

Interview with Daniel Brusilovsky, The Writer That TechCrunch Terminated - AndrewWarner
http://mixergy.com/daniel-brusilovsky/

======
loganfrederick
Moments worth pointing out:

1\. Early in the interview Daniel admits that he even published his first
story without approval from TechCrunch editors.

I spent almost three years writing for The Escapist
(<http://escapistmagazine>) and started when I was 16. When it came to writing
and researching, I was given free reign. However, when it came to PUBLISHING,
it was made pretty clear that an editor would have to vet the story before it
was released. Editors would prefer that I call them on weekends and at least
give them a heads up on the situation before releasing a story.

We might've differed from TechCrunch in that we strove for quality as opposed
to breaking news. Point being that the Escapist editorial system worked very
well, with everyone knowing the content going onto the site.

2\. TechCrunch didn't have Daniel sign any paperwork or give him a title when
he joined as an intern in June 2009.

3\. In general, Daniel does provide a really good insight into how TechCrunch
operates: management structure, the editorial process, etc.

4\. Admits he doesn't really have any technical background.

5\. Says the company involved was one that TechCrunch had covered multiple
times before.

6\. Says he never received the Macbook Air and the type of post the company
requested was never written.

7\. Says he has not extorted companies for products, but received products
from Intel for an unrelated project he was involved with that he discusses on
his blog.

8\. The evidence used against him were joking IMs and emails.

9\. Received an iMac from a friend who works at a tech company as a thank you
for making an introduction to another company, not for TechCrunch posts. Then
later wrote about one of the companies that was involved in a big legal
discussion with Apple (iPod Rip).

10\. Advice Daniel received from Mike Arrington the night before Teens in Tech
(Daniel's conference): Neither party wants to have a public fight about this.

This was another quality Mixergy interview revealing Daniel's side of the
story and more details about a still mysterious topic. The entire interview is
worth viewing.

~~~
ericb
_8\. The evidence used against him were joking IMs and emails._

Has the "I was only joking" defense ever worked?

~~~
novas0x2a
I think I believe him, actually. Or rather, I believe that he didn't seriously
mean to trade a post for an Air. It looks to me like he just didn't have the
experience to realize that you have to be careful when you're joking about an
ethical violation. I'd like to believe the conversation went something like:
"We have this new product coming out. Could you write it up?" `Hm. I don't
know, I have a bunch of posts I'm currently work on, not sure if I can take on
another for a few days.` "Is there anything we can do to change your mind?"
`How about a <pie in the sky request>?`

For a 17-year-old (even a fairly-well-connected one) an Air is a pie in the
sky request. If he had asked for a nugget of platinum or an Oscar, it would
have been obvious that he was joking. As it was, he (probably) asked for
something that to him WAS obviously joking, but to most of us is an easily-
attainable object; that inequity easily leads to the current situation.

I'm not saying that's how it happened (also: I have no inside information or
anything) but this is why I'm not prepared to burn the kid at the stake for
it. A lack of experience led to a critical mistake; one that I don't think
he'll make again. It sucks for him that his mistake is so public, but that's
that's the way it goes.

~~~
cglee
I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt since he's so young and seems to
generally have a good head on his shoulders, but a MP Air is definitely not
pie in the sky, especially for those in the tech industry. Had he said a
Porsche, that may have been entering the "joking" territory, but even then,
it's hard to say for sure. From his posts and tweets, he seems like a smart,
savvy, mature-beyond-his-years reporter and should've known better than to
insinuate, even jokingly, that his coverage could be bought.

------
covercash
Daniel stressed the fact that he never actually received the MacBook Air and
he seems to be under the impression that opinions will sway in his favor once
people realize this. I don't think he realizes that just because he never
received the payout doesn't excuse him from asking for it in the first place
(whether he was joking or not). Despite all of that, I don't think this kid is
going to be too impacted by all of this in the long run. Life goes on. Someone
will accuse Mahalo of more SEO trickery and all of this will be a thing of the
past.

I think the bigger story here is that he gets to have late night IM sessions
with Woz. I'm jealous!

