Sane and rational people wonder how a group of teenagers could beat a cheerleader, videotape the incident and make jokes about it in jail afterward. Sane and rational people also wonder how the videotape could go online — with an ad at the beginning of it.

Media people often fret about sites such as Craig’s List, YouTube and MySpace. They are seen as competitors for readers’ time and advertisers’ money. But what they make up in quantity — in the form of huge audiences — they lose in credibility.