They are digital gatekeepers, but the father runs an online library and the son is the proprietor of a news whorehouse.
Outing Prince Harry in Afghanistan and showing Barack Obama in Muslim garb are the latest triumphs of "the world's most powerful journalist," as the UK Telegraph now dubs Matt Drudge, stretching the definition of all three words.
In an era when clicks are currency, Robert Drudge's refdesk.com, "Fact Checker for the Internet," is clearly outvalued by his son's millions of links to facts, factoids and junk news from everywhere.
The story is familiar by now--Young Drudge's Dickensian youth of abject intellectual and psychological poverty and his Horatio Alger ascent after a despairing father gave him a cheap computer--the 7-Eleven years, the psychiatric treatment with Jewish Social Services, the climb back to become manager of a CBS gift shop, the rummaging for scoops in the Hollywood City trash cans before cleaners fed them to the shredders...
A 21st century success story best summarized by the Great Summarizer himself: "24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a 12-month year, 10 years a decade, 10 decades a century, and 10 centuries a millennium, as far as a chip can see, wire services from all over the world move raw data ... all over the world!
"I can access, edit, headline and ... link to it all!
"Throw it up on a website and wait for you to come.
"For seven pre-millennial years, I've covered the world from my Hollywood apartment, dressed in my drawers.
"I've reported when, how, and what I've wanted...
"There's been no editor, no lawyer, no judge, no president to tell me I can't...
"Technology has finally caught up with individual liberty."
As Mel Brooks' Max Bialystock would say, "When you've got it, baby, flaunt it!" But Drudge might want to take a look back at his 20th century counterpart, Walter Winchell, who owned the world of gossip with his punchy phrasing and unfettered "reporting" back then.
Another of today's icons, Larry King, who succeeded the gossip master at his newspaper job, recalls: "He was so sad. You know what Winchell was doing at the end? Typing out mimeographed sheets with his column, handing them out on the corner. That's how sad he got. When he died, only one person came to his funeral."
Sic transit... Wait, I have to check the exact quote on Robert Drudge's web site.
Showing posts with label Matt Drudge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Matt Drudge. Show all posts
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Two Kinds of Hillary Hubris
As New Hampshire prepares to vote, pundits are filing Clinton campaign death notices as confidently as they trumpeted her inevitability only weeks ago.
The coronation was premature, and the obituaries may be, too. The last time anyone looked, Matt Drudge was not empowered to pick convention delegates.
Observers detect a few tears and deride the woman who sheds them, forgetting that John Boehner, the House Republican leader, weeps buckets all the time.
Bill Clinton seems to lose his mojo with New Hampshire crowds for a day, and the New York Times finds a headline in it.
There is at least as much hubris in the herd journalism that is trampling the Clintons now as there was in their presumption that the Presidency was theirs by right of succession--and considerably more nastiness.
These observations come from a non-admirer of the Clinton campaign who suggested last summer that playing it safe could lead to a 21st century version of what Harry Truman did in 1948 to the poll-anointed sure bet, Gov. Thomas Dewey of New York, who squandered a big lead in the polls by taking voters for granted.
Hillary Clinton's hopes for the Presidency may indeed be thwarted, but it's not over until it's over, no matter what the often-wrong-but-never-in-doubt political pundits say.
The coronation was premature, and the obituaries may be, too. The last time anyone looked, Matt Drudge was not empowered to pick convention delegates.
Observers detect a few tears and deride the woman who sheds them, forgetting that John Boehner, the House Republican leader, weeps buckets all the time.
Bill Clinton seems to lose his mojo with New Hampshire crowds for a day, and the New York Times finds a headline in it.
There is at least as much hubris in the herd journalism that is trampling the Clintons now as there was in their presumption that the Presidency was theirs by right of succession--and considerably more nastiness.
