I remember when Techcrunch promised it’s audience that the ownership would not change their objectivity or writing:

He also said it was important that we feel free to criticize AOL when we think they deserve it. And the agreement we signed with AOL fully reflects this.

Today that was put to the test. After a piece Techcrunch did on the movie “Source Code” – they were asked by Moviefone/AOL to tone down the “snark”. Even though I found the interview and write-up quite mild as Snark Standards go. If there are an Snark Standards.

So, they published the correspondence and discussed it with the audience. Basically showing that their response when called out was not to cave to the request of the parent company, but to publish the request on their site and discuss it with their audience.

And I personally think this step was kinda snarky, in and of itself. Whatever it is, it’s nice to see a site I love still do what it can to maintain it’s identity, even after a purchase of that sort.