Sam Biddle at ValleyWag from Gawker Media, confidently predicted that for the first time in five years,  Mike Arrington, the co-founder of Techcrunch Disrupt conference, would not make an appearance at this year's New York conference.

However, take a look at this video still from Techcrunch.com. That certainly looks like Mr. Arrington in the white shirt, on stage with Bill Gurley, VC with Benchmark Capital:

You wouldn't know that Mr. Arrington is there because there is no mention of him by Techcrunch reporters, or on the Disrupt web site, which is strange because he featured prominently in past Disrupt conferences.

There's no mention of him in the post by Romain Dillett about Mr. Gurley's conversation with Mr. Arrington: Benchmark's Bill Gurley: "Uber Is Growing Faster Than eBay Did"

Has there been an edict to Techcrunch writers not to mention their founder? It seems that way.

It's understandable that a professional organization such as AOL, would seek to distance itself from being associated with the very public life, of a highly personal and unpleasant nature.