Arrington vs Laporte...FIGHT!

A few weeks ago the traditional geek community was all a-twitter about a confrontation between pundits Mike Arrington of Tech Crunch and Leo Laporte of...well...Leo Laporte on a recent episode of the Gillmor Gang.

We could describe the whole thing, but why do that when we can show it. Warning: There is strong language in this clip, so please consider yourself warned that this is NOT SAFE FOR WORK




The take away is this: Laporte was talking about the Palm Pre, Mike Arrington asked him if he got a review unit and implied that not many people did. Laporte took this to be an accusation that his review was going to be influenced by the fact that he got one for free, and kicked them all off. They've evidently made up and this has passed into Internet legend and everyone's forgotten about it.

So of course, that means we're going to talk about it now.

First of all, our own disclosure. We've written a number of times on this blog and elsewhere about our reservations about Leo Laporte. We do find that he while shooting from the hip sometimes he sacrifices accuracy for his emotional impact. As well he can be very tin eared. However, we would never say that his integrity is for sale, and if Mike Arrington was saying that he is flat out wrong.

We've watched the clip a few times and have noticed something: Arrington does not flat out say that Laporte is for sale. He asks for a clarification about how Leo got the Palm Pre. In our opinion, this is a valid question. It is a sad fact that many tech writers tend to write glowing reviews and hype of a product based on getting insider info or a free meal. We won't name these people....belizers.

Secondly, yes Mike Arrington is being a troll in the classic Internet sense: he's making a statement to get a reaction. The Gillmor Gang is famous for being a more loose, at times confrontational show. One panelist on it in the past was Jason Calacanis, who is all about being abrasive. Calacanis also appears on This Week in Tech hosted by Leo Laporte. Calacanis enjoys baiting, mocking, and yes trolling on John C Dvorak, another panelist, regardless if he is there to defend himself or not (Full disclosure: a fight between Calacanis and Dvorak has no winners for us. We have no fondness for either of them).

Thirdly, and most importantly, is that Laporte has a history of getting behind a new product or idea, being very fond of it and then having to change his opinion very quickly later.

For example, the first G1 Android phones were talked about endlessly on TWiT. When they came out Laporte was enthusiastic about how great they were. The problem is, he could only mention one app (a bar code scanner) that was really worth it, and so had to repeat it over and over. He complained a little bit about the battery life, but insisted this was no big deal until everyone else on the panel made it a topic. Now if the G1 Android is brought up he pretty much just says that the battery is no good, Apple has a superior app store and moves on.

Twitter is another example. Leo was an early proponent of Twitter, talking about it ad nauseum on his podcasts, to the point that most people were tired of it. For a time he was among the top, if not the top, person on Twitter. As it gained more mainstream acceptance and not too long after he was passed by Kevin Rose his praise of it became less frequent and less ringing. Soon he was talking about how he was over Twitter. On one hand this just sounded like sour grapes, but then it became a little more, well, bitter. He began complaining more openly about brand confusion between Twitter and TWiT, and even mulled a lawsuit at one time when the rumour of a Twitter based reality show was circulating (this was mentioned on his Friendfeed page and also on the warm up to a MacBreak Weekly). We have no problem with Laporte defending his intellectual property if he feels it is threatened, but he knows as well as anyone that if you are going to defend it you have to do it post haste. Again, we see Laporte getting wrapped up in something new, singing its praises and then moving on the next thing as soon as it starts to get a little played out.

This can also been seen on a smaller scale. Whenever someone blue-skies about a new product or a bit of rumour on MacBreak Weekly for example, he gets fully behind that idea like a terrier on a bone. Often it falls to someone like Andy Ihnatko to propose the sober second thought.

What are we saying then about the Arrington/Laporte blow up? Well, in a way Arrington MIGHT have had a point. Laporte can be influenced by something new and shiny. It's not that he's for sale, it's just that his enthusiasm can get the better of him. We at The Times think that the quick escalation meant that Laporte saw something like this developing (Dvorak has accused him of the same on past episodes of TWiT) and knew that no good could come of it.

That is of course assuming that that is what happened. But if Arrington was implying that Laporte was for sale, he was incorrect. If he was going to imply that he can be slightly fanboyish, we don't think anyone would have disagreed.