When last September, few observers believed Michael Arrington would last the three years he had on his contract.

Turns out it was might be closer to three months. This week, , which has been operated by AOL for the last five years, calling it "a plasticized caricature of a real blog" and accusing it of being "unethical" and lacking a "moral compass." (This from a guy who's been dogged by for years. It appears Arrington's moral compass points directly to his wallet. Maybe he keeps a magnet in there.)

Arrington's big "ethical" complaint about Engadget? It uses Google ads to drive traffic. Yes, seriously. Never mind that it was almost certainly someone at AOL's marketing department who placed the ads, or that countless Web publications do this, or that there could well be AOL-placed ads for TechCrunch out there for all we know. In Arrington's fervent imagination,

Here's a news flash for Mikey: Engadget isn't a "real blog" any more, and neither is TechCrunch. Sure, they may use blogging software and publish in reverse chronological order, but that's where the resemblance ends. They're really 24/7 news services for the tech industry -- kind of like the geeky kid version of the AP, only without the requirement to name their sources, do original reporting, or confirm stories are actually true before they're published.

IMHO: When you have a staff of a dozen people or more and a seven-figure budget, I think you give up the right to be called a "blog." You're a news organization, just those in the "lamestream media" that bloggers like to complain about. And you should start acting like one.