The mistake Demand Media made was not creating their shitty content under a veil of legitimacy - AOL calls their giant content farm "news" and their cheap writers "journalists".
I don't disagree about AOL, but I think Demand Media's mistake goes deeper. Most purveyors of shitty news know that they have to build an audience. Thus, we have long-lived tripe like the Daily Mail or the National Enquirer. Demand Media's plan was to force one via search engine ranking.
"shitty news" is definitely different than shitty content (of the type that Demand produced).
"shitty news" has entertainment value. People read shitty news because it's entertaining. If it's not accurate that is not the same problem as crappy instructions on how to fix a leaky roof (where the goal is to solve a problem not be entertained.)
