TechCrunch readers cannot hide their disdain against Michael Arrington for his seemingly manipulative act in the segment Tech President Primaries to find the “pro-tech candidate (1 for each party) based on the popular results of reader voting and blog input from our community of technology leaders and entrepreneursâ€.
Although Barack Obama claimed victory on the Democrat side and Ron Paul for Republican based on votes, Michael Arrington decided to alter the rules by adding his own analysis in the equation. In the end, Obama and John McCain emerged as the endorsed candidates.
This blatant disregard of voters’ opinion forced the community to retaliate with hateful yet very intelligent comments about the mockery of the voting system and how this once objective platform turned out to be the “election of personal opinions.â€
Unfortunately, this whole fiasco undermines the objective of this platform to gauge the sentiment of the online community and educate readers of the candidates’ policies.
Originally posted on January 29, 2008 @ 1:03 pm