Intermediation³

Barry Parr | May 21, 2007, 02:18 PM

Here's an interesting example of why it's futile to resist the intermediation of media.

This morning, while scanning the news in Google Reader, I was able to view — inside the RSS feeds of both Huffington Post's Eat the Press and BuzzMachine — a YouTube video of a CNN interview with Christopher Hitchens discussing the legacy of Jerry Falwell:

    CNN
     |
  YouTube
  |    |
ETP BuzzMachine
   |    |
 Google Reader
      |
  Audience

• That's right, I was able to watch this video delivered via RSS and embedded inside Google Reader.
• I can't find the video on CNN's web site.
• In case you missed it, there are two Google properties in this chain.

The first decade of the Web was marked with publishers' desperate struggles not to be aggregated. There are still publishers (and reporters) who see Google as stealing their content. That battle is over, and its now just a matter of shooting the wounded.