A Critical Warning: How Drudge has Betrayed Andrew Breitbart – and You

The Red Side of Life Conservative Musings from New York ^ | 3/9/12 | RedInNewYork

[jmstein7]

Andrew Breitbart was one of us, a “Bulldog for the conservative cause,” as Rush Limbaugh put it. And that is why I was furious when I learned that Matt Drudge callously betrayed him – the facts follow below. Andrew Breitbart tried to vet Obama in 2008 – and Matt Drudge blocked his efforts. One might consider, after reading this article, that Drudge, in fact, helped elect Obama! How do you feel about President Obama? Me too, and that’s why Drudge’s betrayal of Andrew Breitbart infuriates me. Drudge betrayed Andrew Breitbart – and you, because you trusted Drudge too. Back to that in a minute – I want to discuss the severity of Drudge’s betrayal.

Think about how you feel when someone you trust betrays you. I certainly feel extremely angry. You may feel violated. Now, magnify that feeling by the millions of conservatives who have put their trust in the Drudge Report. I want you to feel the magnitude and depth of that massive betrayal.

Before moving on, I want to issue a disclaimer. Just note that fact that Matt Drudge is a homosexual is irrelevant to me, and I don’t believe that his homosexuality affects his character or judgment, or makes him a liberal, or is per se a reason to distrust him and question his motives. But, I digress.

The Drudge Report’s betrayal of conservatives became evident to me a long time ago. Think back to 2004. Do you remember the CBS Air National Guard controversy (TANG), engineered to damage President Bush and detract from the Swift Boat Vets, who put their Honor on the line to tell the truth about John Kerry? Did the Drudge Report investigate the claims of Dan Rather and company? No! What did Drudge do? Right – he put up a big siren on his site, drawing maximum attention to the CBS story. The result was a magnification of the false charges against President Bush, and a distraction from the pleas of the Swift Boat Vets, who served their country with honor. Drudge caused the “Swiftees” to be marginalized and ridiculed by the left, under the radar, while the Drudge Report focused all eyes on the TANG story! That story was false and that is why Drudge cannot be considered an investigative journalist or trusted. It took “We the Breitbarts,” the “pajama media,” to investigate the CBS documents and report that they were a forged fraud. Matt Drudge could have done the same – but he did not. Instead, he perpetuated a false story that hurt the Republicans and Vietnam Veterans.

We don’t need the Drudge Report anymore. Do you need Drudge to tell you what headlines are important, or are you capable of making your own decisions? Do you need an out-dated, one-page website to dictate to you what is and is not news? Did you know that Drudge hired two Romney operatives, Joe Curl and Charles Hurt, to help run his site? How does that makes you feel you Perry, Paul, Santorum, and Gingrich supporters? Rage.

I’ve learned to live without Drudge – it’s quite easy. I haven’t looked at the Drudge Report since January, and I still know what’s going on in the world. In fact, I believe I know more, because I’m no longer relying on a website that is censored and twisted to not just “report” the news, but to subconsciously dictate how I feel about it. The blinders are off, and I feel great. I personally enjoy Jim Robinson’s Patriotic “Free Republic.”

Drudge betrayed Andrew Breitbart in 2008. John Zeigler, a Conservative filmmaker, was recently interviewed by Chris Daniel on California’s KMJ 580 AM. Breitbart confided that “Matt Drudge was totally in the tank for Obama, and he blocked [Andrew Breitbart] from doing anything about it.” Every time Breitbart put something up that was anti-Obama, Matt Drudge would at least move it down, if not take it off entirely, which he hardly ever did to Andrew. On some occasions, Drudge even totally cut off his [Andrew's] ability to update the web page and completely stopped linking to Breitbart’s site.

Ziegler states as follows:

There were many examples of this remarkable pro-Obama bias, but I will offer up just a few here as proof.

On February 18, 2008, Michelle Obama famously told two different crowds that Barack’s success running for president was the first time in her “adult life” that she was “really proud” of her country. When Breitbart ended his shift that evening the story dramatically led the Drudge Report. However, just a few minutes later when Drudge himself stepped in, the link (along with two others charging Obama with plagiarism) was suddenly nowhere to be found. The story quickly died and never reached the level of “common knowledge.”

Then, on March 13, 2008, ABC’s Good Morning America “broke” the story of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s controversial sermons and close ties to Obama. Almost exactly twenty fours later, while most of the media was feverishly building a firestorm which would require Obama to do three emergency damage-control network interviews that night, the story was somehow completely absent from Drudge’s incredibly influential news site. Instead, the headline was inexplicably about how the Super Delegates were starting to break towards Obama.

This was not some sort of fluke. The Rev. Wright story was barely ever seen on Drudge and, on the rare occasions when it did get posted, it was astonishingly muted. Andrew and I both felt strongly at the time that Drudge was providing “cover” for the mainstream media to downplay this bombshell. After all, if even the “right wing” narrative maker Drudge felt the story wasn’t a big deal, then why should they aggressively cover a story for which they clearly had no appetite?

