For all the people blaming YouTube and MySpace and other online video sites for the beating of Victoria Lindsay, let me remind you where the real exploitative douchebags are: offline video, aka TV. One of Dr. Phil’s producers just bailed out one of Ms. Lindsay’s attackers, Mercades Nichols, for an exclusive interview.

I sympathize with the family of Victoria Lindsay, the girl who was brutally beaten by eight classmates on video. Nevertheless, I must call bullshit on the mass media’s inordinate focus on the fact that the video was posted on YouTube. I have yet to see any of these mass media outlets acknowledge that YouTube actually removed the video.
The way the story’s being told in the mass media, it’s as if YouTube made those kids do what they did. News flash: those kids will be tried as adults. Even the law recognizes that they are fully responsible for their actions, not …read more