Take a look at the TLD and you'll find your answer. Whether it's positive or negative, I don't know -- but here it's their ball and thus their ballgame.
One of the first thing pg tells everyone in YC is that YC founders aren't treated any differently by the Hacker News software and moderators.
A lot of the upvotes come from the fact that people share TechCrunch stories with everyone they know. There seems to be a big feedback loop effect with TechCrunch.
