> If TED would just own up to being about making the wealthy, famous and powerful feel comfortable–like other high level affairs like Sun Valley or the World Economic Forum– I wouldn’t have an issue with it. Business conferences have good reasons to be elitist; deals are getting done and high-level conversations need to be private sometimes.

> But when credentials are revoked at the last minute based purely on the whim of a more important member of the TED community, the inner workings are just too much like a country club for an organization whose stellar content is all about pluralism and uplift.

I read this too, but I don't understand how anyone could mistake a $6,000 invitation-only event for anything other than incredibly exclusive. To me, the letter just reads like sour grapes.

Yes, they do. Reporters also have every right to call them out on it.

I didn't mean to suggest otherwise.

Having a right and using it are two completely separate things. History is full of examples of people who had rights to do what they did (i.e. it was legal), but that they were aholes for actually doing it. Charlie Sheen has a right to speak his mind, for example.