Drudge’s May 13 Response to Salon’s “Matt Drudge Primary”
I know it’s late, but for what it’s worth, as there is numerous coverage on the story-torial and nothing on his end. I myself missed it the first time, a sudden conversational turn in the final hour of Drudge’s Sunday night broadcast…meaning that I had not even heard this at the time of my previous post. While it’s not much different than what I expected, I wanted to be careful not to appear to speak for him or rush too soon to dismiss his connection with Mitt Romney’s campaign.
Boy, this thing goes on and on…Well, I guess it’s my world and they just live in it…You know, why are they picking on me? You think about it, it’s just one guy, one and a half guys…Andrew does the afternoon shift. And some other hours sometimes, what’s the big deal? (Chuckling) They did this with Mark Halperin over at ABC News (Note: Halperin recently co-authored The Way to Win which featured a chapter on Matt Drudge with the controversial Cronkite analogy. In 1998, Halperin procured a press pass for Drudge to a White House Press Conference). “Oh, Matt Drudge is the Walter Cronkite of this era, and this is…oh, you’re the gatekeeper of the news…” Get real, it only shows that they’re not doing their job. If Salon was providing a provocative, you know, a display of news from around the Western world, I wouldn’t have to, you know, wake up at four in the morning to dazzle you. I mean, it wouldn’t be necessary. Really, sour grapes here. “Matt Drudge Primary.” “Oh…Oh, he’s in with the Mitt Romney crowd.” I never even met Mitt Romney! He sent me his book on the Olympics, he autographed it, it’s all one way, you don’t seem to understand, Salon!
Yeah, I get tips. I get tips from all of them. Look, I was the first one to announce Hillary’s first quarter…fundraiser…The first one! Don’t …ask me how I got that, but I posted it.
Yeah, I go where the action is, yeah, I don’t personally want to see Hillary or Obama elected because they’re personally gonna take more money from me so yeah, I’m being selfish on that front. Obama, you know, said it himself…going to raise taxes. So I don’t…So what is this conspiracy they’re trying to say, you know, “Drudge is driving the news and we should really examine his contacts. How ridiculous. Most of my contacts — oh, yeah, and when something hot goes on Salon, you know, they pitch me to put something on Salon. “Please link to us.” You know, I link to…the great columnist Camille Paglia, Professor Paglia out of Philadelphia. (Note: Paglia is a liberal Salon columnist who has appeared on Drudge’s radio show at least twice and whose books have been plugged on the Drudge Report.) I don’t need a heads up on that; I love linking to her! But I would always link to her. But they send me, Salon sends me other stuff. “Oh, would you be interested in this?” New York magazine does the same thing, Los Angeles Times does it, they all do. Vanity Fair, oh, they’re the worst! And then they wipe their hands clean of me and say “Oh, well, we don’t know anything about why he’s making…news.” You know why? The early bird catches the worm.”
by RegoPark - 9:51 pm
I heard that too. He’s strange — sometimes he emphasizes what he’s done, how big he is and Oh no one gives me the proper credit, and then on the turn of a dime he’ll de-emphasize the same thing, Oh I’m just one guy, yadda yadda. Likes to have it both ways to both extremes depending on his mood and as a result in either case his protestations come off as more than a little disingenuous. It’s sorta like any comments about Ann Coulter too — this weekend he was taking suggestions for Rosie O’Donnell’s replacement on The View and of course someone suggested Coulter and the words out of his mouth, unlike with any other person suggested, were I don’t know if she’s even available. Giant eye-roll Ppppppffffft, OMG, puh-lease, we’re talking about the biggest publicity whore on the planet possibly NOT being available if Barbara Walters calls? Sometimes some of his disingenous stuff gets more than a little tiresome.
Layla, I need to correct you on a couple of things: if you examine his previous commentary that can be documented, that rant is consistent with the items he emphasizes and de-emphasizes. As always, he pointedly stated that he was the FIRST at something (in this case Hillary’s fundraiser thing). But he has pooh-poohed grandiose claims like the “Walter Cronkite of his era” analogy. Actually, that’s the kind of thing he seems to find embarrassing.
He said that Camille Paglia, whom he likes a lot and has on his show, was probably not going to do the View because she wanted to be in academia.
