Homeless man with Golden Voice:Ted Williams

I first saw this on a news item at a news website. I can't remember which. But like most people, I was surprised to say the least when Ted Williams started to speak. A friend of mine thought it was a hoax. But after listening to the interview afterwards, we were convinced it was real, it was his voice. I hard people talking about it over lunch. Someone even saw it on the TV news.

The original story was from traditional media. The videographer from the Columbus Dispatch first reported it. I'll gve them their due. Follow the story here. The someone called ritchey uploaded it to youtube. It attracted a lot of attention. From there other news sites reported it and linked to that video and it exploded. It not only went viral but it was also spread via TV news and the classic word-of-mouth. The within days he was on radio and later TV morning shows. Ted later helped opened the Today show on NBC and was interviewed on his past and was up for him in the near future.

Truly a heartwarming story of how life can be changed at a moment's notice. It resonated with a lot of people because they could hear his sincerity when interviewed later in the segment. America is place for second chances. It is a belief that people want to practice by giving Ted a helping hand, a second chance. Some people thought that it was incredulous that a person with that natural ability could be out on the street. But there are many reasons why people become homeless. Ted has his and given the amount of publicity he is generating, there will be a TV movie about it soon.
There are two points about the story that I'd like to point out.


First, The Columbus Dispatches handling of the spreading of the video. First they asked YouTube to remove it to enforce their copyright. That I believe it is within their right. But would the story had developed that way it did if it hadn't been for the YouTube video? Not likely or not as fast nor widespread. Other news sites reported on the Internet sensation Ted Williams and not the Ted Williams story posted by the Columbus Dispatch per se. A subtle difference that meant that they didn't have to pay the Columbus Dispatch for the story. What the Columbus Dispatch could have done is the get the YouTube video linked back to their main story or got YouTube user ritchey to put a link back to story on their website. It wasn't that ritchey was claiming it was theirs. The logo of the dispatch was clearly visible at the end of the video. Rather than riding the wave of interest, they decided to clamp it down. Clearly the powers that be at the Dispatch did not understand how to generate revenue on the Internet. Now the story have shifted away from the Columbus Dispatch's story to Ted Williams himself.
Second, the phenomena of YouTube as the source of video info on the Internet. No doubt YouTube is still the pioneer of video media on the Internet. While other media sites are extensions of traditional media, the interest of the Internet user can only be seen at sites like YouTube. The reaction is immediate, visceral and grows exponentially. I seriously doubt the ISP for the Dispatch could have taken on the additional traffic the story could have generated. Only a site that is prepared for such growth can take on such demands. In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised that if left to their devices, the editors at the dispatch would have uploaded the video to YouTube as a way of coping with an increase in interest. Or risk turning people off because they couldn't see what the commotion is about.
So give Youtube it's due.