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Far from the innovative leader the media treats them as, Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe were just "cabin boys" for MySpace, says blogger Trent Lapinski. The 19-year-old journalism student blows open the scandalous story behind MySpace — the story every major paper missed. The makers of MySpace included an ex-con and a whole family of insider traders.

Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, the poster boys for MySpace, went the way of so many startup founders. Diluted out of the gig by their investors and the spam company running their operation, they fought — and lost — a battle to keep Intermix Media from selling to News Corp. at an undervalued rate. It's a far cry from the sycophantic "young guys done good" story trumped up for the press.

Both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times got it wrong. MySpace isn't the brainchild of DeWolfe or Anderson, this was a Wiederhorn job. DeWolfe and Anderson were mere cabin-boys. [...] The site was created by a multimillion dollar company (a spam company), then purchased by a multibillion dollar entertainment/news company (Fox, News Corp.). The site was not a garage project; MySpace was created and coded by people being paid considerable salaries sitting in an office building in Los Angeles.

Trent has a whole series of investigative MySpace pieces. The most trenchant:
The MySpace Report
Why Doesn't Anyone Ask Who Actually Runs MySpace?
Fox To Buy Intermix Media/MySpace: The Truth About MySpace

There goes the little charm MySpace had left. Major props to Trent for cutting through another cloud of corporate-spin bullshit.

The Truth About The Money and Founders Of MySpace.com [Trent Lapinski via WebProNews]