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Techcrunch Blogger Accepts Product for Posts – Fires Under Age Blogger Daniel Brusilovsky

February 4, 2010
Filed Under: in New Media vs. Old Media, News, Social Media
Author: John Furrier

Welcome back.

UPDATE: Daniel Brusilovsky wrote a blog post and would not go public with the information that he told me which I have on tape.  Daniel's post is not much of a denial and not much an admission.  Let me just say that Daniel's side was much different than what the Techcrunch post said.

UPDATE: I then had an email exchange with Mike Arrington and he went into greater detail of the situation more then Daniel led me to believe.  Therefore, I retract the text from earlier in the post now that both side have explained themselves.   I wanted to make sure a bright young kid who is new to this game not get discouraged by not knowing all the rules.  We'll never know.

UPDATE: I just spoke with Daniel and confirmed that he said he never took product for a post. Just spoke with Mike Arrington and he has additional data Daniel didn't share.  Out of professional courtesy I'll let Daniel and Mike speak on the matter on the details.

From my perspective this should have been a private matter anyway and never posted in a way that it was handled.

imageTonight Techcrunch announced the firing of an employee who committed an awful act - he took money for a favorable post on Techcrunch. It appears the name of the blogger is Daniel Brusilovsky the underage blogger who has risen to popularity for his Teens in Tech venture.

Daniel was fired for taking money for favorable posts on Techcrunch. More on this as it develops.

Mike Arrington, founder and editor, put out a formal apology tonight. Here is his statement.

On Monday evening I received a phone call from someone I trust who told me that one of our interns had asked for compensation in exchange for a blog post. Specifically, this intern had allegedly asked for a Macbook Air in exchange for a post about a startup.

After an investigation we determined that the allegation was true. In fact, on at least one other occasion this intern was almost certainly given a computer in exchange for a post.

The intern in question has admitted to some of the allegations, and has denied others. We suspended this person while we were sorting through exactly what happened. When it became clear yesterday that there was no question that this person had requested, and in one case taken, compensation for a post, the intern was terminated.

This was not one of our full time writers, and so the frequency of posts was light. Nevertheless, we’ve also deleted all content created by this person on our blogs. We are fairly certain that most of the posts weren’t tainted in any way, but to be sure we’ve removed every word written by this person on the TechCrunch network.

Our attorneys have advised us not to disclose the name of the individual because the person is not a legal adult. We also think that, given the intern’s age, it may not be appropriate to make their identity public.

We are all shaken here at TechCrunch – this is someone who was our friend and who we trusted to be honest with our readers. Our hope is that the intern learns something from this experience and grows into the kind of person that will be more welcome in this community.

I apologize to each one of you. I promise that we will always maintain complete transparency with you on how we operate, even when it isn’t such an easy thing to.

I am close to all the bloggers in the tech blogosphere and I can tell you that Daniel is a good kid. He's a young inexperienced entrepreneur, but he's a good kid. Works hard and is learning the ropes.

I can't wait to hear Daniel’s side of the story. I am waiting for his call.

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17 responses to “Techcrunch Blogger Accepts Product for Posts – Fires Under Age Blogger Daniel Brusilovsky”

  1. OhhJohnny says:
    February 5, 2010 at 1:12 am

    No, he may be a good kid but he should not be anywhere near tech reporting. The ethics in the space are already shaky as it is, and he knew exactly what he was doing by shaking down startups. If TC wanted to go for the jugular they would have posted this during normal business hours. I'll bet his side of the story is that he succumbed to temptation, which happens to the best of us no matter the age. But don't try to defend t thhe actions of some unethical person who only got the TC gig because of his family connections.

    Reply
    1. Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins says:
      February 5, 2010 at 1:38 am

      The messaging we're getting from folks who know him is that this is highly exaggerated (exaggeration from Arrington? Who's shocked?). There's something more dramatic going on here, and the timing of this announcement is key - tomorrow is the Teens in Tech conference, Daniel's conference.

      Reply
  2. TechCrunch and its lost Teachable Moment says:
    February 5, 2010 at 4:25 pm

    [...] Apology To Our Readers Techcrunch Accepts Money for Posts – Fires Under Age Blogger Daniel Brusilovsky Rule #1: be honest...Was Deleting All Daniel Brusilovsky’s Posts an FTC Blogger Guideline Violation? [#bruhaha] Tech [...]

    Reply

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