Anika Begay
A social media spat between billionaire tech investors is raising questions about the journalistic independence of the three-year-old SF Standard news group, after a reporter representing the outlet contacted sources for a story about VC Ben Horowitz and his wife Felicia.
Standard’s only backer is another longtime VC, Michael Moritz, and in a tirade on Platform X on Thursday night, Horowitz called the “next article” a “cheap smear piece” directed by Moritz and accused Moritz of “having his fake ‘newspaper’ of disinformation fabricate smear pieces about his business rival, me.” Horowitz’s business partner Marc Andreessen later chimed in to echo the accusations and throw a few more insults in the process.
TechCrunch has reached out to both Moritz and SF Standard Executive Editor Jon Steinberg for comment. Moritz has yet to respond, but in an email statement to TechCrunch, Steinberg writes, “I can confirm [reporter] Emily Shugerman is working on a story about the Horowitzes for the San Francisco Standard. Beyond that, I can’t comment on the substance of our piece before publication.”
The Standard has previously covered Horowitz and Andreessen; it has also covered Moritz. Interestingly, some of its coverage has been about thousands of acres of rural land north of San Francisco being snapped up by tech entrepreneurs and investors, including both Moritz and Andreessen.
