For TechCrunch's MG Siegler, temptation came from the clubby world of venture capital. For the New York Times' Nick Bilton, the lure was in the blindingly lit studios of a TV network. The writers made different choices—one took the money, the other turned it down—but the scope of their offers alone is the sign of a world gone mad.

The wheels seem to be coming off Jerry Guo's wagon. Yesterday the internet entrepreneur admitted to misleading people during his time at Newsweek and just after. Today comes word he was fired from an AOL site over dishonesty. And it's not clear how much technology is actually behind his tech startup.

After a protracted back and forth over his fate, editor Mike Arrington is truly finished at TechCrunch, the influential website he started in 2005 and sold to AOL almost exactly one year ago. AOL says Arrington "decided to move on" to running his venture capital fund, relinquishing any role at TechCrunch or AOL.

We all have a laugh whenever an email from an @AOL.com address shows up in our inbox, usually because it comes in blue Comic Sans. But Politico's Ben Smith today tries to make the case that AOL email addresses are a "status symbol".

Has the AOL civil war descended into a sad, juvenile battle for WordPress admin privileges? An angry blog post was mysteriously deleted from the company's hotly contested TechCrunch blog, leaving "Page Not Found" at the top of its list of most popular posts.

The bizarre conflict that developed at AOL over Labor Day weekend—over the role of Mike Arrington, the outspoken founder of tech blog TechCrunch, and the AOL-backed CrunchFund venture capital vehicle—seems to have come to a dramatic (if unsurprising) conclusion: With Arrington's departure from AOL.

A Byzantine drama unfolded this weekend over whether Mike Arrington will be fired from TechCrunch, the tech blog he started. He's already been ousted as editor, supposedly because he's starting an investment fund, and that's a huge conflict of interest. But the ethical concerns are bullshit. This is a power play by Arianna Huffington, plain and simple.

Creative Artists Agency is reportedly discussing opening a Silicon Valley office where tech executives would become "rock stars." And they may start with Biz Stone, the vodka pitchman, Twitter co-founder, AOL adviser, and blogging how-to author. Stone is a good choice, being undistracted as he is with being an actual functioning technology executive.

AOL chief Tim Armstrong could certainly be forgiven for handing off control of the company. The problems at AOL were largely his creation, and recently growth largely that of his lieutenant Arianna Huffington. Pressure from the press is mounting. And, we hear, he has political ambitions.

Professional designers have finally had it with the Huffington Post always asking for free shit all the time. You're a publicly traded company now, HuffPo. You can design your own damned logo for politics coverage.

In your maudlin Monday media column: CNN has more 9/11 documentaries than you can shake a stick at, Patch is incredibly expensive, 23 more newspapers get paywalls, the Richmond newspaper shrugs off an ad-stravaganza, and a French newspaper caper.

AOL shares closed down 26 percent today, despite posting its first ad sales increase since the company was spun out from Time Warner. The problem? The disastrous AOL-HuffPo merger seems to be catching up to the internet conglomerate.

In your balmy Monday media column: the ethics of getting journalistically blazed are debated, the WSJ yes-persons defend their hefty salaries, a Sudanese journalist is jailed, AOL's sales chief is out, the NYT chronicled, and no one trusts the media.

The Huffington Post indefinitely suspended a young blogger today for rewriting too much of someone's news article. This is pretty ridiculous, given HuffPo's systematic, officially-sanctioned approach to rewriting too much of people's news articles. Just ask a HuffPo veteran.

In your hazy Thursday media column: Patch struggles with internet tendencies, Wall Street loves News Corp, Chris Matthews is banned from HBO, "new media residuals" sucks, and the AP warns reporters about the Twitter.

In your threatening Tuesday media column: major layoffs at Gannett, Randy Michaels is back in radio, AOL eyes paid online content, rumors of OK! Magazine being sold, and Fortune poaches from the NYT.

Sure, we'd heard there was a civil war at AOL following the Huffington Post merger. But we never imagined we'd be hearing tales quite so evocative of schoolyard bullying. Team HuffPo is apparently the meanest clique at AOL Junior High.

Arianna Huffington was controversial back when she only oversaw 70 or so employees. Now that she's riding herd over 1,300 AOL journalists, the Huffington Post founder faces an army of disgruntled enemies. And they're leaking to the press.

Well, here are some new embarrassing Anthony Weiner self-pics, purportedly sent to a woman from his Blackberry in early May. They're being slowly leaked out by Andrew Breitbart all day, the tease.

AOL's Arianna Huffington said at a conference today, "if you buy some AOL stock right now, you're going to make a lot of money." And people actually listened; AOL stock hit a 19-day peak. What is wrong with people?