March 1, 2004
What is Drudge?…
There are several problems with this column, and one of them is the assumption that Matt Drudge is a journalist. My definition of “journalist” does not include anything that Drudge is or does in regard to his web site. We’d all be a lot better off if real journalists ignored him.
One might argue that Drudge makes news when he publishes falsehoods. If such falsehoods affect the culture, then, yes, his croakings are news. But I would assert that anything he publishes is most certainly not news until verified by a real journalist.
Posted by acline | March 1, 2004 | Posted in: Main |
Drudge doesn’t write any of his own stories, does he? I thought he just provided links to existing stories (regardless of their source). Sounds more like a clipping service than journalism.
Drudge mostly publishes links. He writes his own “scoops.”
Considering the trouble the BBC finds itself in for “sexing up” the WMD question , I think it’s rich for the Guardian to say “Drudge refuses to let the facts get in the way of a good lie”. UK press, heal thyself!
Drudge, or his factotum, write occasional ’scoops” in an archaic 30s-40s tabloid style: “The Drudge Report can reveal”, the story is “developing,” and, of course, it’s always a “Drudge Report Exclusive.:
His style reminds one of a a juvenile ‘play-acting’ parody. His radio program is even worse–a turgid panoply of cliche and repetitive palaver.
I give the guy credit for innovative Internet entrepreneurship, but that’s it. He has no talent or integrity as a journalist or broadcaster.