Paul meets Mike ‘TechCrunch UK/Eire’ Butcher
“The event’s organiser, Mike Butcher, took to the stage and introduced our panel. A couple of years earlier we’d had a very public spat after he wrote an article accusing me of using my Guardian column for blatant self-promotion (he was absolutely right, of course, but there was no need to draw attention to it). Since then he’d (sort of ) taken back some of his nastier comments and I’d called him a wanker. All was well again.”
TechCrunch UK/Ireland editor Mike Butcher has been covering the web scene since Mark Zuckerberg was still in short trousers. Ever ahead of the curve, he dedicated an entire page on his website to attacking me, before it was considered fashionable to do so.
I caught up with Mike in a 300-year-old London pub to talk about the real story behind the TechCrunch UK blog fight, the importance of openness, Jason Calacanis and the giving of surnames to bulldogs, the grey goo of misfortune and how - after everything - he still thinks I’m a “loony”.
Jason Calacanis, for his part, has been quick to respond to Mike’s comments about how important Calacanis’ blog is by - er - immediately retiring from blogging. Well, Mike, I hope you’re pleased with yourself.
(And, Sarah Lacy, I could never hate you.)
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Well, hello there...
It is also the companion site to his book, Bringing Nothing To The Party: True Confessions Of A New Media Whore, which is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and is available in all good bookshops right now.
Do make yourself at home.
'Po Bronson rang up / to tell Paul he wants his last / decade's ideas back.' - Belle de Jour
Bringing Nothing To The Party |
