So this is kind of weird.

There has been a big flap over at Techcrunch regarding how they select the hot start up companies they cover. Basically, Techcrunch wrote an article about a company called Maya’s Mom and did not cover one of its competitors, Mother’s Click. The folks at Mother’s Milk got angry and accused Techcrunch of writing about Maya’s Mom due solely to a personal relationship Techcrunch’s Mike Arrington has with the founder of the company.

You can read the original article from Techcrunch’s Mike Arrington about the situation here and a follow up post here.

But what’s really interesting is that Mother’s Milk’s PR firm, SHIFT Communications, has posted a thinly veiled entry absolving themselves of responsibility for the situation. They explain that the client is to blame for the situation.

It sounds like they are right and that the client is to blame here. But still.
As a consultant myself, I can say with absolute certainty that I wouldn’t have made the post that SHIFT Communications made. I just don’t think the post serves any purpose beyond making the client look bad and the PR firm look good.

Am I a dinosaur? Is this sort of openness by consultants the future? I tend to think there is still a place for discretion. What do you think?