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Thursday, November 09, 2006
CNN tells YouTube to pull down video outing GOP party head Ken Mehlman
by John in DC - 11/09/2006 02:24:00 PM

I just got a cease-and-desist letter from YouTube, see below, regarding my CNN footage I posted. The footage, you'll recall, was from Larry King Live last night in which Bill Maher outed Republican Party chair Ken Mehlman as gay. It seems that CNN has suddenly decided that it no longer wants bloggers, or YouTube, posting any of its video, which is kind of surprising since I always thought we were doing a CNN a favor by constantly touting their network. Apparently I was wrong.

NOTE: You can still see the entire video on Huff Post.

CNN has also now edited the official transcript of Larry King Live, so that no one will ever know what really happened. Here is CNN's transcript:

    MAHER: A lot of the chiefs of staff, the people who really run the 
underpinnings of the Republican Party are gay. I don't want to
mention names, but I will on Friday night.

    KING: You will Friday night?

    MAHER: Well, there's a couple of big people who I think everyone 
in Washington knows who run the Republican...

    KING: You will name them?

    MAHER: Well, I wouldn't be the first. I'd get sued if I was the first. 
(A PORTION OF THIS TRANSCRIPT HAS BEEN REMOVED)

    KING: Great way to close out this segment. It's poignant.

CNN didn't just edit out the naming of Mehlman as gay, they even edited out Larry's question, and Maher's answer, about why gay people sometimes work against their own people. Now why is that question being censored by CNN?

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To be fair on CNN, the reason they probably pulled the piece isn't because of censorship but because it's defamatory, and they can get sued as a republisher. Now, I'm not sure whether there's been any case law for a situation where a republisher takes their stuff off the stands, but someone steals the content and puts it up anyway (fair use or no), and liability can still be established, but I don't think CNN would want to take the risk and the cost of litigation over a throwaway remark by Maher.