Ben Horowitz Declares War on Michael Moritz

A social media dispute between billionaires and tech investors is looking into query the journalistic independence of the three-year-old SF Standard, after a journalist representing the outlet went to his sources for a story about VC investor Ben Horowitz and his wife, Felicia.

The only sponsor of Standard is one other long-time equity investor, Michael Moritz, who on Thursday evening rant on X, Horowitz called the “forthcoming article” a “shoddy lampoon” directed by Moritz and accused Moritz of “ordering his fake disinformation ‘newspaper’ to fabricate lampoons about his business rival, me.” Horowitz’s business partner, Marc Andreessen, later stepped in echo accusations and throw in a number of more insults for variety.

TechCrunch reached out to Moritz and SF Standard editor-in-chief Jon Steinberg for comment. Moritz has not yet responded, but in an emailed statement to TechCrunch, Steinberg writes, “I can confirm that (reporter) Emily Shugerman is working on a story about the Horowitzs for the San Francisco Standard. Beyond that, I am unable to comment on the content of our story prior to publication.”

The Standard has previously covered Horowitz and Andreessen; it has also covered Moritz. Interestingly, a part of its coverage involved hundreds of acres of rural land north of San Francisco which can be being snapped up by tech entrepreneurs and investors, including Moritz and Andreessen.