Bloggasm

NPR: TechCrunch Rules. Web Stats: Uh … No

NPR’s On The Media had an interview with Michael Arrington in wake of the New York Times piece on process journalism. But when I followed a link from Twitter about the story, blanket uninformed and unverified — and easily disproven — statements about the “dominance” of TechCrunch were the real surprise.

Here’s the statement that smelled like week-old mackerel:

No news site dominates quite like TechCrunch, a network of websites and blogs that has basically buried all other outlets, online and off, in coverage of technology and tech enterprise.

Certainly I don’t always agree with TechCrunch and have noted ethical problems in their coverage. I do, though, generally respect the outlet.

But “buried all other outlets, online and off”? Did anyone at On The Media, a show focusing on “the process of ‘making media,’” do enough research to verify that statement, or was hype enough? Here’s the disclaimer that should hardly be necessary, given that it’s so obvious: I write for BNET, which is affiliated with CNET and ZDNet, so technically am in competition with TechCrunch, though I can’t get into the whole us-versus-them thing.