The Empire strikes back, Hagee defeats YouTube

The Rev. John Hagee hates YouTube. It was YouTube that scarred his behind-the-scenes political career, and now Hagee has struck back:

Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee has successfully worked with copyright lawyers to get more than 120 videos featuring him removed from YouTube.

The development was reported by The Huffington Post, whose blogger Max Blumenthal discovered that a video he had made at Hagee’s Christians United for Israel conference last year was among those removed from the popular video Web site.

Juda Engelmayer, a spokesman for Hagee, confirmed that the videos had been removed.

“They were anything that contained clips of sermons, clips of activities happening at CUFI or John Hagee Ministries events,” he said.

Hagee is the outspoken pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio. After his controversial comments about the Holocaust and Catholics were carried on the Internet, Sen. John McCain rejected Hagee’s endorsement of his presidential race.

Blumenthal criticized the move as “a naked exercise in news suppression.”