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Drudge Report

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File:DrudgeReport.jpg
A typical day at the Drudge Report.

The Drudge Report is a popular, U.S.-based news website run by Matt Drudge. The site consists primarily of links to stories from the US and international mainstream media about politics, entertainment, and various current events as well as links to many popular columnists. Occasionally Drudge authors a story of his own. The Report originated around 1994 as a weekly subscriber-based email dispatch. It is most famous for being the first entity to break the news of the Monica Lewinsky scandal to the public.

The Drudge Report is regarded as an important news outlet: Democratic strategist Chris Lehane says "phones start ringing" whenever Drudge breaks a story and Mark McKinnon, one of President Bush's top advisors says he checks the site 30-40 times per day[1]. ABC News concluded that the Drudge Report sets the tone for national political coverage.[1] In The Way To Win, a book written by journalists Mark Halperin and John Harris, Drudge is called "the Walter Cronkite of his era." [2] The Drudge report and Matt Drudge have been criticized by various media news personalities: Dan Rather who called the Report a "rumor mill" [1][citation needed], Bill O'Reilly who twice called Drudge a "threat to democracy" [3], and Keith Olbermann who referred to Drudge as "an idiot with a modem" [4].

Origins

Drudge began publishing his email-based Report from an apartment in Hollywood, California. He maintains the popular news website from a condominium in Miami Beach, Florida. Drudge uses connections with industry and media insiders to break stories sometimes before they hit the mainstream media. Drudge's reports were electronically syndicated by Wired News from November 1996 to May 1997; AOL carried his reports until 1998. He began his website in 1997 as a supplement to the email reports. He eventually stopped the email reports in favor of exclusively updating his website.

Drudge first received national attention in 1996 when he broke the news that Jack Kemp would be Republican Bob Dole's running mate in the 1996 presidential election. In 1998, Drudge again made national waves when he broke the news that Newsweek magazine had information on an inappropriate relationship between "a White House intern" and President Bill Clinton (the Monica Lewinsky scandal), but was withholding publication.[5] After Drudge's report, Newsweek published the story. In addition, Drudge was the first to announce Connie Chung's departure from CBS News[citation needed], Jerry Seinfeld's million dollar contract[citation needed], and John McCain notifying his staff that he had decided to run for president in 2000[citation needed].

Content

The website has a simple design, consisting of a banner headline and a number of other selected headlines in three columns. These linked stories are almost always hosted on the external websites of mainstream media outlets. The rest of the site is filled with links to media outlets and a number of columnists. Although the site initially featured very few images, it is now usually illustrated with five or six photographs. Generally the images are also hosted on other news agencies' servers.

The Drudge Report site sometimes includes stories authored by Drudge himself, usually two to three paragraphs in length. These stories generally break a rumor concerning a story that is about to break in a major magazine or newspaper. Drudge also occasionally publishes Nielsen, Arbitron, or BookScan ratings, internal email messages, or early election exit polls that are otherwise not made available to the public.

Criticism

Critics argue [citation needed] that the only stories Drudge actually breaks are completely conceived, researched, funded, and written by other reporters. In 1998, Federal Judge Paul Friedman noted in a judgment on a libel lawsuit, which ended in Drudge's favor, that Drudge is not a "reporter, a journalist, or a newsgatherer" (this case is covered in more detail below). Many times, Drudge Report will feature a headline with a link back to Drudge. However, most claims are eventually confirmed with an article link to the website of a traditional news outlet.

Charges of bias

A UCLA political scientist published a study of media bias in December 2004[6] which found -- based on a comparison of articles linked to by Drudge with Congressional voting records -- that the Drudge Report leans "left of center, compared to the average American voter", which the researcher also found to be true in the newspapers he studied.[7]

Drudge says his politics more accurately reflect libertarianism. For example, he is often critical of the Federal Communications Commission's regulation of indecency, the USA PATRIOT Act, the prevalence of hidden cameras in public places, of an increased and visible presence of police, and of attempts to limit online file-sharing.

Errors at the Report

The Drudge Report ran a story saying that incoming White House assistant Sidney Blumenthal beat his wife and was covering it up. Drudge retracted the story the next day, saying he was given bad information. Drudge told Salon magazine that "I seemed to have about 80 percent of the facts" about the Blumenthal report.[8] In 2001, Blumenthal dropped his lawsuit after agreeing to a settlement which required Blumenthal to pay cash to Drudge's attorneys if Drudge did not file a counter-suit.[9]

Archives of older reports are generally not easy to find. A number of reports from 1995 to early 1997 are available in the Usenet archive provided by Google Groups. A more extensive archive of the website is provided by Drudge Report Archives, which claims to have taken and stored snapshots of the Drudge Report homepage every two minutes since mid-November 2001.

Traffic

In the year of 2005, Drudge reported 3,641,002,163 visits to his website.

Alexa Internet reports that of every 1,000,000 page views online, approximately 100 are of the Drudge Report.[2] Alexa also shows that for every 1 million people online each day, between 4,000 and 6,000 visit the Drudge Report.

Parody sites

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Drudge Report Sets Tone for National Political Coverage". ABC News. 2006-10-01. Retrieved 2006-10-01.
  2. ^ Halpernin, Mark (2006). The Way To Win. Random House. ISBN 1-4000-6447-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  3. ^ Drudge, Matt (2003-12-18). "Host Unhinged After Sales Figures Revealed; Calls DRUDGE 'Threat To Democracy'". Drudge Report. Retrieved 2006-10-01.
  4. ^ Kurtz, Howard (1998-09-15). "MSNBC Pundit Rises With Clinton Crises". Washington Post. pp. E1. Retrieved 2006-10-01.
  5. ^ Drudge, Matt (1998-01-17). "Newsweek Kills Story On White House Intern". The Drudge Report. Retrieved 2006-10-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Tim Groseclose, Jeff Milyo (December 2004). "A Measure of Media Bias". UCLA. Retrieved 2006-10-05. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ^ Sullivan, Meg (2005-12-14). "Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist". UCLA News. Retrieved 2006-10-04.
  8. ^ Broder, Jonathan (1997-08-15). "A Smear Too Far". Salon.com. Retrieved 2006-10-05.
  9. ^ "Blumenthal Pays $2,500 To Settle Drudge Suit". Wall Street Journal. 2001-05-04. p. B.8. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
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