Digital Publishing and Why the YouTube Shooter Opened Fire

[DCPatriot]

April 19, 2018
Digital Publishing and Why the YouTube Shooter Opened Fire
By Taylor Lewis

Nasim Aghdam is a 21st-century Willy Lowman, the hapless protagonist of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.

The eccentric vegan activist who shot up the headquarters of online video giant YouTube epitomized today's forgotten man – or, perhaps, the forgotten woman, as is the more accurate case.

Not long after Aghdam's shooting, which left none dead but herself, did her attempted murder spree drop from headlines.  At a time when any crime involving a firearm is scrupulously deconstructed to establish a case for curtailing the Second Amendment, Aghdam's was not.  This, despite her easily purchasing a 9mm Smith and Wesson under her own name at a local dealer shortly before her fatal scheme.

Surely, the breeziness with which she bought a gun, ambled into a corporate headquarters, and sprayed the place with bullets, while even affording herself enough time to replace an empty magazine, should have inspired yet another gun-control march on the National Mall.  But there was nothing.  Even in death, Aghdam was ignored.  She made it into the paper but still fell into her "grave like an old dog."

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The ghost of Willy Lowman, bellowing, "You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away – a man is not a piece of fruit!," can be heard in her frustration.  Whatever market existed for Aghdam has been dissipated by YouTube's more stringent advertising standards.  Last December, the social media giant attempted to remove ads from offensive videos.  The result cut off an estimated 80% of revenue from creators of inoffensive content.  In applying a one-size-fits-all fix to its image problem, YouTube de-monetized its own talent base.

The same self-inflicted harm can be seen on a great scale on Facebook, currently the king of the hill in the cutthroat digital publishing business.  Back in January, CEO (Chief Emperor and Overlord) Mark Zuckerberg announced that the platform's newsfeed function – the life line of many publications – would be stanched to prioritize postings by family and friends.  "You'll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media," Zuckerberg explained.  "And the public content you see more will be held to the same standard – it should encourage meaningful interactions between people."

continued at link:  http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/04/digital_publishing_and_why_the_youtube_shooter_opened_fire.html