If you gave a passing glance at the internet this past week, you heard about Ted Williams and his Golden Voice. His story pulled at our heartstrings and resulted in a slew of job offers. Since then, he has been on a not-so-unexpected roller coaster ride of events, ultimately resulting in an intervention on — you guessed it — Dr. Phil.
We all know about his meteoric rise and subsequent fall, but what we really want to know is, what happened to the video that made him famous?
The original video, uploaded by a user named “Ritchey,” got nearly 20 million views in less than a week. But now that video is nowhere to be found. A YouTube search for “Ted Williams Homeless” turns up plenty of videos of the homeless man with the golden voice, including one from Russia Today which has over 9 million views, but nothing from “Ritchey.”
So where did the original video go?
According to an article posted on CNET, the Columbus Dispatch had the viral YouTube version of their video —which prominently featured Dispatch branding— removed, citing copyright infringement. They still host a page dedicated to the story on their site, and they re-uploaded the video to YouTube with even more Dispatch branding in conjunction with the Associated Press.
To their dismay, they couldn’t harness the buzz around the original video. The updated version of the video shows up well below the fold in a YouTube search for “Ted Williams Homeless” and nowhere on a Google search for “YouTube Ted Williams.” However, the CNET article that originally reported the removal does show up in a search for that term. All the momentum and exposure that The Dispatch was getting for breaking their story had flatlined, and it was their own doing.
Authenticity and Owning Your Channel
While it’s within The Dispatch’s rights to reclaim copyrighted content, it feels strange and inauthentic. I have never seen someone call a “take-back” on a viral video. What if Lady Gaga told Greyson Chance he needed to remove his video of his incredible Paparazzi cover, which enjoys over 36 million views on YouTube, because he didn’t have the rights for the lyrics? Could you have imagined the backlash?
The Columbus Dispatch has issued a response to what some had claimed was a “stealing of their own content.” Benjamin Marrison explains that “The Dispatch asked YouTube to remove the video and direct those who wanted to see it to Dispatch.com. It’s copyrighted material, and news organizations must protect their copyrights. It took YouTube three days to act on our request, and then it removed the video without posting a link to the original video, as requested.”
Marrison goes on to say that The Dispatch has learned a lesson in social media, but never reveals what that lesson is. I can only hope that they have realized that you have to own your content, and even more importantly, your own channels. If you don’t, someone else will. It’s baffling that The Dispatch doesn’t have a branded YouTube channel to spread their content. If you value web traffic and banner ad revenue more than you value you’re content, you’ll never be able to ride a viral wave such as this one. So when the Ted Williams wave took off, The Dispatch wasn’t even on their surfboard.
(Image: AP Photo/NBC, Peter Kramer)
