YOUTUBE VS BOOB TUBE by CLIVE THOMPSON
Wait one cotton-picking minute! The past four articles in the Best Of were done under the tutelage of Adam Moss. He was the editor at the New York Times Magazine in 2002 where we got parts two and three, and after he moved to New York Magazine, we got parts four and five. You know what that means don’t you? If he’s responsible for 4 of the top 6, he’s responsible for 66.6% of the articles. He brought us the majority of the 6 best of the past 6 years and they all meet the 6 characteristics. In other words, he’s the MOTHERFUCKING ANTICHRIST!!!!!!

Anyway, this Google VS Viacom exposé brilliantly pulls back to the big picture and shows us the battle is really Democracy VS Monopoly or Nerds VS Suits or Young VS Old or Us VS Them. We all hate Viacom’s guts but Thompson eloquently summarizes why. Where we believe good ideas should float to the top based on their goodness, the Viacommers believe money should float whatever the fuck they want to the top and everyone else can go fuck themselves. How long can big business fight off the inevitability of the majority getting what they want? My guess is about negative two years.
PULL QUOTE: “Nerd logic holds that smart ideas deserve to trump dumb ones. Indeed, nerds are fierce believers in meritocracy.”

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

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