Yes and no. I agree 100% for podcasts. However, while Youtube and Netflix are encouraging more producers they retain veto power on their platforms. This is key.

Yes and no. I agree 100% for podcasts. However, while Youtube and Netflix are encouraging more producers they retain veto power on their platforms. This is key. In the case of Netflix, it's obvious they only host what they want on their platform. In the case of Youtube, they are increasingly banning videos. This isn't my particular hobbyhorse issue, but it was the first result for "youtube ban political videos" and it has a huge constituency. "Youtube to Ban Videos Promoting Gun Sales" https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/business/youtube-gun-ban.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/business/youtube-gun-ban.... VICE Motherboard chronicles Youtube's history of escalating censorship. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/59jgka/a-brief-history-of-youtube-censorship https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/59jgka/a-brief-hi... On a decentralized platform (i.e. the real web) this would be impossible or nearly so. You might disagree with or laugh at the people losing money or literally being censored on one of the biggest public squares in the world, but it's not democratic and media consolidation will never ever result in something compatible with the free and open exchange of ideas.