Drudge retort

"He is no fan of the blogging phenomenon," writes Cosmo Landesman in the [London] Sunday Times re "internet gossip millionaire" Matt Drudge. Internet millionaire? Yes. Gossip? Maybe so, but the same could be said of MSM "fake news" reporters like Dan "false but true" Rather or Sy "I can certainly fudge what I say" Hersh. Resentful MSM types smeared upstart Drudge with the "gossipmonger" epithet when he scooped them during Monicagate. Now Drudge himself appears to have no use for the latest upstarts:

“I don’t read them. I like to create waves and not surf them. And who are these influential bloggers? You can’t name one because they don’t exist.”

Back in the 1990s Drudge was a believer in the empowering potential of the internet. In a speech he said, “We have entered an era vibrating with the din of small voices. Every citizen can be a reporter, can take on the powers that be.”

Now he sounds disillusioned and says that the “din” is growing into a cacophony: “There’s a danger of the internet just becoming loud, ugly and boring with a thousand voices screaming for attention.”

What's the problem, fergossake? After all, "Drudge runs one of the most influential and discussed websites in the world . . . a tabloid newspaper that you can read on the net offering up-to-the-minute news, gossip, sport and celebrity stories," notes the Times:

When he first appeared in the 1990s he was part of a new group of outsiders challenging the political elite and the big media corporations. Has he now become part of the Establishment? “No. Because I have success it doesn’t mean that I’m part of the mainstream. I’m still an outsider.”

Do you suppose Drudge really doesn't read blogs, or is he protesting too much? After all, how could any self-respecting news junkie stay away?  'Reminds us of how political and media elites used to claim they would never stoop to his level, even as they checked in early and often with the Drudge Report.

Update:  InstaLanche!

Comments

[goomp]

Hubris is one of the characteristics of the human. It takes an unusual person to stay a common man in the presence of fame and fortune.

[ian]

IMHO Drudge is a hypocrite. He is just afraid of blogs taking over something that he has built over the years. Blogs got [more] popular over Rathergate, as Drudge got popular over the Clinton scandal.

[John]

Drudge hasn't been relevant for a long time now. He's still in my bookmarks, but I read him less and less. Plus I hate those goddamn popups. His is one of the few sites where Firefox doesn't block them.

[dionis]

The Drudge site has so many pop-ups and other scripts it lights up my spyware. As a result it takes too long to load. He's built a site that's a cash cow, but one can sense his time is passing.

[Laurence Simon]

Doesn't read blogs, eh?

Okay, Drudge, then why did you directly link Roger L. Simon's exclusive investigative piece for Oil-For-Food? When I last checked, Roger's site was one of those "blog" things. (and one hell of a writer... I'm just finishing up "Director's Cut")

Drudge is a fedora-wearing liar who's just as terrified as the MSM of losing control over that which he's exploited for material gain.

[Teresa]

Unless of course he was quoted incorrectly, taken out of context... or one of the other miriad of ways the news media change what people really say.

It may be a correct quote (and I believe I've seen something similar before but can't be sure), but since Drudge runs such a big web site and has the ability to post what he wants, I'd like to see corroboration directly from the horse's mouth. (and I would think he'd get enough email from this quote to make it worth his while to clear things up if this is not right)

But I really don't care what Drudge himself thinks. He's entitled to his opinion, good or bad. I can't see it making any sort of difference one way or the other. People who read blogs won't give it up because Drudge doesn't like them. People who don't read blogs either won't start or will go try to find out what these "blog things" are... and thus we add more readers to the blogosphere.

[chubby]

I hear his show sunday night on kfi 640 in la. He's very strange. He's not consistent. He's the kind of guy that you'd never want to see what he does when he's alone with himself. weird duck that drudge is.

[Andy]

Oh whatever, Drudge is just showing his age, is all.

Like the Led Zeppelin fans who grow up and are horrified to find that their children listen to -gasp- Pearl Jam, who are likewise horrified to grow up and find that their own children like -gasp- the White Stripes.

Drudge is just wary of a medium very similar to his own, and yet one he is not wholly familiar with. Thats all.

[Ernst Blofeld]

Drudge and the blogs are serving different markets. Drudge is mass media; he aims at a broad audience. The most important blogs are aimed at a much smaller but influential, opinion-leader demographic.

Drudge's site has gone downhill. I get the feeling he wants out, but he's trapped by golden handcuffs.

[UML Guy]

I'm not going to defend Mr. Drudge's stance; but to be fair, he spends an incredible amount of time perusing every large and small mainstream media source he can find, and then linking to the stories he finds interesting. So the answer to this:

"Do you suppose Drudge really doesn't read blogs, or is he protesting too much? After all, how could any self-respecting news junkie stay away?"

may be simply: "He's too busy for them."

And that may also explain his stance on blogs: he's so busy in his own little world, he's never really given them a shot.

[Eric Blair]

I've stopped reading Drudge because of those goddam pop-ups. Blofeld may be right.

[Toad]

Drudge runs a news site not a blog site. He spends most of his working time researching online newspapers, wire services, online magazines, etc. He says he spends anywhere from eight to thirteen hours a day on this. If he started to extend his research to news and comment blogs he'd be swamped, there are just too many for a one man operation. He probably hasn't read a blog in sometime. He doesn't score first or get as many coups as he used to because some of the mainstream has learned the futility of spiking hot stories that reporter want to get out and there are more sites doing what he is doing, some in his general news way, others are specialized. If you noticed he has always modeled his persona on the old time reporters. Notice the hat? He still finds stuff and get fed stuff to make a coup every once in a while, so I still hit his site everyday.

[The Indigent Blogger]

I thought the Drudge Report was really cool when I first came across it in 1997 (IIRC). However, Drudge continually uses very unreliable sources such as worldtribune.com and newsmax.com that have enough regular wire feed news mixed in with their own 'special' news to make them seem semi-reliable. I've just stopped visiting drudge altogether over the past two years as my regular news sources are much better than his main page.

[Abu Qa'Qa]

IMHO, Drudge is like the MSM. Not over, but certainly reduced in relevance.

He used to be good and I read him everyday. Now I only go there if I hope to see a fried chicken head in a bucket of KFC. Surprised he hasn't posted the Wendy's finger, or has he?

I agree that he never ran a blog, just a good research and link operation. You want blogs? Try Roger L. Simon, Ann Althouse, Jeff Jarvis, Tim Blair, Ed Morrissey, QandO, and oodles more.

[Laurence Simon]

Toad - Drudge is neither news nor blog. Drudge is portal with very little original content.

[Half Sigma]

Drudge had his one HUGE scoop back in the Monica Lewinsky days, but what has he scooped recently? Nothing. The guy is just living off his past glory.

[big dirigible]

On the plus side, if Drudge stays away from blogs, then there's little danger of following one of his links and finding that you've been sent to %^&*#$ Wonkette. "News" links to Scrappleface I can do without, too.

[ian]

Laurence Simon: I just want to let you know that he could have not linked to him. It's not just him running the site. He has several "interns" and contributors who probably linked to them. For example - Jordan Golson (jlgolson.blogspot.com) (a friend) was linked on Drudge Report twice, but not by Drudge.

Anyways - Drudge probably does want out .. but who can turn down over 1mill a year?

Also I have turned to using WesRoth.com more and more, atoleast his site does not have unblockable popups (for that matter, any popups at all heh)