As a prolific writer on a high profile site, I get publicly called out for things quite often. Most of the time I don’t respond, either because the topic is ridiculous, it validates the individual, I don’t have time, or all three. But today brings a post so ridiculous that I feel the need to respond briefly.

Ciara Byrne, who I don’t know but apparently writes occasionally for TechCrunch Europe, has written a post “uncovering” TechCrunch as “one big frat party.” Her rationale is that posts like the one I wrote last week about “Asian Boobs” (which is, by the way, the name of the actual app in the App Store) was simply to be able to post pictures of scantily clad Asian women on TechCrunch.

Frankly, that’s bullshit. It’s bullshit and it’s laughable.

There was exactly one point of the post in question: To call out Apple’s hypocrisy with regard to the App Store approval process. Regular readers of mine will know that I have done posts like this for months now. There must be a dozen of them. Maybe more. I point out Apple’s hypocrisy in a number of different ways in these posts. Byrne completely glosses over that point and doesn’t mention any of those. Instead, she lazily states as a fact (again she doesn’t know me, didn’t ask me, etc.) that I simply did that post to be able to post those pictures.

Did I have to post 4 pictures of the Asian girls? No. But I was proving a point. Sometimes proving a point shocks some people, but it gets it across. To those I offended, I’m sorry I offended you, but I’m not sorry for the post. Every single one of those pictures are ones that Apple approved and are live in that app. They have no problem approving those, but will not approve a satirical picture (which is really just text because the pictures are generic) making fun of Hitler, for example.

That too, is bullshit. But apparently, I’m not allowed to make that point because Byrne will make an assumption (again, without ever having met me) that I’m sexist. Oddly, none of my female friends or co-workers appear upset with me about this. But what do they know — besides, you know, me?

She goes on to call out my colleague Paul Carr for no apparent reason other than she doesn’t like his writing style. I won’t defend Paul here because there is absolutely no need to — and I think he’s going to speak to all of this on his own anyway.

Though she buries it under the outrage about my post, Byrne is apparently most upset because she was at the TechCrunch office last week when my post went up and some of the guys there were joking about it. I wasn’t there, so I can’t speak to what was said. But there were other women there, and they don’t appear to be upset about this. Based on conversations I’ve had about the day, I’m very much left wondering if this sexism argument isn’t just a crutch for someone who felt slighted for not being greeted at the TechCrunch office with pomp and circumstance. If that’s the case, it’s sad, pathetic, irresponsible, and much more of a hindrance on women’s rights than any “3 sentences” I could ever write.

In her last paragraph, Byrne writes, “The signal being sent here is that women have no place in TechCrunch, and by extension the tech industry, except as a commodity as in the Asian Boobs app.” I have to believe she knows that the brilliant Heather Harde, a woman, is our CEO. But who knows, Bryne clearly didn’t feel the need to do much research here, so it’s possible she doesn’t know that.

While it’s not up to me, the signal I would actually send is that one woman, Ciara Byrne, has no place at TechCrunch. Not if she’s going to try to shit on our brand to leverage herself by creating false controversy and calling out people she doesn’t know.