In The Blogs

Drudge

| Wed Sep. 17, 2008 11:48 AM PDT

DRUDGE....Many years ago I had the bright idea that if you really wanted to understand everyday Americans, you ought to read the National Enquirer regularly. So I did for a few weeks — and then gave up. It was just too boring.

I feel the same way about Drudge. I read him from time to time because I know that other people do, but I always drift away because there's really nothing much there. He only occasionally has exclusive news, and most of what he does have comes from sources inside MSM newsrooms and consists of a few sentences blurbing a story that shows up in its full form an hour or two later at the MSM site itself. Big deal. His roundups of basic news are no better than just reading a few front pages yourself. Sure, conservatives like him because he helped bring down the Clintons, but he hasn't done much since then. For the rest of us, it's basically kind of a boring site.

In other words, count me in Steve's camp. I mean, I get it, but I still don't get it. Why do people still read the guy? Isn't he sort of the disco of right-wing news sites?

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Kevin Drum is a political blogger for Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here.

Comments

Submitted by steve duncan (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 11:51 AM PDT.

He has a wide stance in the men's room stall. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Submitted by Plexix (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 12:16 PM PDT.

I do a drive-by of his site most every day. The reason I do this is to see what the next faux outrage is going to be coming from the GOP. He is a very good barometer for that sort of thing.

Submitted by Boorring (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 12:23 PM PDT.

It's a tabloidy news page that is well-geared for a quick run-through. I mean, know he is biased towards the conservative side, and so it is more, for me, a way of making sure I am aware of the perceptions of a conservative slant.

Sorta the same way as Fox. But I really, really, can't watch Fox. I just get too angry.

Submitted by howie (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 12:54 PM PDT.

To me he's like Kaus. He may have been important once upon a time, but now?

Submitted by larry birnbaum (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 12:58 PM PDT.

President Clinton was certainly hit hard -- but he wasn't actually brought down now, was he? In fact as I recall it was people like Gingrich and Livingston who ended up having to resign...

Submitted by tony (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 12:59 PM PDT.

Good points.

PS: I missed the part where he was able to "bring down the Clintons." Unfortunately, in the late 90s, I was living in an alternate universe, where Bill stayed in office, the impeachment prompted a backlash that resulted in nearly unprecedented second-mid-term election gains, and Hillary parlayed her popularity into a Senate seat in one of the nation's most important states.

Submitted by Bruce (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 1:16 PM PDT.

Thank you! I thought I was crazy. I just don't get Drudge. Maybe I'm an "elitist" a site with a bunch of links-why is that interesting? Atrios does it, and whole hell of a lot better.

Submitted by peep (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 1:30 PM PDT.

Way back in the 90s before the web(well, at least before I had access to the web) during my frivolous time-wasting at work I would read a newsgroup called alt.showbiz.gossip. About every week or so somebody named "Drudge" would post a "Report" which had various gossip items, and all the regular posters on the newsgroup would make fun of him, speculating that he was a star-struck teenager from Paducah that was just making stuff up. I still can't fathom that this is the same guy that has become such a force in the media.

Submitted by J.W. Hamner (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 1:33 PM PDT.

I just want to know how anyone can stand to read his and Halperin's sites when they look like bad Angelfire sites from 1998.

Submitted by indie (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 1:42 PM PDT.

kevin, you're way way off. drudge has the most exciting news every day (much more than yours;) and i suspect you just don't like him because you're liberal. i can assure you you're missing out if you don't start the day with drudge. btw all Kevin does is read stuff and link to it - nothing wrong with that - but it's definitely no different than drudge. he doesn't even do it as well and especially not since he moved to MJ.

Submitted by Joe (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 1:46 PM PDT.

I read him just to get an idea of what the righties are focusing on at the moment.

I have neither the time nor tolerance to listen to the Hannitys of the world or watch Fox News. But I can peruse Drudge's site in a matter of seconds and go, "Oh, that's what they're riffing on about now."

Submitted by joel hanes (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 1:52 PM PDT.

disco? disco is outmoded and boring, but not toxic.

Drudge is the bathtub gin of the right-wing news sites: ingredients questionable if not outright fraudulent, effect poisonous, and apparently highly addictive for certain kinds of people.

Submitted by The Conservative Deflator (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 1:55 PM PDT.

He gets breaking news up quickly. Not always accurate - and certainly biased - but, QUICK!

You could grow a beard waiting for some bloggers to cover breaking news stories...

{By the way, I think Matt Drudge has a homosexual crush on Obama - which is helpful for our side!)

Submitted by Bill (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 2:15 PM PDT.

The Drudge site is a great read because it's exciting. The man knows the value of headlines. He creates mini-ripples out of the current news of the day.

I WISH SOMEONE HAD A SIMILAR FORMAT ON THE DEMS SIDE.

Take today's news for example:

TPM has a headline entitled, "The Swing Watch ...." Ho Hum.

Imagine Drudge-Like site handling the same info:

" McCain's Monster Lies...."

Or, for another example, Kevin Drum writing about "Construction Bonds" could be Drudged as:

"Palin Bungles Only Question Ever Asked Her..."

This is all tabloid 101, and not academically impressive. But, who cares? It works.

Submitted by LondonLee (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 2:42 PM PDT.

Hey, leave disco alone, it's the Barack Obama of genres: uplifting, optimistic and it brings people together.

"Most of our problems can be solved by dancing" - James Brown

Submitted by Mib (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 4:11 PM PDT.

btw all Kevin does is read stuff and link to it - nothing wrong with that - but it's definitely no different than drudge.

Apples and oranges. Drudge is a news aggregator, Kevin is a political blogger. Where Kevin offers several paragraphs of commentary and analysis in relation to each of the few links he posts each day, Drudge offers only links, no original content at all aside from his creatively-worded headlines. Not that there's anything wrong with either type of site, incidentally, but they're definitely not the same thing.

Submitted by dj spellchecka (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 4:48 PM PDT.

let me second londonlee: "Hey, Kevin... leave disco alone."

while just stickin' with Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers let's play...

Chic: "Le Freak"
Chic: "I Want Your Love"
Sister Sledge: "He's The Greatest Dancer"
Sister Sledge: "We Are Family"
Diana Ross: "I'm Coming Out"
Chic: "My Forbidden Lover" -
Diani Ross: "upside Down"
Chic: "Lost In Music" Chic: "Good Times"

Submitted by Luther (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 6:14 PM PDT.

Drudgereport.com is far and away the best news and column aggregator, that why.

Submitted by indie (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 7:00 PM PDT.

yes, that's fine. They're essentially the same thing though - hotlinking. I hate to break it to you but there's not much that's "original" about writing two sentences on what you think about someone elses writing or research. You may want to think about why drudge gets about 4 gazollion hits a day - because it's good.

Submitted by nukev (not verified) on Wed Sep. 17, 2008 8:44 PM PDT.

Drudge is a right wing rag. The Limbaugh/Hannity/Savage crowd love it. Positive reinforcement of idiocy is comforting. He gets lucky with a "developing" story once every 100 "investigations" That's enough for the true beleivers. The bible is the worlds best selling novel.

Submitted by capitalistimperialistpig (not verified) on Thu Sep. 18, 2008 12:15 AM PDT.

Disco is not dead! It always smelled like that.

And Drudge is quick, trashy, wide ranging. What's not to love?

Oh yeah - the extreme bias - but no worse than Faux Noose and a lot more comprehensive.

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