~~~
petercooper
To be fair though..

 _in June 2009 I was brought in as the Events and Business Development Intern.
So I wasn’t hired as a writing intern. I started writing for TechCrunch by
accident, actually. And it’s an interesting story. I was up at 2 AM and none
of the other writers were up and a story broke about the iPhone 3GS Jailbreak
and no one else was up and it was a breaking story, so I took a huge risk and
I hit the publish button._

This guy is a risk taker. That includes good risks like the above, but also
stupid risks like trying to roll some payola. Most risk takers who go on to
become big successes make some stupid and unethical ones..

If Daniel can learn from this and restrict his "stupid"/reputation-breaking
risks to his youth, he could go far with his can-do, proactive attitude. Even
with this little payola scheme, he's still contributing a lot more to the
world than the average 17 year old kid eating junk food and playing Xbox all
weekend.

~~~
frou_dh
He was eating junk food and poring over the MacBook Air tech specs.

------
rgrieselhuber
I find this refreshing about Andrew:

"I didn't want to do a confrontational interview where I'd either come down
hard on him or slam TechCrunch. That's not me. I want to help build people up,
not tear them down."

~~~
jdietrich
I think it's the reason why he has built such a following. He's a truth-
seeker. He seems to be 100% focussed on finding what can be learned from an
interviewee. In the media environment that he is surrounded by, it's a rare
thing for someone to be indifferent to hype and scandal.

------
yankeeracer73
Am i the only one who found this whole thing kind of depressing? this kid is
17, right? he's very impressive, but talking already about how he lives a 24/7
lifestyle and brings a laptop with him on vacation? he sounds like he's about
35. i hope one day he gets in touch a little more with himself or he's just
going to come across like an ass, not a wunderkind.

------
bjoernw
Ethics and compliance is a huge topic in bigger companies for a good reason.
Cool hip web start-ups shouldn't forget that it applies to them as well and
giving a 17yr old some ethics training before letting him write on a blog that
makes and breaks businesses seems logical.

~~~
gyardley
Under no circumstances does a post on TechCrunch 'make or break' a business.

~~~
zaidf
I don't know about breaking. But it can definitely _make_ a business.

------
Aleran
LOL. At about 37 minutes in Daniel answers a phone call from his Mom. Pretty
rude to the interviewer but hilarious as well.

~~~
rythie
True. Though as it turns out she was actually helping him organize the
conference which was due to be on the next day. (The Interview must be from
Friday)

------
jolie
Daniel is such a good kid, and I've been waiting for a few days to hear his
side of the story. I can't imagine him extorting a fruit fly.

What I can't imagine is why he doesn't just publish the damn chat logs already
- or at least excerpts. He's someone I would have loved to work with, and I
very much want to trust him.

~~~
sachinag
What would it take for you guys at RWW to give him that second chance? Sounds
like chat logs (as long as you believe they're not fake).

~~~
jolie
I don't know - that would be up to Richard.

Personally, if I were starting my own tech blog, I think he'd be a fine person
to have on the team because he's so multitalented. He'd make a great business
partnerships coordinator and events coordinator.

------
AndrewWarner
The transcript is now about 95% so I posted it.

~~~
jonathanross
Andrew I was really glad to read even a transcript that remains in the
objective realm. Looking on twitter there are folks ready with flaming torches
and pitchforks. I'm not getting into the issue of what was done or not done
rather how experienced adults are so fast to judge someone young and clearly
in need of guidance and mentoring.

Arrington's apology on techcrunch itself was obviously heartfelt and sincere
(if not shocked) still well done for staying amongst the cool headed on this.

------
nedwin
this made me laugh when I saw the headline. Very shrewd move by Andrew Warner,
well done.

