YouTube Yanks Vid of Parade Mocking Teen Moms
Posted on: Wednesday, 16 July 2008, 12:00 CDT
YouTube.com has yanked the infamous Beverly Farms "Horribles" parade video that featured a giant squirting phallus and gyrating teen girls with fake baby bumps after deeming it "inappropriate" -- but a North Shore newspaper is keeping the shocking video alive on its Web site.
Dan MacAlpine, senior editor of the Beverly Citizen who shot and posted video of the parade that spoofed Gloucester's teen pregnancy spike, said YouTube removed the clip Monday. The Beverly Citizen uses YouTube to host its videos. Yesterday, MacAlpine posted the parade footage on the Citizen's Web site.
He said he doesn't know why YouTube -- which is loaded with content that many find offensive -- pulled the video, but he said he has received calls from Beverly residents irate not only that the video was posted, but that it was on YouTube.
"It's very odd that out of the millions of videos (YouTube) culls through that it would pick apart this particular one," MacAlpine said.
The Citizen, owned by GateHouse Media Inc., sees news value in the video, said MacAlpine, who recorded and posted video from the parade last year as well.
A YouTube spokeswoman refused to answer any questions about the removal of the video.
"We do not comment on individual videos," she said.
MacAlpine said when he tried to view the video on YouTube on Monday, it was replaced with a message saying it had been deemed "inappropriate."
According to the site's rules, videos can be removed by the original poster or YouTube can lift those that don't meet the site's "community guidelines."
Gloucester has been shunning the spotlight ever since a Time magazine article last month quoted the high school principal as saying that nearly half the school's 17 expectant teens had a "pregnancy pact" and planned to raise their babies together.
Despite the ouster, the Gloucester teen baby mama drama continues to get hits on YouTube: Video from Salem's July 4 Horribles parade is on the site and is almost as raunchy as the Beverly Farms footage.
The five-minute video features women with fake baby bumps and a cross-dressing man with a "Prego Teen" sash and a squirting device.
Source: Boston Herald
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