this: “Boys will be boys”.
So when TechCrunch unloaded their empire-building seventeen-year-old intern, I was a little tweaked about the “Boys will be boys” attitude by some.
TechCrunch, for it’s part, said something was wrong, apologized, and took action. I applaud Michael Arrington today, and that’s something I don’t often do.
But I don’t applaud Loic Le Meur. He wrote a post essentially saying, “Boys will be boys” and we shouldn’t be too harsh toward the kid because of his age. Strike one.
Strike two: Loic closes his blog post saying, “Vive la transparence.”
Since you only get two strikes with me, Here’s why I don’t trust Loic:
Strike One
It’s one thing to be seventeen and working as a young journalist. We all make mistakes. It’s another to be seventeen, attempting to build a business on the back of your TechCrunch credibility, and buying up other start-ups. One of which you covered on TechCrunch before buying them.
Boys will be boys?
Strike Two
No where in Loic’s post did he disclose his relationship with the kid. He didn’t mention that either currently, or in the past, has served on the board of the kid’s company. Even if he doesn’t now, that kind of thing needs to be disclosed.
If you’re going to close a post praising transparency, you need to be transparent yourself.
Strike Three
Unrelated, but still bullshit:
Guy Kawaski’s Alltop had amateur video of the Challenger disaster posted today. I found that to be insensitive since they’re serving ads to the right about your travel options. You stay classy Alltop.
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