Contextual Healing: Matt is From Mars, Winchell Was From Venus
By RegoPark
Contributing Blogger
From bloggers to traditional journalists, the media slams Drudge for taking things out of context by, in turn, taking him out of context themselves. See why I prefer raw interview footage to edited features?
Drudge graced Hannity and Colmes’ presence earlier this week, reiterating the same comments he made about Chris Rock on Sunday night’s radio broadcast. Before agreeing with today’s bloggers that he’s on a witch hunt to kick Rock out of the Oscar host gig, watch a clip of Drudge’s Hannity appearance here.
As I hinted in my last entry, Matt did get a bit silly last Sunday with his Chris Rock monomania, but mostly from the standpoint that he thinks Rock’s a pottymouth who made some jokes he found outrageous — the quip that no straight black man would watch the Oscars, the joke that he picks up women at pro-choice rallies and that the fact that abortion is legal is beautiful. Yes, Matt read that as “abortion is beautiful”, but does that mean he’s going out of his way to get Rock replaced as host?
The gist I got from Matt’s attitude was: the Oscars should be about the art, and while that ideal may not have been realized in previous years, having Chris Rock host makes it all the more farcical. (Note that I didn’t say I agree.) If Matt does have a grudge against Rock, it might be because Chris threatened to kick his “red-blooded American foot up his un-American ass” over a year ago. But as I’ve said before, Matt’s reactions are typically very knee-jerk and emotional. He has responded, both on-air and in Drudge headlines (”Comic Threatens Violence Against Drudge”) as though he takes Chris seriously.
Like all of us, Matt listens for what he wants to hear. Never was this more obvious to me than last fall when he played, ad nauseam, the audio clip of Elizabeth Edwards responding to a voter’s concerns about riots if Bush were re-elected. “Not if we win,” came the reply, with the stress inflection on “win”. But every time Drudge played the clip, he repeated back, “not if we win…” If he takes things out of context, it’s because he perceives them out of context, not from a conscious agenda or exterior nudging.
Can we all just shut up, kiss and make nice, and agree to take things in their proper context?
Oh, okay.
The most common misconception perpetuated about Drudge today is that he’s a Walter Winchell wannabe and a pawn of the right wing. Much of what we see on the Web and in traditional media outlets is based on this paradigm. Now, one could argue that as much as Drudge seems to take photos and quotes out of context, perhaps he gets what he deserves when he’s misunderstood. Indeed, this isn’t the Matt Drudge Fan Club site. I’m not here to protect him from criticism…just wipe his tears and give him a hug and a pep talk when he turns to me for solace and support. But before I let a 38-year-old man slobber all over my dry-clean-only suede tunic, let me include some excerpts from his August 1998 interview with Playboy. I can neither link to it online nor include the entire article because of copyright considerations, but I think this is the happiest medium.)
…The first president I remember was Jimmy Carter. I was ten years old. I liked him, and still like him. Yeah, I wish Jimmy Carter were still president. He’s decent and I think he told the truth. That’s my number one priority. It’s not “the economy, stupid.” Who cares?…I’d rather pay $3 at the gas pump and have a decent president than have gas at 99 cents and someone lying to me and making me sick….The president should represent what we are.
*
… I am a libertarian, not trusting any of them. I especially don’t trust the people who want to lead us at the turn of the century. They want to take the important issues into the new millennium….
Later, the interviewing editor points out the reports that Matt “idolize(s)” gossip granddaddy Walter Winchell.
Drudge: He turned pretty ugly in his late years, thinking he had a lot of power. He started using it and calling people Communists. What he did to Josephine Baker was pretty nasty. He’s not my role model. I use him as a map, studying his work, studying his language. He fevered it up. He made people really emotional, which he loved. He used the sound of a telegraph, but there was no telegraph. He would drink a bunch of water so he had to piss, and it made everything he sound urgent. All of it was showbiz.
Playboy: But like Winchell, you have allied yourself with political extremists. In fact, you’ve been accused of being used by the right, by the same people who used Paula Jones.
Drudge: I’m not being paid by anyone.
Playboy: Who is paying your lawyer?
Drudge: He’s working pro bono. I love my lawyer. He’s a libertarian freedom fighter.
Playboy: Richard Scaife, who funds he conservative Center for the Study of Popular Culture, is one of the people who has been accused of heading what Hillary Clinton described as a right-wing conspiracy against her husband. David Horowitz, who runs it, started the Matt Drudge Defense Fund. You’re in bed with –
Drudge: And therefore I’m letting Scaife dictate what I do? Hold on! I’m being sued. I’m defending myself. What difference does it make who’s defending me?