Regarding Coulter, he’s right that she’s probably not available and wouldn’t halt her other things to commit to a TV show. (They’re friends, so he should know).
Actually, he WAS WITH COULTER on the day she appeared on the View, and there was a bit of a ruckus when Star, Meredith, and Joy invited Ann into the dressing room for a pre-taping discussion and Matt went in there, too. The hosts had a fit and a security guard appeared to escort him out. (They put him in another dressing room). They were pretty brutal on Coulter that show, so Matt probably knows better than 99% of the population whether or not Ann would consider joining the show.
As for the “one guy” thing…frankly, he IS just one guy. As smarmy and goofy as he can be, he seems to have a healthy and realistic view of what makes him unique and what’s just a matter of luck and timing.
Well we just disagree. He’s either The Guy or Just One Guy depending on his mood, which fluctuates wildly depending on what side point he wants to make — and like in the post you made leading this discussion he often throws BOTH at you at once not realizing he’s contradicting himself.
As for Coulter — of COURSE she’s appeared on The View and if she’s got another book in the works (she does) ALL THE MORE REASON to become a cohost on the show, honestly, you’re the only person I can think of who for one second would think otherwise (and then only because Drudge says so, probably using her exact words, none of which are convincing).
As an aside, Elisabeth is leaving The View — at least she’s going on leave to give birth. This Drudge stuff about having two GOP women on the show is just nonsense, there won’t even be one. I can only imagine it has at least occured to Walters to get Rosie’s counterpart on board with or without a second GOP cohost. I can’t imagine Walters choosing Drudge’s choice — Queen Latifah — because Latifah has cool and class and that show has devolved into something much more suitable to an Ann Coulter. Or she could pick Katie Couric, who actually is best suited for what that program started out to be, but alas the ratings would tank — whether they would have had Couric been selected before doing the solo anchor gig is something we’ll never know.
Hey Rego, you don’t have to post either my last response or this one. I’m just continuing to vent, in the same vein as the response you posted, no need to continue.
I do see Ann Coulter, by the way, and Rosie O’Donnell as two faces of the same coin and the obvious choice to fill either Rosie’s seat and/or Elisabeth’s or both in one shot. She’s a publicity fiend, would say asinine things left and right for publicity, start feuds with unspecting targets for this end, stomp around and huff and publicly complain about each and every Wrong done to her behind the scenes at The View (as she did already, blowing up her one appearance on the show into all sorts of victimized self-righteous nonsense — Lord, is she not perfect to replace Rosie in that regard alone?). And above all she demands that even above defending the substance of what she’s said, which is really secondary, as it is with Rosie, she forces anyone connected to her — including Drudge — to defend *her*, it’s an understatement to say she’s obsessive about loyalty because obsessive doesn’t convey the extreme, we’re talking about an absolute. Absolutely perfect replacement.
I saw Drudge not so much speculating about whom he personally wants on The View, but rather expressing his curiosity about who COULD and WOULD commit to The View. One point he made (wearing that media analyst hat that evening) is that not everyone wants to surrender autonomy over things like having their discussion broadcast on a Crossfire-like split screen.
Actually, for me, whether Coulter would join the View or not is a big Maybe because she told Elle Magazine when she was first beginning her career, people told her that to be on TV she would have to tone it down, get an anchor haircut, and refrain from wearing short skirts. She absolutely refused. Drudge reported that Rosie’s contract specifically stipulated “looking nice.” The point I am trying to make here is to question “IS that professional commitment where Coulter (or any other person suggested by callers)wants to go?”
I wouldn’t bet on it, but I see his point. ALSO, Ann’s doing the speaking circuit and regularly appearing on other people’s shows. Would she necessarily consider The View a step up?
While Drudge’s mood often seems mercurial, I actually don’t see anything contradictory about that particular monologue the other night. Think about this: He always makes a point about being the first at something. But the media reads way more into his intentions and M.O. than what is really there. He touts what he knows to be a strength and what he is sure is true. It may sound paradoxical, but it’s true. He’s “the guy” at being first or being the only one on reporting some news. Otherwise, as he claims, he is “just one guy”. But actually he used that word choice in that instance to emphasize that it was just the two of them working on the site.