On his blog TechCrunch, Michael Arrington wrote a post in which he posted photos from Pay Per Post’s company retreat last month (I think the photos are actually screen grabs from a Rockstartup episode), and called CEO Ted Murphy a “racist”, because during a team building exercise, the staff divided up into groups and dressed up like members of the Village People. One of the groups was the “Indian” team, with red paint on their faces and feathered headdresses. Mike feels that this was offensive to Native Americans, and asks if Pay Per Post’s venture capital firm “approved this debacle”.

I left this comment, numer 163, on the post:

Good gods, this is ridiculous. Mike, obviously you have the right to your own opinion, and if you think that people wearing red paint on their faces are purposely offending Native Americans, and you feel that is “racist”, then that’s your opinion. But I have to wonder, if the paint had been another color, would you have found some other ethnic group to attribute it to? Are you just looking for reasons to insult Ted Murphy?

I read all of these comments, and I was wondering if someone could explain to me how the business model of Pay Per Post is flawed. Advertisers create campaigns, “Posties” accept the offers, write the posts, and then get paid. What is flawed about that?

If your complaint is that writing a post that contains links or content that has been outlined and paid for is somehow damaging to the blogger’s integrity, could you please explain how that is any different than you accepting so much advertising here? You have eight flash badges, two vertical skyscrapers, three text links, and a large banner ad. Oh, and let’s not forget that GIGANTIC Ask.com Search Window. How’s your integrity doing?

I don’t know you, Mike, but I have to wonder why you feel the need to single out Pay Per Post like this. I’m sure I could do a search on Flickr and find you photos from other company retreats where there is questionable behavior going on. If I do, will you write an equally scathing post about that company’s CEO and staff? If you were truly offended by the photos, why didn’t you contact the ACLU, or any Native American Rights groups, and lodge a complaint with them?

There are no photos of you from college or any time in your life when you were doing something inappropriate, I’m sure. And I’m sure you have NEVER used any kind of racial slur, right? I’m only asking because if you are going to call someone a racist, which is a pretty serious term to use, then you need to be above reproach yourself, I think.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a Postie. My blogs are not “virtually full of paid posts”, and while I’m sure I don’t make one tenth of what you do with your ADS, I’m pretty happy with my extra income. If any of your ad sponsors are interested in advertising with me, they are more than welcome to stop by.

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