A social media spat between billionaire tech investors has called into question the journalistic independence of 3-year-old news outlet SF Standard after a reporter there contacted sources for a story about venture capitalist Ben Horowitz and his wife, Felicia.
Standard's only backer is another longtime venture capitalist, Michael Moritz, who, in a blistering rebuke on the X platform Thursday night, called the “coming soon” article a “cheap smear campaign” orchestrated by Moritz, accusing him of “enlisting a disinformation 'newspaper' to fabricate a smear campaign against me, a business rival.” Horowitz's business partner, Marc Andreessen, later joined in, repeating the accusation and hurling several more insults.
TechCrunch has reached out to Moritz and SF Standard Editor-in-Chief Jon Steinberg for comment. Moritz has not yet responded, but in an email to TechCrunch, Steinberg said: [reporter] “Emily Sugarman is currently writing a story about the Horowitzes for the San Francisco Standard. Beyond that, we cannot comment on the content of the story prior to publication.”
The Standard has previously covered stories about Horowitz and Andreessen, but it has also published a story about Moritz. Interestingly, part of the paper's reporting is about thousands of acres of rural land north of San Francisco being bought up by technology entrepreneurs and investors, including Moritz and Andreessen.