Dead Tree Alert: When Politics Goes Viral

In the cuneiform-engraved, buy-it-and-hold-it-in-your-hands print version of Time magazine this week, an edition of my "Culture Complex" column, expanding on my post last week about the Michael J. Fox affair. While episodes like the Sen. George Allen "macaca" incident have spread hype about "The YouTube election," the Fox ad -- which became YouTube's hottest video by far last week -- is perhaps the first big example of YouTube's potential to do something remarkable in the age of partisan political blogs: to get people who haven't already made up their minds on the election to seek out and watch a political ad on purpose.

Read it here or pick it up on the newsstand. Print magazines may be neither viral nor video, but you can't take your computer to the bathroom with you. Well, not if you share the computer with someone else in your household, anyway.