I Tube, You Tube, We All Tube…
This column is all about me, dammit.
Despite all the assumptions to the contrary, I write this column on my own time. I’ve never been paid one thin dime for one word. As I’ve told some, I do it for the passion. Some call me a fool. Oh well.
I write and record little two-to-three minute radio spots with the fine folks at WJDF 97.3 FM in Orange, Massachusetts. I also produce, write, edit, create the graphics and music for my cable access program “Black & Right” of which I subsequently dump segments on YouTube. After five years, if I weren’t fighting burnout, I’d try to make the case of being the hardest working man on the blogsphere.
A little background….
Last fall, I uploaded a video segment on YT (my new nickname for YouTube) that aired locally. To make my case that the terrorists are not these misunderstood people the left would have us believe, I included the video beheading of Jack Hensley by six Muslim terrorist bastards led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in that segment. I figured YouTube has many other “tasteful” videos on the site, so this wouldn’t violate their terms of decency. YouTube did allow the videotaped hanging of Saddam Hussein to be uploaded several times.
But I was wrong. YouTube awarded me a “red circle” denoting a content violation and I am forever banned from obtaining Director status, and cannot upload a video longer than 10 minutes, ever. I sent three emails pleading my case for uploading the quickly yanked video, and that I’d never do that again. Makes me wonder what the outcome would be if I were Tara Conner asking YT for another chance…?
So instead of uploading entire shows, complete with my signature “outtakes” during the end credits that end most shows on an upbeat, I’ve been observing the ten-minute rule and because of that, some segments have had to be cut down into pieces. A speech I shot of Bill Cosby got the chop treatment, but another I recorded of Alan Keyes was never posted, as it was an hour and would require six parts. None of the outtakes have ever been posted, as most would have no point of reference.
So why do I bring this up?
Some of you may remember a column I wrote a few weeks ago called “One Citizen’s Response” where I nicely went off on Jim Webb’s response to President Bush’s most recent State of the Union Address. I use my columns for my television scripts.
I recorded and posted the video treatment, which I had to cut down due to length. The original started with some still pictures, the segment title, and the audio of Congresswoman Maxine Waters addressing a recent anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. As I had to chop off the beginning with the segment name, I renamed the segment, “To Our Americans Serving In Iraq” as the original column was a message to them.
I also had to chop off the ending of the segment that included video of Tim Robbins’ anti-war speech at that same D.C. rally. That episode was one of a few not to have outtake end credits as it seemed inappropriate following such an important topic. So unfortunately, the real meaning of that video was lost, but trying not to take my work personally, I posted the chopped version on YT and left it at that.
Now while my name isn’t Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and I’m not worthy of a Drudge link, my YT videos garner a small number of hits, usually around a couple hundred over a few months. I’m grateful just to be able to get them out into the public arena. But then the unexpected happened….
A fellow columnist, Edward Daley, contacted me and told he saw that video and asked if he could pass it on to a few people he knew. I said sure. Little did I know that in a little more than a week, more than 20,000 people would view that video.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I responded to a Carol Costello question on CNN Daybreak with,
“Let’s see, Kanye West said George Bush didn’t care about black people. For public policy experts like Kanye West to say things like that, I would venture to say the people who were raping women in the Superdome were probably more influenced by people like Kanye West and his peers than by George W. Bush.”
I shared some of the hundreds of enlightened emails sent from CNN viewers with you. I thought that was my day in the sun. NEVER did I ever anticipate the effect one video could have on so many people. I’ve tried to answer as many of the emails and MySpace messages coming in as possible. As I have a day job I need to retain, I cannot respond during the workday as often as I’d like.
However, there is a happy ending to this story.
In April, a new website will be launched. On this site, of which I am Executive Producer, original, conservative, political videos will be created and posted for anyone to watch, any time, for free, and my video content will never again be constrained by time or a liberal overseer (Google). As I’ll be able to post my entire shows on this site, my use for YouTube may wane.
But in all fairness to those who watched the video that has taken on a life of its own, I’m bummed you didn’t see the whole thing. I almost didn’t post it, as I had trouble trimming it down to its current nine minutes, fifty-nine seconds. The only people who have seen it in its entirety are those who’ve seen that episode on cable access in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Montana, and California.
When the new site is launched, I’ll post the un-cut version there. As an “artist” whose work has been embraced, of course I am honored by the messages sent by those who’ve viewed it. I am also quite disappointed that also, as an artist, you didn’t see the piece as originally created. The five or so minutes omitted, I feel, really made the piece powerful, not just my blabbing on.
Thanks to all of you who’ve viewed the video, and I look forward to your response to the soon to be released “Director’s Cut”.
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