Keeping track of disappearing online political videos is fast becoming a full-time job here at Video Done Right. This will be my third post on the subject in a week. The first story covered the disappearance of two viral videos from YouTube last week. One was a forced removal after a claim of copyright infringement; the creator of the other video made it "private" after being subjected to bipartisan online ridicule for using children to sing praises to Barack Obama. (Excerpts available here.) The second story, written last night, revisited the disappearance of the "Sing For Obama Change" video in the context of another viral embarrassment for the Democratic presidential nominee, a clip of young black men chanting rotely for Obama. The YouTube user who uploaded that video inexplicably yanked it yesterday. (It's now back online.) This morning, I learned that even as I was writing my post last night, another video had disappeared. The latest episode may prove that liberals can't take a joke. This time the subject was the financial bailout. "Saturday Night Live" poked fun at Democrats in Congress, as well as billionaire and financier of Democratic causes George Soros. NBC put the skit on its Web site for everyone to share. I embedded it on Eyeblast.tv yesterday afternoon. Now the video is gone from the NBC site, without explanation. Curiously, other segments from the same episode of "Saturday Night Live" are there for the taking. Why did NBC yank the bailout video? No one knows because NBC isn't talking, but NewsBusters, Michelle Malkin and Hot Air have some theories, and The Foundry provides some useful background facts to put the skit in context. I've contacted NBC in an attempt to get an explanation. For now, you can still watch the skit via YouTube thanks to a user who uploaded it there. Eyeblast associate producer Kerry Picket found that copy and embedded it on Eyeblast. But you better watch it in a hurry, and download the video if you like it, because NBC is almost certain to make a copyright claim against that version. UPDATE: As predicted, NBC made a legitimate copyright claim against the skit on YouTube and YouTube removed it. This story is now newsworthy, however, making excerpts of the skit fair game under the "fair use" doctrine of copyright law. We have uploaded excerpts to Eyeblast.tv.
