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I hate watching people suck up to TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington. But I enjoy watching Arrington, a law-trained entrepreneur before he began posting in 2005, learn the ropes of reporting as he goes. Last night, News Corp. media overlord Rupert Murdoch's publicist circulated an advance notice to reporters. It detailed Murdoch's planned onstage announcement that night with MySpace head Chris DeWolfe at the Web 2.0 conference. Arrington did what career newsmen do: He wrote the story ahead of time. He published it as soon as Murdoch and DeWolfe took the stage. Arrington's post falsely claimed the pair had "announced some of their plans during a Q&A with John Battelle" for about 15 minutes before it actually happened. Still, TechCrunch wins! And Arrington has once again accidentally exposed another behind-the-scenes game that delivers fake "breaking news" to trusting audiences. I'm sure journalists and bloggers will lecture TechCrunch today. They're really saying: Damn, that scoop should've been mine. (Photo: TechCrunch)