Is Patch Evil ?

At the ONA 10 conference in Washington, DC a  few weeks ago, Patch boss; Tim Armstrong, got a question from the audience. It came from Robert Hernandez, a journalism professor from USC.

“Is Patch evil?” Some in the crowded room laughed, others cringed.

For struggling  journalists, this type of nonsense (even if asked jokingly) is deadly for those looking for steady employment in  journalism. It’s especially bad coming from an educator.

Patch is a business. It prefers to eat it’s competitors. They have no interest in being non-evil to the competition. Local journos that don’t work for Patch are their enemy. Those are the facts.

Mr. Hernandez could have asked NPR’s Vivian Schiller (on stage with Armstrong) about the still fresh, Juan Williams issue. But he didn’t. Duh.

Kudos to Armstrong for infiltrating the conference. I bet Tim walked out of there with a pocket full of resumes.