Earlier this month, Kathryn Stetz of Qorvis Communications e-mailed TechCrunch, the world's second most popular blog, asking to "order[] a reprint on an article" that appeared there.

The response, a couple weeks later, came from the blog's founder and co-editor, Michael Arrington: "We're a blog. We don't do prints, let alone reprints."

Oops. Or as former Qorvis staffer Jesse Thomas comments, "Selling digital PR and not knowing that TechCrunch is a blog is definitely an embarrassment."

Yet before we scapegoat Qorvis, it's instructive to consider the context in which this snafu might have taken place.

First, I'd bet that Kathryn isn't an account executive. People who exclude a title from their e-mail signature tend to be interns. Indeed, the task of requesting a reprint is one usually delegated to interns.

Second, the request to reprint is probably prudent. After all, reprints take place offline, and in the absence of a hyperlink, which is the conventional form of credit online, it's worth asking if the blogger wishes to be cited in a particular way, or if he wants it noted that the material is copyrighted. (Indeed, one benefit of such a seemingly trivial request is that it establishes goodwill and opens the door for future pitching.)

Still, the fact remains that Qorvis screwed up: Bloggers should be treated with the same respect accorded to their old-media counterparts.

Of course, if such blunders can happen at a powerhouse firm like Qorivs, can't they happen at your firm, too? In fact, it's likely they already have.

Another nugget from the TechCrunch interview with McCain's new victory chair, Carly Fiorina, deals with the issue of an Open Internet, a.k.a., Net Neutrality:

MA: A related issue is net neutrality, which is such an obscure topic for most of America but it’s a big touch point, as you know, in Silicon Valley. The Republicans seem to be on the side of stand off on the issue until we clearly see something go wrong. The Democrats, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are saying, hardcore, go at it, enact legislation to say net neutrality is law, and that’s just the way it has to be. Do you think there’s room on the Republican platform to take a more proactive approach ensuring a level playing field to all service providers?

CF: I think there’s room on the platform. I’m not making a prediction…

MA: I led you right to where I wanted you to go…

CF: Yea, I’m not making a prediction. John McCain has been very clear in saying that he would ban permanently taxation on the internet and taxation on mobile technologies, something the Democrats haven’t said by the way. And I think that he truly understands the role that these kinds of technologies play in growing the economy. But I don’t want to go much further than that because I haven’t had that conversation with him, but I would say that he has innovators at the heart of his policy making, as does the economic team.

While Carly does a good job of not answering the NN question directly, she does leave me wondering if it's possible that John McCain could come around on this critical issue. I plan on asking Carly about this issue directly if I can ever get an interview on the schedule.

[Disclosure: I actively support, and help consult for the Open Internet Coalition.]

In Michael Arrington's interview with McCain's "victory chairwoman," Carly Fiorina, I found this nugget which discusses the embrace of a Long Tail strategy. (Emphasis mine.)

MA: If you look at the pure statistics, Barack Obama has done such a good job in getting friends and followers on the social networks and getting individual people to donate small amounts of money mostly on the internet. What are your plans, and I know its early still, but what are your plans in the near future to counter that and push McCain forward in those spaces as well. Do you have any specific ideas yet?

CF: It is too early for me to talk specifically about how were going to use the social networking sites although there are people thinking about that on Lou Eisenberg’s team. But what I would say is, again, every opportunity to communicate with people is an opportunity to ask for their contribution and as Barack has demonstrated small contributions can make as big a difference over time as big contributions, so nothing is too small. I would also say that it will be a focus of this campaign to go after young people more aggressively than we have to date. We need to broaden the appeal of the party and John McCain by making more diverse audiences aware of who he is and what he stands for and so you’re going to see John McCain reaching out to different members of the community than perhaps people would expect and you’ll see me doing that as well.

This is a strong step in the right direction. And of course, I've been urging a better embrace of the Long Tail for over a year in this space and others.

Heck, maybe even we'll see an uptick of donations for Team McCain at Slatecard. It'd be good if he were at least first in donations received as a POTUS candidate.

Michael Arrington's TechCrunch has announced its endorsements of Senators Barack Obama and John McCain. I've included the full text of the McCain endorsement.

