But that was three months ago! And apparently an eon in Internet time.

Since then, Lazar and her “What’s Trending” program, a chatty chat show about memes and the people who make them, seem to have rebounded quite nicely: Lazar says traffic has doubled since CBS cut ties with the show, which runs its final episode of the year today.

The caveat here is that “What’s Trending,” which launched in May, had a very modest audience when CBS was promoting it on its CBSNews.com site — around 40,000 views a week. And it’s easy enough to guess that the Jobs controversy — the show’s Twitter account had announced that the Apple co-founder had died, then flippantly told him to “live on,” by way of a correction — actually boosted the show’s profile and helped it get to the 84,000 weekly views mark it’s at today.

Still, getting any traction on the Web is hard, and there are plenty of shows and sites that are treading similar ground — just check YouTube. So credit Lazar and Damon Berger, the co-founders of production company Disrupt/Group, for making a go of it, without a big-name Web property giving it a push.

Instead, Lazar and Berger have cobbled together a variety of one-off collaborations with big sites (MTV) and small ones (VYou); they have more in the works. Virgin America, for instance, will start running best-of clips on the airline’s 5,000 in-seat TV sets, where the show will run alongside other Web originals like Boing Boing.

It’s also possible that help from CBSNews.com was never going to be much use to them. “I don’t think a majority of CBS’s audience was our audience,” Berger says, upon reflection.

But they’d still be happy to talk to bigger partners about a distribution deal (financing and sponsorships, too, if anyone is offering). And Lazar says they’ll be back in 2012. “We built an office with employees, and a three-camera live-shooting studio, and we weren’t just going to throw that away when an incident like that happened.”

While some television networks and cable channels are doing a lot of coverage, the Chilean miner rescue is unfolding minute by agonizing minute on the Web.

And also on social networking sites, such as Twitter, which you can see below, along with live Web video from CBS (CBS) News on Ustream.

CBS has been doing the feed since early yesterday and presumably will continue until all the miners are out.

Truly, given how well it has turned out, enjoy:

Don’t get me wrong: Google’s (GOOG) video site still appears to be the only place to see Letterman’s jaw-dropping admission that he has had affairs with staffers on his show and that a CBS (CBS) employee attempted to extort him with that information.

Those clips aren’t supposed to be there, and CBS and YouTube keep taking them down, but people keep uploading them. Here’s one that appears to come from a Portuguese user, for instance.

But I had a hunch that the story, which involves a man who has been on late night TV longer than many YouTube users have been alive, might not resonate with the site’s core demo. And data from video-tracking service TubeMogul make me think that’s the case. Here’s the report I got from TubeMogul marketing director David Burch:

Pirated versions only racked up 130,624 views throughout the day, mostly because CBS didn’t post an official version of the clip and was issuing take-down orders (they had already removed five versions of the clip by the time we ran our first report this morning). By way of comparison, pirated clips of the UFC Kimbo Slice fight totaled 1,074,531 views in the past 24 hours.

Oddly, CBS News’ channel released four news videos about the story today, but youtube.com/cbs only had Letterman’s Madonna interview rather than the clip everyone actually wanted to see.

Never heard of Kimbo Slice before? Like Fred, he’s yet another YouTube sensation, albeit one who’s graduated to TV.

Of all the many journalists I admire, Walter Cronkite is perhaps right at the very top of the list.

With an unerring sense of fairness, consistent equilibrium that is sorely missed, rigorous adherence to ethics and standards and a crackerjack reporter, the legendary television newsman and anchorman–who died yesterday at 92 years old–was also never afraid to show his humanity.

The most famous instance came after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and Cronkite had to deliver the bad official news about his death. He teared up, ever so slightly, all while he kept his composure and did his job.

(See the video below, which he did, incredibly, live.)

That he did it so well, time and again, whether talking about the futility of the Vietnam War or about some amusing story that crossed his desk at CBS (CBS) News, is a lesson we should all pay attention to.

At a time when journalism is changing so rapidly, as the business models of old are buffeted by the gale-force winds of the Internet, it’s important to remember that what Cronkite represented never goes out of style–no matter how news and information are delivered.

In today’s noisy media universe, he should serve as an example of how to be booming without being shrill and commanding without being a blowhard.

I might sound like a crabby old media type (as if I care!), but it’s too easy to argue that the old needs to be flushed out and the new is always better.

Sometimes, this is true.

But Cronkite understood that people value accurate, straightforward and quality news, which he always delivered and would do so today to viewers, no matter the medium.

He was a class act and it’s a sad day because he is gone.

But Cronkite does live on on the Web, so here are some great videos of him in action to enjoy and appreciate.

Kennedy Assassination:

Martin Luther King Assassination:

Total Eclipse of the Sun:

That’s the Way It Is:

Because they can, of course. And because the presidency-to-be has already provided a short-term boost for media companies who’ve been able to feed the public’s appetite for all things Obama. The New York Times, for example, says it generated $2.3 million in much-needed extra revenue via the sale of its commemorative election day edition and other paraphernalia.

So it will be nearly impossible to boot up your browser on Tuesday and not end up watching a live stream of the pomp and circumstance; the actual swearing-in ceremony is scheduled for noon Eastern Standard Time.

But just in case your online venue of choice gets the hiccups, here’s a list of sites that promise to provide coverage; I’ve also embedded a stream from Hulu (which is using the Fox broadcast’s feed) at the bottom of this post if you’d prefer to stay right here.

I’m sure I’ve probably missed several dozen options: If you’ve got a site you want to add to the list, do so in comments below or contact me at peter@allthingsd.com or via the blind tip box here.

Presidential Inauguration Committee (Microsoft-haters beware: This stream will require the company’s Silverlight player)

Joint Congressional Committee

New York Times

Washington Post

ABC News

CNN (features obligatory Facebook tie-in)

C-SPAN

CBS News

MSNBC

Fox News

Joost (Joost would like to point out that unlike some of the options listed here, its feed will be available for  international audiences).

Current TV (features obligatory Twitter tie-in)

Livestation (requires download; player allows viewers to flip between coverage from Al Jazeera, C-Span, BBC, euronews, France 24, Russia Today).

One major video outlet that apparently won’t be streaming the event live: The biggest–Google’s (GOOG) YouTube. But YouTube’s Inauguration Channel is serving up plenty of video during the run-up.

And if you couldn’t score tickets to the Huffington Post’s pre-inaugural ball Monday night with the likes of Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and, um, Ashton Kutcher, don’t fret: The news aggregator promises to provide both live video and live blogging of the event.