Alexia Tsotsis

Closure

For those of you that followed and helped me get through my car wreck around this time last year: This week, arbitration ruled that the guy who ran a red, injured me and totaled my car was 100% at fault (he denied responsibility at the scene of the accident).

So almost year later, I get some closure. And a check. 

Pro tip: Never get hit by a car. It messes with you. 

Thank you again friends and family and especially my team at TechCrunch for making this terrible experience slightly less terrible. Thank you. 

The Media Hates Itself

I’m tired of writing about general interest news on TechCrunch. Namely because I’m tired of debating what *is* a tech story and having to have a hardcore filter thus, because of optics and the prominence of our publication. 

In the course of this weekend I’ve read the Society of Professional Journalism’s “Code of Ethics” three times, just to figure out if in actuality I am a journalist. As far as I can tell, I am not one. Because I have a huge problem with other people approving of and being comfortable with what I write. Because I don’t think conflicts of interest are avoidable. And a lot more reasons. 

Also, as hard as it it is to admit, I would probably go ballistic if I had to subscribe to the approval mechanisms that exist in other, more traditional, news organizations, or more than ephemerally have deal with the kind of postgame holier-than-thou judgment and analysis that is par for the course in the traditional media industry, which very clearly hates itself.

From The New York Times today, covering the coverage of the Boston bombing coverage. 

“Even good reporters with good sources can end up with stories that go bad,” says this article.

THANKS. NO SHIT. Yes, we are human, we make mistakes. Looking for someone to blame is the most basic of our behaviors, and gets amplified at collective moments of unease: “Media (And Especially Reddit) Is To Blame For Boston Tragedy,” is what we’ve been doing all week. Basically.

This sucks. Do better. You’re paid to write the truth, not to eloquently throw others under a meta-analysis bus. The New York Times should change its name to Hindsight Is 20/20.

That’s all for now, I’m going to get back to scheduling guest posts.

Image via gomery

Fear Of Missing Out On Tragedy, Not On Pageviews

My colleague MG Siegler has written something pretty damning about the way tech blogs cover general news stories, implicating TechCrunch and some others as “profiteering assholes” because of how we chose to cover the tragic Boston Marathon attacks.

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Should Probably Rethink My “Exaggerate For Effect” Strategy

Better Than The Alternative

I once met Gloria Steinem. In 2006, I worked as a temp receptionist at the fancy New York City hair salon where she got her hair done. 

After I checked her in for her appointment, I asked her, having read about the seemingly insurmountable obstacles she faced in trying to accomplish her life’s work, “Why did you do it? Why did you fight so hard for what you believed in? Did you just persevere or something?”

And she responded, “I did it because it was better than the alternative.”

Uber For Therapists