VW Bus: Ride the Magic

If Nick Denton is involved, you can be sure the truth is very far behind. Disappearing from the rear-view mirror. Tiny dot on the horizon. Out of sight. No longer in the race. Off the radar. Down a dark abandoned road. Missing headlights. Lost in the woods. Starless night. Huddling with Boy Scouts. Marshmallows burnt beyond recognition. Faces masked with war paint. Stampede to the lake for midnight banana boat races and drilling wrestlers... To put it simply, we'll probably never know the real reasons behind the swift ousting of Nick Douglas from Valleywag, but this much is certain: Denton is blogging full-time and that's a good thing. An example:

FM Publishing is a rival, in business model, at least, of Gawker Media, owner of Valleywag. John Battelle, when Valleywag launched, said that gossip wasn't part of Silicon Valley's DNA, a contention we obviously disagree with. And Battelle and I have a relationship that's superficially friendly, but is more accurately described as passive-aggressive. He's bullish, and that annoys me. I thought "The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture", Battelle's book, was sycophantic. I'm sure I've forgotten something.

1. That's funny, mainly because Denton has that kind of relationship with pretty much everyone. 2. The real value in the writing comes from squeezing his own juice to the delight of Valleywag's insider audience. 3. He should abandon any thought of hoping to establish this new direction for a future editor and just do it himself.

More on this story as the week progresses when I have a chance to absorb the facts and choose which ones to ignore.