Matt Drudge
Matt Drudge (born October 27, 1966) is an Internet journalist and muckraker.
Drudge's web site, Drudge Report (begun in 1994), consists primarily of links to stories about politics, entertainment, and various current events, and to many popular columnists, although Drudge occasionally authors a story of his own. Drudge started his website on a 486 computer from an apartment in Hollywood, California. Today, Drudge maintains the website from his condominium in Miami, Florida along with his longtime friend and associate Andrew Breitbart based in Los Angeles. Drudge utilizes connections with industry and media insiders to break stories sometimes before they hit the mainstream media. Probably, Drudge got the attention in one such case, when he beat the mainstream media to the announcement of Diana, Princess of Wales's death.
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. After Drudge's report, Newsweek published the story.
Some critics note that Drudge's contribution to journalism is questionable, saying that the only stories he actually breaks are completely conceived, researched, funded, and written by other reporters. A federal judge noted in a judgment on a slander lawsuit, which ended in Drudge's favor, that Drudge is not a "reporter, news gatherer or journalist". Drudge's most famous achievement, the breaking of the Monica Lewinsky story, offended editors because by publishing details of the story, Drudge essentially made an editorial decision that overrode Newsweek's. By many, Drudge's politics are considered to be unabashedly conservative, and he often selects as the lead story of his website articles that promote the anti-abortion stance, praise prominent conservatives, or criticize prominent liberals; this has led some critics to call him a mouthpiece of the conservative establishment in the United States. However, Drudge has repeatedly attempted to distance himself from establishment conservatives, arguing that his politics more accurately reflect libertarianism.
A study on media bias led by Tim Groseclose, of UCLA and Stanford, and Jeff Milyo of the University of Chicago found "Drudge Report" to be the most centrist news outlet in their sample .
In addition to links to articles researched and written by journalists, the Report often includes stories authored by Drudge himself. Usually two to three paragraphs in length, these stories generally break a rumor concering a story that is about to break in a major magazine or newspaper. In 1998, he correctly reported that Newsweek was considering a report on Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Errors and Bias at the Report
Rumors and articles in the Report are occasionally revealed to be completely wrong, and Drudge is frequently accused of biased reporting. Shortly before the announcement that John Kerry had selected John Edwards as his running mate in July 2004, the Report claimed that U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton would be selected. Whereas the New York Post was castigated for incorrectly reporting that Kerry chose as his running mate U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, the Report escaped criticism. The Report was also a source of more sensational rumors about the presidential candidate, alleging, in February 2004, that John Kerry had an affair with a young intern named Alexandra Polier. The woman, who in fact was never an intern for Kerry, denied the claim, and the rumor has now been thoroughly repudiated.
Despite instances of unreliability, the Drudge Report profits from the nature of its electronic medium. Because the Drudge Report is published electronically, and not in print, such inaccuracies and errors are often forgotten.
Though Drudge is often defended on the grounds that he writes very few articles, generally only supplying links to the work of others, his editorializing frequently occurs in the form of the juxtaposition of a headline with an unrelated image. On Wednesday, July 28, 2004, the Report featured the headline: "Edwards to Call Kerry 'Decisive, Strong.'" Above this headline was a picture of a young woman in a tight tank top, featuring the logo "John Edwards is Hot."
Other Media
Drudge also hosts a weekly Sunday night talk radio show—"The only time anyone will let me on the air," he claims. Drudge hosted a short-lived television show on the Fox News Channel starting in June 1998. He also wrote a book in 2000 titled Drudge Manifesto .
Profit
An investigation by Business 2.0 magazine estimated that Drudge's website pulled in $3,500 a day in advertising revenues. Combined with his radio show and subtracting his minor server costs, the magazine estimated that Drudge pulls in $800,000 a year with his simple website. During an April 30, 2004 appearance on C-SPAN, Drudge confirmed that he actually has broken the seven-figure mark.
An article in The Miami Herald said Drudge estimates he pulls in $1.2 million a year from his website and radio show. Before founding his website, Drudge worked in the gift shop of CBS television, where he was apparently privy to some inside gossip, part of the inspiration for founding the Drudge Report.
