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Ask LAist: Et tu, YouTube?

Concerned commenter valleyist asks: Why are you guys showing so many clips from YouTube? Do they pay you for these plugs? If I wanted to see clips from youtube, I'd go to there [sic] website. Is that what you want?
Let's start by saying yes, that's what we want. We want you to enjoy surfing around on the internet (particularly while you're at work), we want you to watch funny videos, read your favorite blogs, clicking on links and ending up who-knows-where. So yes, go ahead to YouTube — and then come back, y'all!
The reason that sites like us include videos from YouTube is that YouTube has done 2 technical things to make it embarassingly simple for all of us.
1. On each video's page on the YouTube site, they've got the code for an embeddable player; we just copy and paste that code and — ta-dah! you can watch a video on LAist. It's better than a link, because you never need to leave our site at all.
2. The other smart/manipulative thing YouTube has done is host every damn file. So when we put a YouTube video on our site and you play it, YouTube carries the bandwidth, not us.
Finally, we try to bring you videos from YouTube that have something to do with Los Angeles (including the South Park Scientology episode). You can do that yourself, but why bother, when we're here for you?
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
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The union representing the restaurant's workers announced Tuesday that The Pantry will welcome back patrons Thursday after suddenly shutting down six months ago.
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