Opinion: Classified video makes YouTube

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Nearly four years ago, two U.S. pilots accidentally killed British Lance Cpl. Matty Hull. On Tuesday, the U.S. has agreed to release a ‘classified’ video recording of the incident. This, of course, after British authories told Hull’s family no video existed, and after a British tabloid leaked the video. Now, like so many other wartime moments, it’s on YouTube.

If this is the YouTube war, when will it have its Tet Offensive moment, when what appears onscreen gets gruesome or offensive enough to mobilize major public protests? Would we have needed a YouTubed Abu Ghraib? In any case, some (warning: graphic) contenders (warning: just plain offensive, if it’s real) have come and gone already.