TechCrunch Founder Michael Arrington: Arianna Huffington is a 'Touchy Psychopath'

TechCrunch found Michael Arrington, who was fired from the site he founded last September, is not pleased with what he perceives to be the decapitation of TechCrunch's editorial team by Arianna Huffington. Arrington took to his blog yesterday to protest the recent firing of TechCrunch editor Erick Schonfeld, calling Huffington "a very touchy psychopath conducting a game of musical chairs to the death." More from Arrington: Arianna Huffington seems to enjoy fucking with TechCrunch in her leisure time. She put all her weight behind Schonfeld when I left. But within a few weeks the rumors were that she was furious at him for the way the news broke about MG Siegler joining CrunchFund. I doubt Erick even realized, but he was a marked man from that day on. Yes, something that petty can piss her off... [W]hen Jonathan Abrams joked yesterday that “In the future, everyone will be editor of TechCrunch for 15 minutes,” it was funny because it rang true. It’s hard to keep your job running TechCrunch these days.In the old days of TechCrunch we were pretty good at deflecting the constant gripes from the old school press and the mobs they occasionally kicked into existence. TechCrunch still has to deal with that, but in the modern era they also have to watch their back, because they have a very touchy psychopath conducting a game of musical chairs to the death. In other words, she has the TechCrunch staff running around in circles, afraid they’ll be the next one out. Sadly, the style of management Arrington describes isn't unique to Huffington and her management of TechCrunch. It's pretty much standard CEO operating procedure in the post-Reagan world. The job of the modern boss is to make his/her employees lives miserable. To make them feel so wildly unstable in their ability to hold their job that it will force them to grovel at the company's feet for the chance to do "more with less." Dissent is not tolerated. Independent thought is not tolerated. Do what you're told or you will be fired in as humiliating a fashion as possible. These are the principles that govern the contemporary corporate American work force. If you don't want to be governed by these principles, or have your friends governed by them, don't sell your company to a huge multi-national like AOL.

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TechCrunch Founder Michael Arrington: Arianna Huffington is a 'Touchy Psychopath'

Matthew Fleischer

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Matthew Fleischer