Fox pressures YouTube to pull Clinton smackdown

[Tab]

Citing "copyright infringement"

The interview was riveting television. But if you were searching YouTube for it after Monday afternoon, good luck. Clips of the contentious back-and-forth were removed from YouTube at Fox News' insistence — and even Fox News' own Web site wasn't providing an unedited version of it online as late as Tuesday morning (September 26), although the full interview was back on the Fox News site by Tuesday afternoon.

So what gives? Why bury an interview that everyone — including nearly every Fox News show that followed — is talking about?

That's what Zach Gates, 21, would like to know. The University of Pittsburgh student and webmaster of the Hanlon's Razor political blog said he got an e-mail on Monday from YouTube informing him that his two-part post of the Clinton/ Wallace interview had been taken down because the site had been informed by Fox News that it was a copyright infringement. Gates, who posted videos from CNN and MSNBC onto YouTube as well as other Fox News shows, speculated that Fox News planned to sell the interview, or buried it because of the "smackdown" Clinton gave Wallace.

Gates said this is the first time he's seen such a concentrated effort to get a video taken off YouTube. "If you do a search on YouTube right now you'll find thousands of clips from Fox News that go back months with tens of thousands of views," he said on Tuesday morning. "My concern is that by taking down the full interview, you can only see sound bites and talking heads talking about it, without context. So they're deciding without reporting."

A Fox News spokesperson told MTV News on Tuesday afternoon that "our Internet division used poor judgment in asking this to be taken down. We're thrilled the Wallace/ Clinton clip received so many hits on YouTube." The spokesperson could not say, however, when or if the clip would be allowed back on YouTube. A YouTube spokesperson had not returned calls for comment at press time. (As of 2 p.m. EST on Tuesday, the clip was still being blocked on YouTube.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1541782/20060926/index.jhtml?headlines=true

Somehow I doubt the reason they pulled it is to "sell" the interview... pulling it because of the smackdown is more like it.

[ShortnFiery]

1. What Cry Babies!

That's just too funny and absurd!

Deal with The Truth.

FOX News :rofl:

[LSparkle]

2. I heard at first they were DIRECTING people to YouTube ...

because Faux's site kept crashing from demand. Once they realized this wasn't getting the kind of play they wanted (it was firing up Dems, not making them more timid), they decided to censor it.

[bigdarryl]

3. This proves Wallace got his ASS handed to him fuck FOXNEWS

[blm]

4. Except WE own the airwaves - This was on regular FOX channel, not cable.

.

[napi21]

5. Doesn't a video clip, that can easily be copied, become public info?

I can't even imagine of thenumber os places that have posted clips of interviews, talk shows, speeches, etc. that are posted on some site on the web!

I understand copying and posting a movie production being theft because it is a commercial product that is sold for $$ in theater showings and later on tapes & CD's, but NEWS? (Or something that pretends to be?) At what point does it become "public info"?

[Imagevision]

6. Obviously Clinton still managed to get crucial points out...

[Der Blaue Engel]

7. Anyone who has this clip should keep posting it continually every time

they take it down. If that will get the person barred from YouTube, then pass it around and we'll all take turns. Better yet, is there a way we can host it ourselves?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. If Faux is losing viewers to Youtube, they could always run ads

for Falafel, Viagara and Kool Aid. Seems fitting enough to me.

[Jack Rabbit]

9. What's the matter with them? Don't they appreciate free advertising?

!!

[AtomicKitten]

10. Victory is ours

sayeth the proof in the pudding. High-five to Clinton for opening up Pandora's box.

WOO-HOO!

[PVnRT]

11. Everyone with MySpace should put it on their profiles

Let's see Rupie-baby do something about that.