Normally I view TechCrunch as an okay source of information about what’s going on it the world of tech startups (though to be honest Scoble, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, ArsTechnica and others are better).

My biggest issue with TechCrunch has always been the egos and the echo chamber that it exists in… is it reporting the news or is it about Mike Arrington and his crew making the news? I’ve always suspected that they operate some pretty arbitrary policies and hold others to a much higher standard than they themselves use.

On a fairly slow news weekend it looks like Arrington has done a pretty good job of proving that.

Dare Obasanjo (a Microsoft blogger) on his personal blog has a post where he called out TechCrunch for not stepping up to the plate and helping the startup community they feed off by posting positive stories to help weather the crisis.

I read Dares post and didn’t see it as a personal attack on TC or Arrington, more a call to arms for the influencers in the community to do like Fred Wilson and Brad Feld have been doing – advise, educate and shine a light.

Sadly it seems that not only has Arrington decided it was an attack he’s decided to make it very personal bringing Dares family into it and also accusing Microsoft of having “sponsored” the attack on him.

Normally I can’t be bothered to comment on these sorts of posts – it was obviously a slow news day but Arrington has a responsibility to act like the reputable news source he claims to be and be mature about this, not appear as a thin skinned whiner who can dish it out but sulks when someone points a finger his way… well I made the comment in the image – which to me seemed fairly appropriate and certainly less offensive than the article itself.

I was pretty surprised when it disappeared so posted again (and took the screenshot this time) – I’d have hoped Arrington would at least be willing to entertain some debate rather than just censor everything apart from anti-Dare or Microsoft bashing posts.

Looks like I wasn’t the only person who was surprised to see the censorship in action… and even more disheartening was the fact that not only did Arrington – a self proclaimed news publisher and echo chamber A-Lister – confirm it was happening, but he seems quite pleased.

Looks like if Arrington and TechCrunch want to restore faith in their integrity and professionalism he’s going to have to grow up a little. In these tough times I suspect self-promotion alone isn’t going to be enough to sustain TechCrunch as a media empire.

I’m disappointed not only because of the original “Prickly Prince from Microsoft” headline (with accompanying silly picture) but the total one-sidedness of the discussion. I expected more from the New Media.