A social media spat between billionaire tech traders is elevating questions concerning the journalistic independence of three-year-old information outfit SF Commonplace, after a reporter representing the outlet reached out to sources for a narrative about VC Ben Horowitz and his spouse Felicia.
The Commonplace’s sole backer is one other longtime VC, Michael Moritz, and on Thursday night time, in a tirade on the X platform, Horowitz referred to as the “coming article” a “low cost hit piece” directed by Moritz and accused Moritz of “having his faux disinformation ‘newspaper’ fabricate hit items on his enterprise rival, me.” Horowitz’s enterprise associate, Marc Andreessen, later waded in to echo the accusations and lob a couple of extra insults for good measure.
TechCrunch has reached out to each Moritz and SF Commonplace Government Editor Jon Steinberg for remark. Moritz has but to reply, however in an emailed assertion to TechCrunch, Steinberg writes: “I can verify [reporter] Emily Shugerman is engaged on a narrative concerning the Horowitzes for the San Francisco Commonplace. Past that, I can’t touch upon the substance of our piece previous to publication.”
The Commonplace has beforehand coated information about Horowitz and Andreessen; it has additionally printed information about Moritz. Curiously, a few of its protection has been about 1000’s of acres of rural land north of San Francisco that’s being acquired by tech entrepreneurs and traders, together with each Moritz and Andreessen.
