This is an amazing incident, in which YouTube cut the streams of several of its most successful, home-grown channels because they were utilizing a public video stream and were overshadowing mainstream media sources:

The Rekieta Law channel, which features multiple lawyers doing real-time analysis of the trial, often beat the number of people watching the PBS stream. The PBS stream is one of the more reliable ones available to YouTube users and was being used by several outlets.

The ability for anybody to reach a wide audience is the core selling point for YouTube as a business.  It’s literally the idea behind the company’s name!

So, is YouTube scared of the legacy powers or do its managers want to join the legacy, not overcome it?