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The '''''Drudge Report''''' is a 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 news source to break the [[Monica Lewinsky]] scandal to the public.
The '''''Drudge Report''''' is a 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 news source to break the [[Monica Lewinsky]] scandal to the public.


The Drudge Report is regarded as an important news outlet: ABC News concluded that the Drudge Report sets the tone for national political coverage.<ref name="abctone"/> In ''The Way To Win'', a book written by [[Mark Halperin]] and [[John F. Harris|John Harris]], Drudge is called "the [[Walter Cronkite]] of his era."<ref name="waytowin">{{cite book | last = Halpernin | first = Mark | coauthors = John F. Harris | title = The Way To Win | publisher = Random House| date = 2006| pages =| month = October | id = ISBN 1-4000-6447-3 }}</ref><ref name="abctone"/> [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] strategist Chris Lehane says "phones start ringing" whenever Drudge breaks a story and Mark McKinnon, a former media advisor to [[George W. Bush]] says he checks the site 30–40 times per day.<ref name="abctone">{{cite news| title = Drudge Report Sets Tone for National Political Coverage| publisher = ABC News| date = 2006-10-01| url = http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2514276&page=1| accessdate = 2006-10-01}}</ref> </blockquote> Matt Drudge has been criticized by other media news personalities: [[Bill O'Reilly (commentator)|Bill O'Reilly]] who twice called Drudge a "threat to democracy",<ref name="drudgeoreilly">{{cite web| last = Drudge| first = Matt| title = Host Unhinged After Sales Figures Revealed; Calls DRUDGE 'Threat To Democracy'| publisher = Drudge Report| date = 2003-12-18| url = http://www.drudgereportarchives.com/data/2003/12/18/20031218_150408_mattbc1.htm| accessdate = 2007-03-26 }}</ref> and [[Keith Olbermann]] who referred to Drudge as "an idiot with a modem".<ref name="wapopundit">{{cite news| last = Kurtz| first = Howard| title = MSNBC Pundit Rises With Clinton Crises| pages = E1| publisher = Washington Post| date = 1998-09-15| url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/olbermann091598.htm| accessdate = 2006-10-01 }}</ref>
According to [[Mark Halperin]], "Drudge's coverage affects the media's political coverage".<ref name="abctone"/> In ''The Way To Win'', a book written by Halperin and [[John F. Harris|John Harris]], Drudge is called "the [[Walter Cronkite]] of his era."<ref name="waytowin">{{cite book | last = Halpernin | first = Mark | coauthors = John F. Harris | title = The Way To Win | publisher = Random House| date = 2006| pages =| month = October | id = ISBN 1-4000-6447-3 }}</ref><ref name="abctone"/> [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] strategist Chris Lehane says "phones start ringing" whenever Drudge breaks a story and Mark McKinnon, a former media advisor to [[George W. Bush]] says he checks the site 30–40 times per day.<ref name="abctone">{{cite news| title = Drudge Report Sets Tone for National Political Coverage| publisher = ABC News| date = 2006-10-01| url = http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2514276&page=1| accessdate = 2006-10-01}}</ref> </blockquote> Matt Drudge has been criticized by other media news personalities: [[Bill O'Reilly (commentator)|Bill O'Reilly]] who twice called Drudge a "threat to democracy",<ref name="drudgeoreilly">{{cite web| last = Drudge| first = Matt| title = Host Unhinged After Sales Figures Revealed; Calls DRUDGE 'Threat To Democracy'| publisher = Drudge Report| date = 2003-12-18| url = http://www.drudgereportarchives.com/data/2003/12/18/20031218_150408_mattbc1.htm| accessdate = 2007-03-26 }}</ref> and [[Keith Olbermann]] who referred to Drudge as "an idiot with a modem".<ref name="wapopundit">{{cite news| last = Kurtz| first = Howard| title = MSNBC Pundit Rises With Clinton Crises| pages = E1| publisher = Washington Post| date = 1998-09-15| url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/olbermann091598.htm| accessdate = 2006-10-01 }}</ref>


== Origins ==
== Origins ==

Revision as of 21:55, 2 April 2007

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

The Drudge Report is a 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 news source to break the Monica Lewinsky scandal to the public.

