Paul, I Accept Your Resignation

Paul Carr, one of our columnists who was hired for his grandstanding ways, has decided to fall on his own sword and quit very publicly on TechCrunch. I believe this is the second or third time he’s quit in public in the past couple weeks. I keep losing count. He thinks he is somehow being loyal to Mike and standing up for the editorial independence of the site. But he is not. He is just grandstanding.

Paul’s resignation post reads like the brave stand of a man of principle. But the truth is that Paul doesn’t really know what he is talking about. And he certainly doesn’t speak for TechCrunch. He is not even a full-time employee. I tried to reach out to him and was hoping to have an honest conversation about his future (or lack thereof) at TechCrunch. Instead, he blindsided me with his post by publishing it as I was boarding a plane.

At any other publication, Paul would have been fired long ago. And his post would be taken down. But I will let it stand. When Paul was hired, he was promised that he could write anything and it would not be censored, even if it was disparaging to TechCrunch. I will still honor that agreement. Paul likes to groan a lot about TechCrunch’s supposed loss of editorial independence. Yet he cannot point to one instance where he was blocked from saying what he believes on TechCrunch, and I am not going to start to do that now.

I am also not going to get into all the details of what happened behind the scenes during the drama which unfolded in the past few weeks here at TechCrunch. But I will say this. To suggest that Arianna appointed me editor single-handedly is untrue. Also, I want to be very clear that I accepted the editor position at TechCrunch under the condition that our editorial independence be maintained. Arianna Huffington personally guaranteed to me that would be the case and that she has no interest in influencing our coverage. Michael has a different opinion about what constitutes editorial independence.

I think we’ll all just have to agree to disagree on that one. Paul, thank you for your contributions to TechCrunch, and I accept your resignation.