Youtube

IF "INNOCENCE OF MUSLIMS" sweeps the Razzies next year, can we all stop talking about it like it's a serious cinematic event? Is every crackpot with access to YouTube now going to become a target of insecure political regimes? On Wednesday, an Egyptian court convicted in absentia seven Egyptian Coptic Christians and a Florida-based American pastor, sentencing them to death - that's right, to death - on charges linked to the anti-Islam film that had sparked riots in parts of the Muslim world.

The central Pennsylvania voting machine shown Tuesday in a YouTube video recording a vote for President Obama as a vote for Republican challenger Mitt Romney was broken and has been fixed, a state official said. The video, reminiscent of a 2008 parody on The Simpsons, went viral and attracted national media attention as it raised concerns about voting-machine fraud. YouTube user "centralpavote," who posted the video, wrote that when he tried to cast a ballot for Obama, the light in the voting booth lit up for Romney.

The night of Hurricane Sandy brought heartening stories of the power of social media to connect and inform. In social media terms, Sandy is without a doubt the most-covered storm, in depth, breadth, and detail, in history. On Aug. 30, 2005, when Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Facebook was a toddler of a year and a half, YouTube a babe of six months, and Twitter nonexistent. Most tweets, posts, and videos sought to help people, both those in storm's way and those wanting to know more.

In this 2012 election season, the nationwide battle is not only presidential - it's pop-cultural. At the Republican National Convention in Tampa in August, Clint Eastwood stood up for Mitt Romney and talked down to an empty chair in which he pretended an invisible President Obama was sitting. Last weekend, pop singer Katy Perry performed at a Los Angeles fund-raiser for Obama, and tweeted a photo to her 27 million followers of her red, white, and blue fingernails decorated with Democratic donkeys and pictures of the president.

Philadelphia police say they expect to make more arrests in connection with a 100-person brawl involving two wedding parties that broke out early Sunday at the Sheraton Society Hill hotel. Three people have been arrested in the incident, which began in the hotel bar after a wedding reception. One man died of a heart attack while shepherding his grown children out of the hotel as wedding guests battled and police swung nightsticks inside. Two people were issued disorderly conduct citations, police said.

WE HAVE argued many times for an independent authority to provide police oversight and accountability, a body to ensure that police don't abuse their power and that when they do, they are disciplined. We now have that authority in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, it's YouTube. The shocking sidewalk slam to Aida Guzman by Lt. Jonathan Josey at Sunday's Puerto Rican Day parade was captured on video, posted on YouTube, and as of yesterday had gotten 1,329,847 views. That means that Josey, who was suspended with intent to fire by Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey on Wednesday, not only hit a woman, but also sucker-punched the entire city and the Police Department in front of the world.

THAT'S JUST COLD. Surveillance video released by police on Tuesday gives a bird's-eye view of a pack of four teenage hoodlums approaching a 47-year-old man as he shopped in the frozen-food aisle of the Franklin Mills Pathmark about 10 p.m. Saturday, taunting him, then punching him in the face. During the unprovoked attack, police said, the teens continued to kick and punch the man after he fell to the ground, and took his money clip with $100 cash before running out of the store and fleeing in a small hatchback car, possibly a Chevrolet Aveo.

VIDEO of a Philadelphia police supervisor striking a woman during a Puerto Rican Day Parade celebration was posted to YouTube on Sunday night. Go to phillyconfidential.com to see the video. In these still shots from the video, Lt. Jonathan Josey II, in white shirt, punches Aida Guzman in the face (far left photo), then handcuffs her while she is sitting on the ground, blood pouring from her face (left); then Guzman is led away by another cop (above).

SOME DAYS, scouring the Internet like a Loofah to get the truth on some rumor - so you don't have to - gives Tattle a headache. Take Monica Lewinsky . Please. The newsroom was a titter (or perhaps a Twitter) Thursday when stories started to pop up everywhere - like moles in a game of Whac-a-Mole - that Monica was going to receive many, many dollars for a tell-all book on her affair with then-President Bill Clinton and his insatiable desire for three-way sex. Newsday said Monica was shopping a "top-secret" book.

Philly R&B musician Damon Hamilton is a bit amazed how he's finally getting lots of attention after creating a YouTube spoof of South Korean pop sensation Psy and his viral "Gangnam Style" video. In less than two months, the Asian rapper, real name Park Jae-Sang, has skyrocketed to No. 1 on Billboard's Social 50, a measure of international Internet buzz, propelled by a catchy single, a music video featuring his funny "invisible horse" dancing, appearances everywhere from Ellen (where he taught X Factor judge Britney Spears the dance)