Take this endorsement fwiw:

Senator John McCain - Republican

Choosing Senator Obama for our Democrat endorsement was relatively easy. We had a lot more trouble with the Republicans. The trouble comes because, based on their positions on the issues, none of them are the perfect candidate. The leading candidates - Romney, Huckabee and McCain - all have flaws. And while Ron Paul won the TechCrunch primary by a very large margin, he too has flawed technology policies - not the least of which is that he is staunchly against net neutrality, and doesn’t want the FCC to get too involved with spectrum allocation rules.

The problems stem from Republicans’ general rule to “let the market decide,” which appeals to my libertarian leanings but can cause real problems in a monopoly-type markets. People tend to have few choices when it comes to Internet or mobile providers. In those cases using government to force a level playing field and open access is what actually stimulates economic growth. Republicans also tend to shy away from “green” issues such as pollution (carbon emissions), and alternative fuel research. Finally, their reluctance to get the Federal government involved directly in education means that they avoid issues like increasing math and science curriculums in public schools, or providing Federal funding or incentives to address the digital divide (in particular, getting computers and Internet into schools). Their resulting policies tend to put off technology focused voters.

Taking all of the Republican candidates positions into consideration, as well as TechCrunch reader voting, we are endorsing Senator McCain as the best candidate from that side of the aisle. Senator McCain, more so than any other Republican candidate, is at least willing to go on record on any issue we brought up in our interview with him.

He is standoffish on net neutrality, mobile spectrum rules and the digital divide. And he has voted against some bills to fund renewable energy research.

But he’s made it clear that he’ll address inequities that arise from his hands-off policies on net neutrality and mobile allocations, which other Republican candidates refuse to do. And his positions on Internet Taxes, H1-B visas, China/human rights violations and other issues are strongly pro-technology. Romney and, to a lesser extent Huckabee, by contrast, have shown little inclination to even discuss their position on these issues.

Senator McCain also has more pure leadership experience than any other candidate running for office. He is the elder statesman of the election, and that experience counts for something. Finally, his pro-business leanings will do much to promote the technology economy in the U.S.

Now, as an aside, McCain did say that he was “illiterate” when it comes to computers, which isn’t uncommon for his generation. His campaign has clarified that position somewhat since then, and it’s clear that McCain has surrounded himself with enough technically savvy individuals that he’s likely to avoid a “series of tubes” type comment down the road. Frankly, I don’t give a damn if McCain ever turns on a computer or not. I just want a president who has the right top-down polices to support the information economy or, as I said above, be smart enough to just get out of our way and let us do our thing.

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, perhaps the most influential tech blogger, plans to host a tech-focused podcast interview with Governor Mitt Romney (Slatecard Profile) later this week:

Technology is becoming more and more a part of mainstream life. But the journalists who have access to the 2008 presidential candidates usually aren’t prepared to talk tech, and so the candidates’ positions on digital issues are often left unexplored. We want to change that, and have been reaching out to the presidential candidates to talk one-on-one with us about the issues that are important to our readers.

Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican candidate for president, was the first to respond, and we will be recording a podcast discussion with him in the next week. What we talk about on that podcast is largely up to TechCrunch readers.

Snaps to Mitt for being first to take on the challenge and props to Arrington for playing a role in this important election.

So how can you get involved?

Arrington, in true Web 2.0 fashion, is asking his community what questions they want Mitt to answer:

We’re finalizing the high level questions we’ll be asking Governor Romney (and other candidates in the future). Please let us know in the comments what tech-related issues are important to you; what would you ask if you had the chance? Issues to think about:

* the role of technology in education - what role should government and technology companies have
* the growing digital divide in the U.S. and around the world
* immigration and visa issues
* the role of government in protecting personal privacy online
* Mobile spectrum allocations and ground rules
* How should the U.S. engage with China: technology, human rights and censorship issues
* the role of free markets; helping U.S. technology companies compete worldwide Net neutrality
* Intellectual property issues - copyright, patent and trademark policies

So what question do I hope Mitt answers? I'd prefer to find out where Mitt Romney is on Net Neutrality.

In case his staff needs some help with the issue, here's two conservative arguments both FOR and AGAINST the issue:

* Conservative Argument FOR Net Neutrality
* Conservative Argument AGAINST Net Neutrality

What question would you like to see Mitt answer? Make sure you let Arrington know with a comment on his post.