TechCrunch Disrupt: Michael Arrington Forgets AngelGate At Bin 38

Is TechCrunch Founder Michael Arrington losing his memory? Earlier today, this blogger noted the drop in buzz for TechCrunch Disrupt New York, and pointed as the reason, in part, the absence of Michael Arrington’s direct control over the proceedings, and particularly his genius for making up news stories that created attention, and just happened to involve him.

That assertion, started with this blog post, then carried over to Twitter:

TechCrunch Disrupt New York: First Kinda Post – Michael Arrington Disrupt Lacks Buzz zennie62blog.com/2012/05/24/tec… @arrington #tech #tcdisrupt

— Zennie Abraham (@zennie62) May 24, 2012

@dwhelan Plus, the number of #tech blogs has exploded as mainsteam media fades. Google News favors old media, blogs are ignored. @google

— Zennie Abraham (@zennie62) May 24, 2012

Thanks for asking @dwhelan – Michael @arrington always had some pre #tcdisrupt fake news story controversy that happened to include him.

— Zennie Abraham (@zennie62) May 24, 2012

@zennie62 @dwhelan no i didn’t.

— Michael Arrington (@arrington) May 24, 2012

@arrington @dwhelan Michael, remember the famous “Bin 38” non story, story before #tcdisrupt 2010 ? Great buzz, no smoke: complements to you

— Zennie Abraham (@zennie62) May 24, 2012

After that, no more Michael.

The famous “Bin 38” non story that just happened to take place before TechCrunch Distrupt San Francisco 2010 surrounded Michael’s assertion that he got a tip and walked in on some of the Valley’s top angel investors meeting at the San Francisco Marina District eatery Bin 38 and collaborating on which startups to invest in, and not.

This is what Michael blogged:

Yesterday I was tipped off about a “secret meeting” between a group of “Super Angels” being held at Bin 38, a restaurant and bar in San Francisco. “Do not come, you will not be welcome,” I was told.

So I did what any self respecting blogger would do – I drove over to Bin 38, parked my car and walked in.

in the back of the restaurant in a private room was a long oval table. Sitting around the table, Godfather style, were ten or so of the highest profile angel investors in Silicon Valley. These investors, known as “super angels” because they have mostly moved on to launch small venture funds of their own, are all friends of mine. I knew each person in the room very, very well.

And then Michael warned that TechCrunch Disrupt would not be about AngelGate, which is bull, because it was. It was also, as I said before, pure genius, even if it managed to piss off some TechCrunch readers who commented, it gave Disrupt a level of talk that made it an event.

In fact, AngelGate got so much buzz, it became a Wikipedia entry.

Of course the nature of the blog was such that it was almost impossible to either confirm or deny, since there was no photo or video or text or tweet, but because it came from Mr. Arrington, and sounded very plausible, the story grew legs and walked, then ran – fast. Eventually it was picked up by every media outlet from PCWorld to CNET, to, well, me.

Eventually it morphed into a September 22nd, Plancast called “Attend The Super Secret Angel Meetup At Bin 38” which this blogger signed up for, as Mr. Bill (THE Mr. Bill), and 164 others.

And all of this, even as some outlets like The Wall Street Journal were fingered (by me) for “taking the AngelGate bait.” It was excellent – almost as good as my stealing Michael’s TechCrunch Disrupt New York Carol Bartz buzz from him and making a quick $250 from it the next day.

A fact that so angered Michael when he got wind of it, he threw a magazine at me:

It’s cool!

Stay tuned.