drudge blog

 UPDATE: If you’re following this from another link, you’ll notice that this is obviously old news which I reported with all available information at the time, which has since been updated and will continue to be updated when I have more to go on than anonymous “friends”. I think it’s quite clear that I acted in good faith to separate fact from speculation.

For first-time visitors: THIS IS NOT A FAN SITE.  I just happen to have spent roughly three years researching Matt Drudge’s press for a novel, distinguishing his direct quotes from journalistic creative license.  This includes all publicly accessible interviews, his radio show since 2004, among other sources.  It’s my philosophy that the clearest picture of an individual emerges from how he or she chooses to dialogue with the press, and what is volunteered.  Drudge raises many epistemological questions about which I write: What can we really know about the news we consume, and what is the real divide between citizen journalists and mainstream media?

I do not dub him the most powerful journalist in America, and I disagree with him on most  issues. But I’ve found the real person much more interesting than the media golem that has come to life and run out of control.

Original posting:

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 Don’t take my word for it. Keep monitoring the news and patronizing your local stations until it’s clear one way or another.  I’ll make a consicentious effort to set the record straight if this is incorrect.

I don’t report like Matt Drudge, so I do not want to be the one to break news that may be disproven later. But from Google News Alerts have sprung reports that Matt Drudge has ended his contract with Premiere Radio Networks after September 30, and an Ohio market has already announced his slot replacement on its website.  Caveat: It is not known whether he is simply changing syndicates or whether he is giving up radio altogether.  

First facts, then educated speculation:

Matt Drudge has said (specifically in 2005 on Washington Journal) that he travels 30% of the time. At least once, he spent three weeks in London, working throughout the day and going out later.

He has been broadcasting his radio show from home. He has also broadcast from London, L.A., Las Vegas, and New York.  I know he was absent once when he was in Vienna. In any case, his contract obligates him to be accessible each Sunday night. 

At the most, he has perhaps 26 hours a week of help (as of 2005).  He works 10 to 14 hours a day on the site.

A review of Drudge Report Archives shows that the permanent link to his radio stations disappeared sometime between 3:30ish and 8 a.m. on August 26, hours after he was most recently on air. (He had a sub this past Sunday.)  However, keep in mind that switching parent syndicates would still necessitate removing that link.

His absences, while not frequent, are growing closer together.

He has told the press that he likes keeping his life simple.

The August 25 show itself was business as usual. The only thing unusual I noted was that he referred to Hillary as a “squirrelly bitch” (is that permitted by the FCC?)  But there was no acknowledgment of the New York article that revealed lots of personal information sure to upset him (specific home address and island location, info on juvenile record and parents).  He had blown off the L.A. Times article weeks ago..but having done so much extensive research on him over the past three years, it is hard for me, personally, to imagine that given Drudge’s obsession with being watched by public cameras and press alike, that he isn’t seriously angry if not a little disturbed.

So: my educated speculation is this:

Whether good or bad, his fame is hitting another peak. He already has what he wants (freedom and autonomy to do what he wants). What he desires more of is time and privacy. Perhaps even more flexibility. I imagine it would be easier to cut the radio show than make changes elsewhere. Logistical problems in his current home might factor in. He may want to keep an even lower profile. Also, he has talked several times on the show about leaving the country if Hillary or another Democrat is elected (including his most recent broadcast), imagining that he will be taxed heavily. (In fact, he said he moved to Florida to avoid paying state income tax).  If he is serious about that, I can see why he might not want to continue a long-term commitment to a radio syndicate.

So having been involved in this Drudge research project of mine for so long, I am surprised, but not shocked.

Nevertheless, I do hope I’m wrong. That will be a bummer. 

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.

Not every Matt Drudge interview or appearance is worth writing home about, but it wouldn’t kill me or you to check him out at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV Festival August 24-26.  Appearing live via video, he will share the floor with reps from Al-Jazeera, Sun Online, and ITV News on the subject of terror tapes and related ethical issues.  I don’t know what footage will be accessible, but lay odds that he’ll weigh in on his pet issue of London’s public camera surveillance and other liberties with civil liberties he loves to hate.  He has spent quite a bit of time in London, which currently leads the race on citizen surveillance in First World countries.

Matt’s always more interesting when he has to sing for his supper and isn’t just shooting the Shinola with those he already agrees with.  The key is to sneak a bee in his bonnet but not make him stop to pull the stinger out of his ass. 

This is just going to have to be one of those weeks where I throw up my hands and say that I don’t have time to write what I want. I don’t have time to organize my thoughts, to address each aspect of this topic point-by-point, or pull up my Drudge press library to double-check my sources. But here goes: I’m pretty confident that the notion Matt Drudge is the “most powerful man in America”, the “Walter Cronkite” of our era, or consciously forwarding a right-wing agenda outside of his own native bias…is officially out of hand.

Definitely his influence has been underestimated for awhile and the rumors of his career’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.  I’ve said this before: he’s somewhere between an 800 pound gorilla and a bull in a china shop. He can sustain damage whether deliberately or otherwise. But has it occurred to anyone that calling him powerful might be handing him power he didn’t already possess…on a silver platter, no less?

As a lefty liberal, and as a freelancer, I don’t have such a problem with bloggers forming a union.  I’ll stop short of consciously working with my colleagues to address the effects of conservative talk radio or the undue influence of Drudge or any other media presence.  Quality is what we need in citizen journalism, not quantity of voices. Not power in numbers. Not political one-upmanship, not sinking to the same journalistic level as our perceived opponents, not “military strategy” in an emerging industry. 

What’s happening this week, I fear, is that a large section of the blogger world is taking up arms against the wrong target.  In their rush to grab a tree branch and join the rest of Birnam Wood in the approach on Drudge Castle (oops, Dunsinane), they’re neglecting the real enemy…themselves.

