One day later, ABC’s Nightline ran a piece about another YouTube accomplishment: shaming A-list American movie stars who “have a yen for the yen.” Used to be, ABC’s John Berman explained, that Hollywood types could make secret money-making “Japan junkets,” whereby they would earn millions hawking Japanese products in commercials that never saw the light of day stateside. “So, what has changed?” asked ABC’s John Berman. “Well, like we said, back in the 1980s, you could only see something like this” — footage of Cameron Diaz shilling for a cell phone company — “in Japan. Well, suffice it to say, I am not in Japan. No. This is my office, my computer, and that is YouTube.”


Is there anything YouTube can’t do?

Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.