Demand Media's business model is to have people write crappy articles that rank in a timely manner - just enough of the promise of content and just crappy enough to drive people quickly off the page through the nearest adsense ad. This, so far, is the standard aggregator model for audiences, ads, and writers.

If Google intended to slap Demand Media, then how did it explain this penalty to the YouTube division which seems to rely heavily on Demand Media's video content?