YouTube proudly says "Broadcast Yourself" in its logo. For most that means putting ridiculous videos of karaoke or cat tricks onlne. But what about breaking news that no one else will air in the mainstream press?

Tom Siebert relays an interesting story this week about Michael De Kort, the 41-year-old former engineer for Lockheed Martin.

De Kort alleges that Lockheed Martin sold the U.S. Coast Guard $24 billion worth of refurbished Coast Guard patrol boats with significant security flaws and other deficiencies. After contacting many news organizations (who dismissed his claims as "outlandish"), he created a 10-minute video detailing shortcomings in the boats' security cameras, communications abilities, and cold weather capabilities. He then posted it on YouTube as a decision of "last resort."

Following De Kort's YouTube airing, however, his allegations were subsequently reported in the Navy Times, and then picked up by The Washington Post, NPR and other news organizations. Representatives from both the Associated Press and The Washington Post confirm that De Kort contacted the outlets' reporters months prior to videotaping his claims for YouTube. "We needed to get documentation from the government, and we haven't yet," says Michael Silverman, managing editor for the AP in New York. "This is a story we continue to pursue."

The video has become the latest example of new media driving the old, cited by ABC News as "further evidence that the Internet has given the average person a way to be heard."

What this really is, adds Pete Blackshaw, CMO at Nielsen BuzzMetrics, is the latest permutation of the Web's "consumer surveillance" trend. "Video has dramatically raised the stakes for companies, and now the government, because it tends to be more viral," he says. " And like television advertising, it's far more persuasive."

Since The Washington Post broke the story Tuesday, viewings of De Kort's video had risen from 8,000 to nearly 50,000 by 5 p.m. Wednesday. When I check on Thursday morning, the count had risen to over 73,000.