Drudge-ery
God bless Matt Drudge. I write that with no ironic or sarcastic hidden meanings. Matt figured this whole Internet thing out long before any of us realized the word was supposed to be capitalized. The speed with which a Drudge link can shut down a server is breathtaking. I’ve had a couple of political pieces linked by Drudge, and it took me days to read the comments and questions. (Unlike Ricochet users, however, many of the posters made suggestions involving body parts that seemed to push biological and physiological envelopes beyond human endurance.)
Like all of us, Mr. Drudge has certain kinds of stories that seem to capture his fancy. He loves weather extremes of any kind, especially when they raise havoc, as in today’s “Giant Sinkhole in Milwaukee swallows Escalade.” And there’s a bizarre side to him as well. He likes old ladies with rotting mounds of dead cats and items like today’s “Saudi man chains son in basement for six years; ‘Possessed by an evil female genie’...” Where else can you find these gems?
By all accounts, Matt is a secretive figure who doesn’t do a lot of socializing, and I’ve never met him. I sure would like to, though. I suspect he has an interesting story or two to tell. He must be inundated with features and columns and blogs written by people who would love to have the chance to be linked by Drudge. He’s helped break more hot political stories than just about anyone else merely by the extent of his reach.
I suppose it’s the more unusual links that makes Matt Drudge a kind of guilty pleasure, but when you have the following two headlines in the same day (today): “Kerry Docks New Yacht in RI to Duck MA Taxes” and “Alaska cop uses Taser on black bear,” how can you not admire the guy?
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Comments:
May '10
Re: Drudge-ery
Any possibility of strapping certain members of the House and Senate to a certain TV gaming device while a certain celebrity yells "Big Money! Big Money!" until we all go bankrupt? I think it would do well on pay-per-view...
The category is Useful Idiots.
Re: Drudge-ery
Not a bad idea, EJ. There's even a "Bankrupt" space already there. We'll just change "Lose a Turn" to "Lose a Term."
Re: Drudge-ery
Completely agree with you; Drudge has a genius. He's been my home page for ten years.
Re: Drudge-ery
More of us than Rob will be delighted to learn that I first learned to add Drudge to my daily read as an intern at New Line.
Re: Drudge-ery
Claire, is there any feeling more exciting than seeing the spinning red emergency signal on his site indicating a "big" story developing?
May '10
Re: Drudge-ery
Depends on what mood the missus is in, actually. But, hey, who am I to judge?
But back to Drudge... He reminds me of the mythical Spy magazine in High Society, the musical remake of The Philadelphia Story:
George Kittridge: I'm a great admirer of your magazine, Mr. Connor.
Mike Connor: Really? Why?
Kittridge: It seems to have its finger on the pulse of the public and its ear to the ground!
Liz Imbrie: Well, that's a rather vulnerable position, don't you think?
He knows the market. Some of his celebrity links makes me cringe and he's not a big generator of original reporting. But he's a great publisher.
Re: Drudge-ery
Well, yeah, there is. But not much short of a situation where people are screaming "Incoming, Incoming!" and racing for the bomb shelter, I agree.
Jul '10
Re: Drudge-ery
Miss Berlinski, surely you meant, "He was my homepage for ten years until..... Richocet."
Jun '10
Re: Drudge-ery
Matt's special genius is his ability to summarize the zeitgeist in one or two pithy headllines, as well as his ability to recognize important stories that the MSM has missed or deliberately ignored. The Drudge Report makes a great home page.