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In August 2024, venture capitalist Ben Horowitz publicly accused Michael Moritz of directing hostile coverage about Horowitz and his wife in the San Francisco Standard. The outlet’s executive editor confirmed the story assignment; TechCrunch reported the next day that the editor said he assigned it and Moritz had nothing to do with it. The accusation was not independently proven in the cited coverage.
What Horowitz accused Moritz of
On August 15, 2024, TechCrunch reported that a San Francisco Standard reporter was contacting sources for a forthcoming story about Ben Horowitz and his wife, Felicia. Horowitz called the expected article a “cheap hit piece” and accused Moritz of “having his fake disinformation ‘newspaper’ fabricate hit pieces on his business rival, me.” TechCrunch described Moritz as the Standard’s sole backer, a relationship that made questions about editorial independence part of the dispute. TechCrunch’s August 15 account also reported that Horowitz’s business partner Marc Andreessen echoed the accusations.
Those were Horowitz’s allegations, not established findings. The cited reporting does not independently demonstrate that Moritz directed or caused the coverage. The Standard’s backing relationship with Moritz explains the concern Horowitz raised, but does not by itself prove interference.
What the Standard’s editor said
Standard Executive Editor Jon Steinberg confirmed to TechCrunch that reporter Emily Shugerman was working on a story about the Horowitzes, while declining to discuss its substance before publication. TechCrunch reproduced this emailed statement: “I can confirm [reporter] Emily Shugerman is working on a story about the Horowitzes for the San Francisco Standard. Beyond that, I can’t comment on the substance of our piece prior to publication.”
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In a follow-up published August 16, TechCrunch reported that Steinberg said he assigned the story and Moritz had nothing to do with it. That is the editor’s reported account, and it directly addresses Horowitz’s claim about Moritz’s role. TechCrunch’s follow-up does not provide a direct quotation of that clarification.
What the planned story was reported to cover
The descriptions of the assignment’s subject came from the outlets’ reporting, not from a published Standard article. TechCrunch’s August 16 follow-up described it as a story about the Horowitz family’s political donations. The Information’s contemporaneous briefing framed the inquiry around Horowitz’s decision to endorse Donald Trump and his wife’s apparent support of that decision. The Information’s briefing also reported that Moritz did not respond to a request for comment.
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What remains unresolved
The cited August 2024 accounts establish the initial accusation, the editor’s confirmation of the reporting assignment, and the next-day clarification attributed to Steinberg. They do not establish whether the Standard ultimately published the story, what its final contents were, or how the Horowitz–Moritz relationship developed afterward. No central statistic was reported in the coverage; the dispute is about an allegation and the competing accounts of editorial involvement.
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