That being said - they really raise an important question. Where do we draw the line? As a society? as a family? as Hubski? What is free speech? What is tasteful? What is inappropriate? I have my set of answers, and undoubtedly, they will radically conflict with others'. Reddit says they don't want to exercise editorial control for fear of infringing on free speech. This is murky yet interesting water. <joke>Maybe this is an elaborate plot by the admins here at hubski to submarine reddit</joke>
I think we can never draw the line in one place. IMHO, the line must necessarily move, and it must be challenged often to make sure that it is in the right place. We can never settle it, but should always talk about it. Joking aside, I'd never want to see Reddit get submarined, especially by something like this. People-driven media has the potential to do so much good. It would be a huge mistake to let talking heads torpedo it for its faults. That would be a dangerous hypocrisy, IMO.
I think that aggregators, are viable threats, but I'd be surprised to find that CNN sees them as one at this point. I don't think traditional media has a very good track record with identifying and reacting to those kinds of challenges.
It's either illegal or it's not. It it's not, the entire piece is essentially titled "Portion of website's viewers engage in very bad taste."
I watched it with my dad when it first aired and remember laughing my ass off. We both thought it was so pitiful of a performance that it could have ended his career. Years later and he's still there, moderating presidential debates. Wtf?