More here and here for some background.

A year ago when it was revealed that AOL would be acquiring TechCrunch, a big deal was made about how TechCrunch would continue to operate as it always had, free from editorial oversight by AOL. That would mean TechCrunch could say whatever nasty things it wanted to about AOL and get away with it.

Arrington writes in a fresh post, “As of late last week TechCrunch no longer has editorial independence. Some argue that the circumstances demanded it. I disagree. Editorial independence was never supposed to be an easy thing for Aol to give us. But it was never meaningful if it shatters the first time it is put to the test.”

It does still appear to be editorially independent enough to let air all of this internal turmoil for the masses, including this very post by Arrington, so I guess that’s something.

According to Kara Swisher at All Things D, who has been very vocal about her disdain for the whole mess, says that Arrington has reached out to AOL CEO Tim Armstrong to try and buy TechCrunch back. She says her sources say that he would have to pull together the funding to do so, and that things are currently at a “stalemate”.

In Arrington’s post, he proposes two options to AOL:

1. Reaffirmation of the editorial independence promised at the time of acquisition. Given the current circumstances, that means autonomy from Huffington Post, unfettered editorial independence and a blanket right to editorial self determination. To put it simply, TechCrunch would stay with Aol but would be independent of the Huffington Post.

2. Sell TechCrunch back to the original shareholders.

“If Aol cannot accept either of these options, and no other creative solution can be found, I cannot be a part of TechCrunch going forward,” signaling that this could be his last TechCrunch post.

Statements from the two companies are as follows:

“Microsoft and Yahoo! believe that this deal will create a sustainable and more compelling alternative in search that can provide consumers, advertisers and publishers real choice, better value, and more innovation. 

“Yahoo! and Microsoft welcome the broad support the deal has received from key players in the advertising industry and remain hopeful that the closing of the transaction can occur in early 2010.”
 

Original Article: Kara Swisher of Boomtown, who is normally a pretty reliable source of industry scoops, is reporting that Yahoo and Microsoft may be very close to finally signing their much-anticipated search and advertising deal. According to Swisher, though she has not received confirmation from either party, the two companies may have their agreement in place by the end of the week.

Related Articles:

> Bartz and Ballmer Talk Yahoo Microsoft Deal

> Microsoft, Yahoo May Extend Partnership Outside The U.S.

> Is Google Really Threatened By This Yahoo Microsoft Deal?

The Good Ship Blogosphere foundered against the rocky shores of the island of Capital, as far as we can tell. If Piggy’s not dead already, someone’s groping for a rock, a decent grip, and the right angle for the killing blow.

Remember, the rising blogosphere offered the prospect of something better than all the tech journals in print. Real-time access to breaking information, along with the kind of commentary one couldn’t possibly find in the ad-dominated trade mags, existed as the currency of the blog realm.

Then some folks woke up one morning and realized currency, real Gulfstream-flying, Kobe steak-eating cash money where lots of zeroes parade behind an inconsequential digit, dangled within reach. And as human nature is wont to do, some of the hands that reach turned into fists that kill.

Witness the last 24 hours of the blogs, highlighted on tracking site Techmeme. Michael Arrington wants to crush CNET, which seems to be doing a good job of that itself, as Arrington wrote in TechCrunch.

Kara Swisher at BoomTown snarked away at that idea. She even used showtunes to do it.

“Could it have something to do with the fact that he

So far Facebook has been denying them, saying it’s impossible to delete everything you’ve ever done from Facebook. Well, if you go over to Rodney Rumford’s blog you can see that’s totally hogwash. Facebook CAN totally delete you from Facebook IF IT WANTS!

Well, I will talk to the developers about that later today. Suw makes the same point in a Seesmic video, by the way.

Me? My account is still down and haven’t heard back from Facebook yet. Since it’s just about 7 a.m. here in California, I expect it’ll be a few more hours before I hear back.

Facebook claims it is a “utility.” Well, I like how Kara Swisher put it. Hint: “utilities” have due process and don’t just shut down someone’s account without a warning. You should see the comments on my last post. Some people didn’t even knowingly break the rules and never got a good answer for why their accounts were shut down.

Oh, and Jimmy Wales (the guy who founded Wikipedia) wrote me and said, about my attempts to get my own social data back: “This is the kind of thing that I would consider to be a *benefit to our customers* rather than a *threat to our business*.”

Anyway, it’s interesting being in the middle of a Twitter storm. Hundreds of messages about this issue have been written since I first posted last night.

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