Not Quite Catching Matt Drudge
While, as a rule, I don’t put stock into journalists’ quotes from anonymous “friends”, on the whole this week’s New York story on Matt Drudge is the most thoroughly researched of all I’ve read since following his press three years ago. If Philip Weiss is still “Watching Matt Drudge”, there are a few insights I could still give him, but he’s grasped the gestalt. Well, kinda-sorta. You DO get, after reading this treatise, why he might be elect to be elusive…right?
But hey: Can we work on NOT revealing the small island or hotel a guy lives?
I won’t lie, folks — I came away with an ineffable, acute feeling of empathy for Matt. Not only because of the personal drama in his past, but the fact that it was unearthed. Exactly what he doesn’t want, what he has the right to be protected from, has happened. Probably not shocking, but regrettable.
by RegoPark - 12:47 am
August 26th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Did I miss the mentions about Matty’s TV show and
his various “connections” to FNC/The Murdoch Media
Empire etc?
How can you write an article like that about MD and not
make any mention of his rather unique “TV show”?
(…maybe that part was cut out by the NYMag editors.)
BTW…was Matty the first (news?) person to go from basically
the web alone to then also having their own “branded” TV show?
August 26th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
That’s a great question about the “first”, Jon; unfortunately I can’t be 100% sure without checking because it’s outside my expertise.
Weiss could have made some cogent points about the show and about his relationships with conservative news media. It was a really interesting point in Matt’s career (albeit I found the transcripts rather stupid and a good reason why you shouldn’t fill a TV show with your personal friends.)
ALSO: Keep in mind that Matt’s references to FOX connections are affected by the his separation agreement involved a non-disparagement clause. He had to be careful what he said about anyone connected with FNC in Drudge Manifesto (which came out soon after he walked off the set).
I think the omission stemmed from the length issue and the story hook.
August 26th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Confidential to David Banned:
You might as well stop trolling me. Your comments aren’t read anymore because they rarely make points but are tossed out only to be annoying and antagonistic. They’re documented (along with your musical ISPs) and deleted unread. What Drudge got busted for as a juvenile is what you’re doing as an adult.
Let me invite you to channel your energies into the prominent website you say you edit, put your name to those comments, and take responsibility for them. Many people who feel as you do don’t feel it necessary to go ad hominem. Spending your time “monitoring” us doesn’t make a positive difference for any cause you care about.
August 28th, 2007 at 9:56 am
As another longtime observer of Matt Drudge, I also thought this article covered new ground. His childhood was tragic.
I see you had some fun on DrudgeForum with the way that Weiss talked about being snubbed by Drudge in his attempts to get an interview. I suspect that if he had gotten one, it wouldn’t have revealed much. He spins his own life hard with the press.
Aside from the stuff about his parents, the article was most interesting in how it talked about his politics. Drudge is not the rock-ribbed Republican that people take him for. He’s more likely to link to a story if it reflects poorly on Democrats, but Fox News he ain’t. The guy’s ideology doesn’t extend far beyond love of Reagan and opposition to abortion.
August 28th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
I’ve been trying in this space to drive home the point that despite his bias, he’s really not the right-wing ideologue people take him for. He’s more of a populist and libertarian, but people see what they want to see in him, which deprives hasty journalists of a wonderfully complex subject.
His parents’ account is a “he-said, she-said” proposition, and it bothered me that Weiss cast his mom’s quote “in diva style” because unfortunately she might actually have been giving an accurate description of the situation. He has made it clear in previous interviews that he wasn’t happy as a teen, but didn’t specify anything other than being frustrated in school and alone all the time. But he HAS been protective of both parents, and I’m sure this is exactly what he didn’t want shared with the world.
Matt HAS given some great interviews and unfortunately reporters push all the wrong agenda buttons. He needs to be relaxed, not hounded, and there needs to be a textured discussion between him and the interviewer. Brian Lamb has gotten some great discussions out of him, and one of my favorites is a Radar 2003 interview with Maer Roshan and (now friend) Camille Paglia.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:59 pm
I read the mother’s quotes from 25 years ago for the juvenile court record just like what anyone says in court documents — it might be accurate, more likely it’s not particularly but more concerned not with truth or the boy at all but with what was truly overshadowing everything at that time: the divorce, and casting the father who left in the worst possible light.
While I enjoy that Drudge makes reporting on him difficult for other reporters, I mean at the same time can you find a journalist more hasty than him not willing to explore wonderfully complex subjects? It’s rich that we’re to feel for him because he can’t take reporters who push all the wrong agenda buttons. Oh yeah or too shed too many tears over Drudge of all people trying to protect from reporters and their hasty headlines private information exactly of the nature he didn’t want shared with the world. Yeah baby. I mean at some point — it’s like the Ann Coulter thing, and no wonder they’re friends, they’re exactly the same in many respects — you know what, if you dish it out and have made a living dishing it out and in fact are notorious for the way you do it you damn well better be able to take it, and neither of them can and it’s really not attractive or endearing to preach what you so obviously don’t practice.
August 31st, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Of course he is hasty and he is stupid and he is annoying. This in no way excuses Drudge’s actions, but at the same time it’s the PARENTS whose privacy has been newly violated here, and despite Matt’s weaknesses, he was making a good faith effort to protect them (who, he claims, “went underground” when he became famous. Even though the dad runs an online reference site, he rarely does interviews.
As far as the quote in the legal document goes, I’d give both parents the benefit of the doubt there. I just wish Weiss hadn’t been so quick to inject his own “fleur” into the reporting. But that’s a pet peeve of mine in all news stories. Just quote the document — don’t personalize it. I’m legalistic in my news consuming, and I want to read accurate reporting, not creative writing.