These observations come from a non-admirer of the Clinton campaign who suggested last summer that playing it safe could lead to a 21st century version of what Harry Truman did in 1948 to the poll-anointed sure bet, Gov. Thomas Dewey of New York, who squandered a big lead in the polls by taking voters for granted.
Hillary Clinton's hopes for the Presidency may indeed be thwarted, but it's not over until it's over, no matter what the often-wrong-but-never-in-doubt political pundits say.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Haters for Hillary
Barack Obama is the devil. If you doubt it, there is a highly professional web site updated daily to provide chapter, verse and venom on the subject.
The spewings of "Hillary Is 44" (44th President, that is) make Bill Clinton's remarks about other Democrats ganging up to vilify his wife look a tad hypocritical. The deceptively mild-looking blog with a pink background makes Rove's raiders look like pussycats.
A few recent samples:
"After all the many lies and denials concerning internal struggles with chaos, confusion, and complaints, Obama is not to be believed."
"Like a common street hustler ripping off tourists in a streetside shell game, Obama skips from issue to issue."
"Barack Cheney Obama, fresh from his Slime Hillary Clinton gig on the Tonight Show, today proudly continues his Slime Hillary Clinton tour."
"Obama is convicted, using his own standards of behavior and leadership, of being unfit to be president."
"This is typical Obama behavior. When Obama does something dirty he tries to disguise the dirt with flowery language."
The latest: "Obama made sure (Stephen) Colbert would not get on the (South Carolina) ballot. Obama, of course, denied he had anything to do with the Colbert Chicago style drive-by shooting."
Recent headings include: "The Obama Delusion," "Obama the Clown," "Obama's Iran Lie(s)" and "Obama's Macaca Weekend."
The Clinton campaign has been reaching out to voters online in a big away, not only cultivating Matt Drudge but hosting a Drudgelike site of their own, HillaryHub. "Hillary Is 44" claims to have no affiliation with the campaign but is raising money by selling Hillary t-shirts and buttons.
Identity of the operators is a Washington mystery, but it is professionally put together by more than one person, and the tone, Peggy Noonan has written, is "very Tokyo Rose."
Complaints about ganging up on Clinton should be accompanied by a clarification about the activities of her own attack dogs. Their barking may not have much bite, but they undermine her claims of being victimized.
The spewings of "Hillary Is 44" (44th President, that is) make Bill Clinton's remarks about other Democrats ganging up to vilify his wife look a tad hypocritical. The deceptively mild-looking blog with a pink background makes Rove's raiders look like pussycats.
A few recent samples:
"After all the many lies and denials concerning internal struggles with chaos, confusion, and complaints, Obama is not to be believed."
"Like a common street hustler ripping off tourists in a streetside shell game, Obama skips from issue to issue."
"Barack Cheney Obama, fresh from his Slime Hillary Clinton gig on the Tonight Show, today proudly continues his Slime Hillary Clinton tour."
"Obama is convicted, using his own standards of behavior and leadership, of being unfit to be president."
"This is typical Obama behavior. When Obama does something dirty he tries to disguise the dirt with flowery language."
The latest: "Obama made sure (Stephen) Colbert would not get on the (South Carolina) ballot. Obama, of course, denied he had anything to do with the Colbert Chicago style drive-by shooting."
Recent headings include: "The Obama Delusion," "Obama the Clown," "Obama's Iran Lie(s)" and "Obama's Macaca Weekend."
The Clinton campaign has been reaching out to voters online in a big away, not only cultivating Matt Drudge but hosting a Drudgelike site of their own, HillaryHub. "Hillary Is 44" claims to have no affiliation with the campaign but is raising money by selling Hillary t-shirts and buttons.
Identity of the operators is a Washington mystery, but it is professionally put together by more than one person, and the tone, Peggy Noonan has written, is "very Tokyo Rose."
Complaints about ganging up on Clinton should be accompanied by a clarification about the activities of her own attack dogs. Their barking may not have much bite, but they undermine her claims of being victimized.
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