Playboy: But by accepting help from the far right, you are allying yourself with them. You’ve already said that you don’t believe in objective journalism. But you could easily be viewed as a paid operative of the right.
Drudge: Listen, I have probably created more news with my ten fingers than anyone else in the business. That’s not gloating or bragging. I just don’t know who else has done what I’ve done. Bob Woodward hasn’t broken hundreds of stories in the past year. And no one else has offered any help. I am not marrying into anyone’s camp. If this suit is dropped, it’s a divorce.
Playboy: That’s presumably not the way Horowitz and Scaife see it. They are supporting you because they support your politics.
Drudge: I don’t know that to be true. We’re trying to stop this lawsuit. Accepting support links me to them ideologically? That’s weak.
Playboy: If your recent scoops had knocked down their favorite Republicans, would Scaife Horowitz have come to your rescue?
Drudge: Scaife is just one person who has given money to a center. That center has set up a legal defense fund that my readers are giving money to. If you want to try to make a correlation, fine. I just think it’s weak.
Playboy: Would this foundation be doing it if you had gone after its guys instead of attacking the enemy?
Drudge: Of course not. What’s your point? I’m being sued. I need to defend myself. Are you saying I have no right to defend myself? Now if you want to go ahead and continue this because you think you have a good angle going, I just — it’s weak. You’re not going to be on the right side of it. I take AOL’s money, too. Is Steve Case controlling me? Why aren’t you obsessed with that?
Playboy: …Presumably (AOL’s) defense will be that it isn’t responsible for what it carries on its network.
Drudge: My whiskers are up with your interest in this because it’s the same old stuff. It’s the wrong side and I’ll leave you in the dirt with this stuff. It’s not going to resonate, because it’s not where the action is. If you’re stuck defining me as this, I’ll say you have it wrong. David Horowitz called and said he had some lawyers I could talk to. I had talked with other people and no one wanted to take dirty old me. I needed a lawyer. I’m being sued for $30 million, which would ruin me. Who’s helping me defend myself? I kind of like people who would defend me against that.
Playboy: Journalists are supposed to stay as clean as they can.
Drudge: And not get sued?
Playboy: Not take sides, not be aligned with one camp or another. Vanity Fair wrote that “conservatives” had found a useful weapon in Drudge.”
Drudge: The liberals have too. The New York Times, The Washington Post and Newsweek are leading the way on this investigation. Is that useful to Republicans? I’m not going to let you zero in on me.
Playboy: Even if you simply pressured the mainstream press to run and continue to investigate the Lewinsky story, it would be useful to the right.
Drudge: I also broke a story that said Newt Gingrich would admit to ethical violations. The headline was R.I.P. GINGRICH. I guess that was useful to the Republicans too.
Playboy: …Do you acknowledge that, in general, you push a Republican agenda?
Drudge: I’m pushing truth.
Playboy: Are you aligned with the Republicans on most issues?
Drudge: I don’t know how aligned I am. I’m aligned with less big government.
Playboy: How about on social issues?
Drudge: I’m pro-life. I don’t like abortion. I agree with Mother Teresa on that stuff. But I think people’s private sexual stuff is private. It’s not fair game. I know that sounds silly coming from me, but I don’t do a lot of that stuff and I’m not interested in a lot of that stuff. I went to the post-Oscars Vanity Fair party here and a top director had his finger in some girl’s twat right in front of me. I never reported it.
Playboy: Why not?
Drudge: A finger up the twat? Because it’s a dime a dozen.
Playboy: But if he were a senator or a congressman?
Drudge: Ahh. That may have made the difference. Especially if he weren’t single. People who want to serve the public are in a different arena. We have to hold politicians to a different standard.
Okay. Now that Drudge’s M.O. is all cleared up, we are all free to take it out of context!
RegoPark is a pseudonym for a writer with a background in marketing communications. She is currently working on a novel about PR and the alternative media.
by RegoPark - 5:22 pm
February 18th, 2005 at 8:40 am
Drudge is symptomatic of the Reich-wing movement afoot to plunge this count back into the Dark Ages!!! As http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=NYCJOYCE&tab=weblogs&uid=206543689 shows, Amerikkka is heading back to the days of Jim Crow and McCarthyism.
February 22nd, 2005 at 4:25 pm
Man that was a pretty harsh interview. I hadn’t seen it before. I wonder if he would really get pressed like that again if interviewed by the same folks. Now that he has more clout, that lawsuit is way behind him, and bloggers have so much power….
November 18th, 2005 at 5:36 am
[…] A mischievous imp, Drudge often was clad in an ill-fitting seersucker suit and straw fedora, in a seedy imitation of his idol Walter Winchell.Winchell was not Drudge’s idol, but rather a model. See my essay, Matt is from Mars, Winchell Was From Venus […]