Any doubt that Drudge was heavily favoring Obama ended in May around the critical Indiana primary.

The week before, on May 1st, Obama was tanking in the polls there thanks to Rev. Wright’s explosive National Press Club event. I sent Andrew a link to a story on this phenomenon (moments after he had sent me an article about how Drudge “hearts” Obama) and he linked it on Drudge. Literally moments, later Drudge stepped into the website and took the link off the page, keeping its extremely pro-Obama narrative strong. (For the record, this exchange is documented in one of many instant message sessions with Andrew, which I kept at that time because I was starting to sense the profound implications of what was happening here.)

When Obama ended up losing a very tight race in Indiana (despite the best efforts of Gary Indiana’s pro-Obama mayor who, as the Drudge archive indicates, did his very best to pretend that Obama may have actually won the crucial state until deep into the night), Drudge declared the future president to be “The Nominee” just hours later. The mainstream media quickly followed suit, and the rest is obviously history.

And it is. You should now have no doubt that the Drudge Report is a tumor. And we must not let it grow any larger.

[jmstein7]

This must get out - before Drudge can do any more damage.

[GSWarrior]

Most people on the street don’t even know who Matt Drudge is, I bet.

[Politics4US]

I don’t know if they had a riff or not, but I noticed in 2008 that Drudge didn’t report on Obama like he reported on John Kerry.

[rarestia]

I've been a subscriber to PatriotPost.us for the last 6 years and I've never been disappointed or felt betrayed by them. They have a news aggregator similar to Drudge:

Patriot Headline Report

I've been using this for news and haven't been pelted with random garbage. Drudge can go pound sand.

[Parley Baer]

I would not know about Drudge as I have not visited his site in a couple of months now. He has jumped the shark IMHO.

[Jedidah]

Drudge can do with his site whatever he wants.

And you can follow it or not, as you like.

That’s freedom. Choice. What we defend and fight for in this country.

Same is true for Jim Robinson, TV networks, cable TV, Google, etc. etc.

If you don’t like another man’s viewpoint, express your own. Louder, if that’s what it takes.

Live with it and be thankful for our freedoms.

[jmstein7]

BTTT

[FrankR]

[GBA]

During the Clinton days, Drudge was a 'must see' website, very relevant and cutting edge.

Since then, his website is good for headlines and malware and not all that good for headlines.

I was hoping he might be a player once again this election, but apparently he's just a tool. His time in the sun has passed.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Interesting.

[cuban leaf]

I dumped drudge with that massing number of negative articles about Newt thing.

I’ll not be back. I have a long memory.

[Cicero]

Well, this may deserve further research.

But I was watching the Drudge website closely throughout the campaign.

I think that the critical thing was that Drudge was strongly opposed to Hillary. You can’t blame him, I suppose, since she probably threatened to get him after Monicagate. Hillary keeps her grudges forever.

What I noticed is that Drudge favored Obama over Hillary, until Hillary lost. Then he started attacking Obama, and he has done so ever since. If Obama won, it was because McCain handed it to him. As for Hillary, I strongly suspect that she would have been just as bad as Obama, if not worse. Pro-Muslim, pro-Communist, an Alinskiite from her college days. Much worse than Bill Clinton.

Drudge has been in the tank for Mitt Romney for the past month, and has helped slime the other GOP candidates. But that’s another matter. He certainly hasn’t favored Obama, as you can see just about every day on his website. He only sticks at the Birther issue, and so does everyone else.

[Linda Frances]

A month or so ago, something was going on here regarding Drudge. Whoever runs or works on this site was concerned that drudge would pull his Free Republic link because of negative things being said about Drudge here, by us. I could be wrong, but I think drudge might have pulled his FR link (like a threat) and then put it back on. I think that links to popular sites brings in money??? Anyway, I think its time for me to put up or shut up too. I have been avoiding drudge since that happened. I will not go there again.

[Datom]

I do remember when Drudge had Freerepublic linked on his website then removed it. I haven’t been to his site in years so I don’t know if he ever linked it up again. I feel Drudge lost his credibility when he did that.

[jmstein7]

Yes, I believe Drudge did dump FR.

[SuzyQue]

I dunno. I haven’t seen anything on Drudge that would cause me to not go there. But, then, I don’t expect anything but links, and go to a number of other places too, so I don’t think I’ve been exposed to any bias on Drudge’s part.

We need to be very careful, and not dump those who might be friends or neutral in a fit of pique because they don’t openly support our candidate.

[SuzyQue]

Not sure, but the link is there right now.

[liberalh8ter]

You're correct. That did happen.

I used to have Drudge's app on my IPad. During the Herman Cain dust-up, my Drudge alert kept going off with each false allegation against Cain. I canned the app because I found it deplorable that he was alerting app holders to allegations made by unnamed sources.

[zeebee]

There is a link to “Free Republic” on Drudge’s site. I just checked.

[marron]

Drudge caused the “Swiftees” to be marginalized and ridiculed

Bill O'Reilly also mocked and dismissed them, which is yet another reason I stopped watching him years ago. I don't think I tuned him in even once since then.