In my opinion, this gorilla-cum-bull-cum-political albatross can do anything he wants to because his motivations are different from anything his detractors have taken the time to assess.  He has told the press for some time that his career as he knows it is finite (Radar 2003, Washington Post 2005, Washington Journal 2005). His interests are essentially more personal than political. That is part of his power: the freedom to do what he loves. There is nothing he values that he fears losing. He’s not Superman; he’s merely kryptonite-resistant.

If you take the time to mobilize at a bloggers’ convention to “fight the power”, form a website as the political opposite (”alternative”) to said power, pontificate on his looming downfall, perpetuate unsubstantiable rumors at him, and level silly personal insults at me in MY comment box… maybe it’s worth your while to take the time to study what motivates Matt Drudge. What REALLY motivates him.  Not what the media or political interest groups or your peers have told you motivates him. Don’t go for the jugular first…go for the gestalt. When he is having a rational, non-confrontational interview, what is he really telling them?  When you really listen without prejudice, what do you hear?

Unfortunately, most audiences hear what they want. Which is a pity, because with a bit of effort and restraint, you can learn from anyone, even people you violently disagree with. 

One could argue that it’s arrogant of any journalist (mainstream or citizen) to expect to influence the opinion of discerning adults who can read and decide for themselves.  At the risk of sounding facile, here’s my modest proposal:

If you, Joe Blogger, want to influence the swing voters of 2008, don’t concentrate your collective efforts on Drudge. It’s principle-centeredness, not enemy-centeredness, that will elevate your role in our culture.  Be the best citizen journalist you can be. Go where others don’t take the time to go. Be thoughtful in your choice of angles and sources. Be different in a positive way.  And if, like Drudge, you don’t have an editor or deadline, make the very best use of that freedom. Your travel on the high road will magnify Drudge’s own weaknesses. Let HIM be the buffoon…not you. Let others play the childish “end justifies the means” game. Don’t band together to consciously create a bogeyman on your own team.  Instead of a liberal Drudge, a liberal Limbaugh, or a liberal Coulter, the left needs personalities who earn the respect and admiration of publics on both sides of the political spectrum.  If that’s you, you know where to go from here.

RegoPark is a freelance writer with a background in marketing communications who has recently completed a media novel. She can be reached at http://regopark.wordpress.com.

Q. Why doesn’t Matt Drudge promote the radio show on a week he won’t be on?

A.  To be honest, I don’t have a definite answer, but let me weigh in with the facts I do know. I don’t think it’s a dis to his substitutes, who have included Joe Crummey and John Batchelor. (As I’ve alluded earlier, I’m not otherwise into conservative talk radio and don’t tune in when Drudge is away.)

First, Matt doesn’t promote his own show all that much. Years ago he said “I’m the worst marketer out there…I just don’t care. I throw my energy into the site.”  His existing promotional efforts consist only of throwing up links to station information in all 50 states, each Sunday.  If he isn’t available to broadcast from the radio control room in his home, he’s not disposed to updating the site.

Keep in mind WHY Drudge is usually out when he is.  He told C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb in 2005 that he “travels 30% of the time” and can use his WiFi only in the United States. To keep the website going, a vacation for him means putting in the usual amount of daily man-hours at his hotel computer.  Clearly, though, there are times when this isn’t possible or practical.  As I’ve said before, his sole assistant has put in roughly 26 hours a week…

Some could argue that it would be pretty annoying to be driven to a radio show expecting the regular host and get someone else.  Others would point out that the substitutes are getting paid for their services and it isn’t the regular host’s responsibility to promote them.  In any case, different radio personalities have their own preferences.  At any rate, it’s not as though Matt’s deliberately creating a news blackout when a pinch hitter’s at his plate…he just isn’t choosing to exert an extra, optional, effort.

More FAQs later…

I actually communicated with the friend of mine who ended up on the Drudge Report awhile back. To confirm the answers I’ve already given out, Matt Drudge actually has made an effort to do his own news research and generate original material, even from potentially hostile sources. Drudge did leave at least one message for my friend (who doesn’t appear any more endeared toward him now than during his 15 minutes of infamy.) 

My curiosity had been piqued a bit because Drudge had claimed in his 1998 National Press Club speech that he had knocked on Monica Lewinsky’s door during the Clinton scandal, but that reference was curiously eliminated from the speech transcript that appeared in his book, Drudge Manifesto. 

Anyway…just FYI, I guesss.

For your next dose of new media dialogue, check out an interview down Pajamas Media-way with Matt’s longtime co-poster Andrew Breitbart (now come into his own at Breitbart TV ).

Thanks for all your great feedback on the first incarnation of my book trailer, both in this space and elsewhere. A 60-second spot from an entirely different angle will be posted this week, and I’ll be teasing anybody interested (in a good way) with videos tailored at different market segments.

For your viewing pleasure is the world’s latest media innovation…

A trailer for a BOOK?  A video for a NOVEL?  Why the hell not?  This is your first available peek at Names Have Been Changed, the explosive new novel inspired and informed by three years of research on Matt Drudge, citizen journalism, new media, PR, Miami-Dade, and a host of other things not quite relevant.

Humor us!  Tell us what you think…of the video, the concept, the theme…the sound, the smells…

Aired to the public for a limited time only, it’s the first of several versions and my first attempt ever at movie editing.  Save for about thirty seconds of stock video, it’s composed entirely of stills (photographed on location in Miami Beach and Washington, DC.)  A movie version will follow.  As Drudge would say, “Developing…”

View it here. 

P.S. Let me make this clear, folks — this manuscript is not yet published and not yet available.  When the time comes, of course all that info will be easily accessible.