Is the author really wasting time worrying about this? TechCrunch's market power seems a lot less permanent to me than the existence of cliques in high school. Enough negative stories like this one can cost TC enough readers and enough influence that it is no longer the dominant source of news about the startup community, and can't push around young companies any more. That sounds like a real change in the world that would be great for startups, and not a waste of time ta all.