Embargoes are dead, long live embargoes!
It is a mutually-parasitic relationship between tech sites and the PR companies that represent the firms we cover. Online publications — like Icrontic — are made or broken by the ability to create compelling new content enticing to the reader. In a similar respect, PR firms are sustained by the ability to widely disseminate material on the topics we write about.
These interests seemingly put the parties at odds: PR firms live to create a raft of press for their client, and publications dream of the traffic that results from being the only press for a sensational new product. Even with ostensibly disparate goals, the governance of mutualism binds and drives both parties forward in their goals. And as with any delicate ecosystem, a tremendous shift in the equilibrium threatens the welfare of everyone.
To that end, TechCrunch’s recent decision to violate any embargo to which they agree is both disingenuous and an insult to readers.
Charging an establishment with the dissemination of child pornography should not be done lightly. Pornographic material containing minors is a despicable and reprehensible tack that should be snuffed out with the strongest beatstick the law can muster. The serious implications that such an allegation carries notwithstanding, the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation recently decided to level just such an accusation against Wikipedia. Rather unfortunately for the IWF, the grossly misappropriated charges were both unreasoned and telling of a systemic flaw in the IWF’s processes.
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