According to Mark Halperin, "Drudge's coverage affects the media's political coverage".[1] In The Way To Win, a book written by Halperin and John Harris, Drudge is called "the Walter Cronkite of his era."[2][1] Democratic Party strategist Chris Lehane says "phones start ringing" whenever Drudge breaks a story and Mark McKinnon, a former media advisor to George W. Bush says he checks the site 30–40 times per day.[1] Matt Drudge has been criticized by other media news personalities: 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 using his connections with industry and media insiders to break stories sometimes before they hit the mainstream media. He maintains the news website from a condominium in Miami Beach, Florida. 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 but eventually stopped the email reports in favor of exclusively updating his website.[citation needed]

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.[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 similarly hotlinked from 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

Charges of bias

UCLA political scientist Tim Groseclose and Jeff Milyo, Associate Professor, Department of Economics and the Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri at Columbia, published a paper on media bias in December 2004[6] which concluded—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."[7] Mark Liberman, Professor of Computer Science and the Director of the Linguistic Data Consortium at the University of Pennsylvania,[8] contends that the results were based on a flawed methodology[9][10] and, according to Media Matters for America, "Groseclose and Milyo are former fellows of conservative organizations..." and "...the study employed a measure of "bias" so problematic that its findings are next to useless."[11] Drudge is also a conservative radio talk show host.

Errors

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.[12] 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.[13] Similarly, during the 2004 Presidential campaign, Drudge ran a story indicating that Democratic candidate John Kerry was having an affair and Drudge removed it from the site shortly thereafter.[14]

In 1999, the Drudge Report announced that it had obtained a videotaped confession by a former prostitute claiming that her son was fathered by President Bill Clinton. The Report stated, "To accuse the most powerful man in the world of being the father of her son is either the hoax of a lifetime, or a personal turmoil that needs resolution. Only two people may know that answer tonight." The claim turned out to be a hoax.[15]

In another notable error occured on April 1 2007 when Drudge cited an unnamed source that CNN reporter Michael Ware "heckled" two Republican Senators.[16] In a response on CNN April 2 2007 Ware disputed the claimed, said no one is willing to put their name on the report, as it is an anonmous claim, and told curious parties to view the tape.[17] Video hosted by Rawstory shows that Ware did not make even a sound nor ask any question during the press conference.[18] Despite the dubious nature of the claim, the rightwing press, such as The Washington Times uncritically repeated Drudge's claims.[17]

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 has archives since mid-November 2001 and says it takes and stores snapshots of the Drudge Report homepage every two minutes.[19]

Traffic

Alexa Internet reports that of every 1 million page views online, approximately 45 are of the Drudge Report, its lowest share in at least five years.[20] Alexa also shows that for every 1 million people online each day, approximately 3,000 visit the Drudge Report, also its lowest share in at least 5 years.[21] The Drudge Report reloads itself every 180 seconds via an HTML tool called meta refresh, thereby inflating this number. As of March 15 2007, Drudge Report posted the following statistics on its homepage:

VISITS TO DRUDGE 3/15/07

015,364,134 IN PAST 24 HOURS 443,914,964 IN PAST 31 DAYS 4,297,192,932 IN PAST YEAR

In October, 2006, Washington Post editor Leonard Downie, Jr., speaking at the Online News Association's annual convention in Washington, D.C., stated "Our largest driver of traffic is Matt Drudge."[22]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c "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 2007-03-26.
  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. ^ LDC staff. Linguistics Data Consortium. Retrieved on 2007-04-02
  9. ^ Liberman, Mark (2005-12-23). "Multiplying ideologies considered harmful". Language Log. Retrieved 2006-11-06.
  10. ^ Liberman, Mark (2005-12-22). "Linguistics, politics, mathematics". Language Log. Retrieved 2006-11-06.
  11. ^ "Former fellows at conservative think tanks issued flawed UCLA-led study on media's liberal bias". Media Matters for America. Dec 21, 2005. Retrieved 2006-12-14.
  12. ^ Broder, Jonathan (1997-08-15). "A Smear Too Far". Salon.com. Retrieved 2006-10-05.
  13. ^ "Blumenthal Pays $2,500 To Settle Drudge Suit". Wall Street Journal. 2001-05-04. p. B.8. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  14. ^ Polier, Alexandra (2004-06-07). "John Kerry intern scandal - Alexandra Polier's account". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2004-06-07.
  15. ^ Special Reports Personal Collection. Drudge Report Archives. Retrieved on 2007-04-02
  16. ^ Drudge, Matt (April 2, 2007). "McCain heckled by CNN reporter". Drudge Report. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  17. ^ a b "CNN's Ware flatly denies report that he "heckled" McCain, but right-wing media flog it anyway". Media Matters for America. April 2, 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  18. ^ "CNN reporter slams Drudge's charge that he 'heckled' McCain; Exclusive video confirms his claim". Rawstory. April 2, 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  19. ^ "Drudge Report Archives". Drudgereportarchives.com. Retrieved 2006-10-05.
  20. ^ Website traffic graphs for drudgereport.com. statsaholic.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-02
  21. ^ Website traffic graphs for drudgereport.com. statsaholic.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-02
  22. ^ Hirschman, David S. (2006-10-06). "'Wash Post' Editor Downie: Everyone in Our Newsroom Wants to Be a Blogger". Editor & Publisher. Retrieved 2006-10-08.

External links

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