YouTube censorship of Iraq videos-- Patriot Act strikes again!

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

To anyone who's browsed on Youtube before, the video site used to have a valuable selection of real-time videos of fighting scenes in Iraq, including real-time footage-- realistic but from a distance and in no way grisly or gruesome-- of firefights, roadside bombs, convoy attacks and the like, shot from many different sides. No soldiers' identities were evident, no secrets given away, no e.g. instructions on weapons-building or the like given. The value in these videos, obviously, is that it shows us the gritty reality of war, and those videos shot by US soldiers had some kind of clearance before being submitted-- they showed what it was actually like to, e.g., be stuck in an ambush or encounter an IED.

Yet then, some comments started appearing about how the videos were "undermining the war effort" and discouraging recruiting-- you know, like those photos of US coffins that Bush adamantly refuses to allow to be photographed. And then suddenly, a few days ago, ALL of these videos disappeared from YouTube, for vague, unspecified "Terms of Use" violations. Seems that the videos of the reality of war were hurting US recruiting efforts, most likely the Youtube management got a couple phone calls from the Administration applying a little "pressure"-- and the videos all disappeared. Almost the only Youtube videos on Iraq, now, are rather bland, propaganda puff pieces.

They're still available on e.g. ogrish.com and other sites, but clearly, somebody in power didn't want the reality of war to be too obvious to potential cannon fodd-- er, fresh recruits. So, the whole damn stash got deleted, probably at the behest of one of the powers that be. The Patriot Act in action.

[Rhiannon12866]

1. I used to get this kind of thing, raw footage from Baghdad, from Reuters

video via e-mail. But it's been quite awhile. So I went to their site and mostly found "entertainment news." I wonder if it's related... I didn't think of this since they're "the foreign press." :shrug::-(

[cynatnite]

2. YouTube also pulled Michelle Malkin's video's...

YouTube has the right to host or not host videos. It's their choice.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

5. Which frankly makes Youtube rather useless

The problem with popular sites like this engaging in censorship of content is that they become little more than partisan organs. YT may have cut the Malkin video, but they almost never block wingnut videos of any kind. OTOH, the *entire* Iraq stash has been cut in full. No real-time Iraq battle footage anymore, which was frankly one of the best parts of the site. And frankly, the battle footage isn't partisan-- it's just flat-out useful for anyone trying to see the reality of war. Obviously YT has a right to censor content, and the rest of us have a right to call BS on them for it and cause them the negative publicity that they deserve for censoring.

[cynatnite]

8. I don't think it makes YT useless...

I agree that YT sets itself up for criticism when acting arbitrarily as obviously as been done here, but they still continue to host videos that people will see. Just today I watched the Malloy appearance and would have otherwise not seen it if not for YT.

What could make it useless is if another site similar to YouTube were to be created. They would have to be willing to carry material that YouTube won't. YT could become obsolete at some point.

[Selatius]

3. The people who own the country are smarter now than in the 1960s

Back then, war was all over television. Of course, back then, I guess they thought war would be good ratings getters. Sure, they got the ratings, but they made the accident of waking up the US population.

When the poor people you own wake up and demand changes, that's frightening. You don't want your workers aggravated and challenging you. You want to keep them under your boot and quiet. The thought of workers and common people forming popular organizations and utilizing direct action is the worst nightmare for any capitalist baron.

[Marr]

4. I'm still blown away by the fact that people don't seem to care that Bush

forbade photos of the coffins returning from his fraud of a war. It's such a blatant slap in the face to serving military personnel, and a shamelessly crass political move. One of the most disgusting aspects of this whole engagement has been the Bush Administration's overt efforts to keep the consequences hidden from the general public.

[sandnsea]

7. The first Bush did that

Back in 1991 after a split screen with Poppy acting the fool on one screen, while coffins were being unloaded on the other, which he didn't know. He felt attacked by the media (which he was) and enacted the coffin rule.

[brettdale]

6. We should all contact youtube

Yeepers if google buys them, then the site will probably die anyway.