By RegoPark
Contributing Writer

Don’t you hate standing before a live audience with egg on your face – or, um, an X on your face? Apparently CNN was covering a speech by the Vice-President Dick Cheney was delivering when a large black ‘X’ repeatedly flashed over Cheney’s mug. According to the Drudge Report, the Xes flashed less than a second each time, “creating an odd subliminal effect”, coinciding with one of several network headlines: “CHENEY: I DO NOT BELIEVE IT IS WRONG TO CRITICIZE.”

Drudge cites “one top White House source” as expressing concern: “Is someone in Atlanta trying to tell us something?”

(How’d Matt get a quote that late in the evening? Who called whom?)

”A CNN spokesman did not return repeated calls late Monday night.”

Okay, maybe nobody checks their voice messages at CNN late at night, but what the hey? It’s still an interesting story. If a saucer-esque object looms in the sky above your house, you’ll be mildly curious about what the darn thing is, scientific explanation or otherwise. Just because it’s not Tom Cruise’s family come to escort him home doesn’t render the matter unnewsworthy. A cinnamon bun resembling Mother Teresa? Shellac it, put it under glass, and call the press in the morning. If it a coffeehouse patron or two reads it as a sign from heaven – go with the flow. A couple of weird Xes on…you get the point. The relevance or pertinence of a story does not depend upon its messenger – or its interpretation by its recipients.

Unlike the guys who discovered the NunBun, Drudge really needs to be selective about the media outlets he appears on. Every time he shows his face on Hannity, he ends up doing nothing but making an ass of himself. There. I’ve said it before and I fear I’ll say it again. I’m not sure what it is — maybe he just gets a little too comfy. Maybe conversing with someone who shares your political leanings fosters intellectual laziness. Watching Matt report an issue on FOX is like interviewing a story source after settling him in your La-Z-boy in front of the TV with a beer and a bag of chips.

Thus goes the Drudge Domino effect:

Drudge finds something interesting.
Drudge fires off a special report and updates it.
Drudge gets invited onto FOX’s Hannity and Colmes.
Hannity and Drudge feed off each other’s energy – and extend the interview — to the point that the subject gets inflated.
Bloggers and mainstream journalists slam Drudge for reading too much into a technical glitch – and in the process read too much into his intentions, belittling the merit of the story.
Drudge gets accused of hiding the “other side” of the story.
Drudge prints the other side the same day, but by then the topic’s old.

Okay, dear. No more going over to Hannity’s house to play. That boy is a bad influence on you.