"Dazzled by his own celebrity"

"Perhaps Sissy Willis (via Glenn) doesn't know how right she is when she writes about Matt Drudge's blogphobia this morning," writes the blogosphere's own man of mystery, Roger L. Simon, in a suitably suspenseful first sentence to a scoop re some recent unpleasantness at the Drudge Report:

A few weeks ago, I was linked on the Drudge Report (in red, no less), concerning some original reporting I was doing on Oil-for-Food. No, my server didn't crash but the link, which had gone up in the evening, was gone by morning. Reason: it was put up by Andrew Breitbart in California and removed by Drudge himself in Florida the next day . . . Our Matt evidently can't stand online competition. No real surprise there.

I've noticed a decline in the Drudge Report recently. It seems to have lost its edge. But I don't expect Matt to get desperate enough to link blogs. Generosity is not his long suit.

Like many bloggers, we cut our teeth on the Drudge Report, and the man with a plan hat will always hold a special place in our blogging heart. But as our sis reminded us via i-mail this afternoon:

Remember how I told you, several years ago, that Drudge was no damned good?  Dazzled by his own celebrity.  What else is new?  As I always say . . . it's easy to be virtuous when one is never tempted.

Be that as it may, Drudge has rightfully earned a place in internet history, but having writ, the moving finger moves on.

Comments

[ian]

Drudge is an [expletive deleted] - he knows it and he is proud of it. That is what's so great about him. He knows what people think about him and he doesn't care. I've been following the report for a few years and notice the "zing" has declined.

Another thing I wanted to add (should be in the Drudge Retort entry) is - he doesn't like blogs because they beat him quite often. I've seen blogs that have broke news faster than him - but it doesn't matter since everyone reads Drudge ... thus he's mainstream.