TC is far from my favorite online news thingy, and perhaps there is room for them to do some consideration too, but that doesn't mean that HN isn't also overdue for some introspection in how people are treated here.
I don't know much about Ed, only met him briefly once, but that said, most people here (myself included) have gone out of their way to voice their support for him as a member here and regret that it was his comment that got hilighted on TC.
I don't know how else TC could have pointed out this aspect of the HN community without picking on someone; in a way, it might be best that they picked on one of the most well-liked contributors here.
This in fact happens on HN from my observation frequently.
It goes like this.
Someone says something and if people don't agree they downvote and sometimes say something nasty in return.
Someone write a "Please Help" plea on HN and all the sudden everybody is nice and considerate and rolls out the red carpet (at least time times this happens that the plea gets voted up).
People of course don't know if the person they are being nasty to is suffering from depression, having a bad day, just got fired etc. Unless of course they specifically announce that fact in the "Subject" of what they write (or in a blog post etc.)
No need to ask why that happens (why people are nice when someone lays on their belly asking for help) because it's obvious. The question is why are people so quick to be a "dick" if someone doesn't reveal any weakness.
The hypocrisy of the TC article is disgusting. They're recklessly throwing stones at people who may be in delicate positions themselves.
As far as I can tell the TC article was designed to elicit an emotional reaction without any consideration given to human cost.
TC needs to do the naval gazing here.