Is Craig Building Community Or An Empire?

Tim Redmond of San Francisco Bay Guardian is not a big fan of Craig, nor his list.

Craig Newmark, the stumbling, self-effacing creator of Craigslist, was the keynote speaker at last weekend’s Association of Alternative Newsweeklies conference in San Francisco. It was an odd choice: Most trade associations don’t invite someone who is costing members millions of dollars and who is often described as the number one enemy of their profession to show up and give an address. But AAN is an unusual trade group, and there he was.
So I made sure I got to ask a question.
How, exactly, does a San Francisco outfit moving into, say, Burlington, Vt. and threatening to eviscerate the local alternative newspaper, help build community?
Craig’s answer: I only go where people want me.
I’ve got no problem with Craig making money. He revolutionized advertising, and that’s not entirely a bad thing. If he wants to build an empire, that’s his right under the (warped) rules of American capitalism.
But don’t give me this community-building bullshit.

Anil Dash calls Redmond’s editorial “a blatant example of scapegoating horseshit.”