Today's Wall Street Journal has an intriguing article focusing on NBC's attempt to hammer out deals with sites like YouTube and Bolt.com. The gist is basically this: NBC wants to benefit from the reach power of YouTube and Bolt without actually losing any of the potential profits.

Talk about putting the consumer first! Could this possibly be why we get the impression that the networks could care less about creating programming we actually want to watch? But there is somebody out there who understands. Luke McCormick, the 23-year-old son of an top NBC Exec, and employee at Bolt.com.

The network's demand that "Lazy Sunday" be removed indicates that "NBC doesn't really get it," says Luke McCormick, a 23-year old Bolt staffer. "Having clips of its shows up on [the Internet] was the only thing that was going to get anyone our age to watch 'Saturday Night Live.'"

Mr. McCormick says he rarely watches regular TV, often renting DVDs of shows he wants to see. (Mr. McCormick is the son of an NBC Universal executive. Doug McCormick is the chief executive of iVillage, a women-focused social networking site NBC Universal bought earlier this year.)

So, not only does Luke tell WSJ that his dad's company more or less sucks at programming, he also works for the alterna site that spoofs clips like SNL's "Lazy Sunday" — (Bolt's version "Hazy Monday" has two dudes out buying pirated videos instead of cupcakes.)

It sounds like NBC is pretty screwed if they can't even get their own kids to watch the network — let alone stop them from stealing their material and then making the network look like a complete ass. Or, you know, it's a really intricate PR ploy to create NBC buzz among the easily manipulated youth.

NBC Battles, and Joins With, Video Web Sites [Brooks Barnes and Rebecca Buckman]