Corporate Control of Internet Content

Found this interesting:
.Robert Cox: When will the right recognize the cost of conceding Web 2.0?

Here is an excerpt:

Enter Fox News pundit, author and top-rated blogger Michelle Malkin. Last week she received notice from YouTube, the world’s most popular video sharing service, that her video had been deemed “offensive.” The result? Her account was terminated and her videos deleted.

YouTube refused to say why her videos were “offensive” and there was no avenue available to challenge the decision. Today, her videos are gone and her voice is suppressed on the most important video “node” on the Internet.

Some might note that Malkin can still host her videos elsewhere. Of course she can, but that would fail to understand the powerful forces of “network externalities” at play online. There is no Avis to eBay’s Hertz for good reason: Once an online network is fully catalyzed, there is no reason to join an alternative network. If you want to get the most money for your Beanie Baby collection, you are going to want access to the most potential bidders — and that means eBay.

YouTube is poised to become the eBay of video file sharing. If you want the biggest audience for your video, you want access to the most potential viewers — and that means YouTube.

Google understands this dynamic, which is why the company announced Monday that it will purchase YouTube — a company that has never made a dime — for $1.65 billion. YouTube fits very well within the Google online media portfolio. The company already owns Blogger.com, the most popular blog hosting site online, and Google News, which in two short years has become one of the top news sites in the world.

Don’t think it matters? Consider that, according to USA Today, 98 percent of the money donated to political parties by Google employees — “Google Millionaires” — went to Democrats.

But it’s not just Google’s media and financial muscle that benefits the left. Liberals run the leading blog search engine — Technorati. They run the leading blog software manufacturer — Six Apart. They invented two of the most important blogging technologies — Podcasting and RSS. The list goes on and on.

This is leading up to the kind of world I invision in my novel... Where some people, in order to get free goodies (services, benefits, basic needs etc) sign up to work for corporations in corporate cities and end up having the content censored of anything they get for 'free'... and they have to pay for independant news and programs and services... which struggle to survive.

People used to think big corporations were controlled by conservatives... and for the most part, they are, but the article above mentions a liberal corporation - which IMO shows that people who want freedom, truth and democracy will HAVE to go independant from the main political parties. I just don't know if there will be enough of us to organize effectively to prevent all media sources from being corrupted so badly by bias that there is no way to know what the facts are.