SAN FRANCISCO — Michael Arrington, whose influential TechCrunch blog covers Silicon Valley, has started a venture capital fund to invest in start-ups, including some that he and his staff write about.
The $20 million CrunchFund is the latest example of Mr. Arrington’s casting aside one of traditional journalism’s cardinal rules — that reporters should avoid conflicts of interest by maintaining distance from the people, organizations and issues they cover — and raises questions about whether industry bloggers are journalists.
Like most news providers, AOL, which reportedly paid $30 million to acquire TechCrunch last year, prohibits reporters at its media sites, including those at The Huffington Post, from investing in the companies they cover.
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