Posted on 12/03/2019 4:30:36 AM PST by Kaslin
It’s one of the questions you’re not supposed to ask in public but everyone talks about in private: What’s going on with Matt Drudge?
For conservatives, the Drudge Report was a one-stop shop for news on the Internet starting in the late 1990s. When Matt first broke the scandal involving the President of the United States and an intern, his place at the top of alternative media, as it was called then, was secured.
As always, imitators followed. But none came close to combing as many news outlets and boiling down the essence of stories like Drudge.
That was his magic – he’d plow through stories and find the nugget buried 20 paragraphs down, then he’d rewrite the headline to reflect what the liberal outlets wanted to hide.
It wasn’t just Matt. When things blew up, he had help. Andrew Breitbart learned how to do the same by working for Drudge – a skeleton crew surfing the web, arming conservatives with the pieces of information the mainstream outlets wanted buried.
But something has changed.
How Drudge works is a mystery. I’ve known several people who have worked for him as editors, taking various shifts updating the site as news changes. None have any insights into who Matt Drudge is as a person or what is happening with the clear negative slant the site has taken toward President Donald Trump, a man who was helped into the White House, in no small part, by the coverage of the Drudge Report.
I asked a friend who worked with Matt on his TV show if he’d ever heard from him again, or if he could email him to meet up for lunch if he were in the same city, just to catch up. He said he wouldn’t hear back. Once you’re out, it seems like you’re out.
There are no insights to be gleaned from anything Matt has said publicly because he doesn’t say anything publicly. There’s a generic email address reporters submit their pieces to with the headline and the link in the hope that whoever is working that particular shift will post it to the site, but that’s it.
It doesn’t get a response, your piece either shows up on the Drudge Report or it doesn’t.
When Andrew Breitbart was alive, he showed me the emails that would roll into that address – it was an endless stream. Every website, liberal or conservative, and blog would send in their pieces. It was impossible to keep up with, but they somehow did it.
One time, when Andrew’s book “Righteous Indignation” was about to come out, he’d sent me an advance copy, which I’d read the night I got it. At about 5:00 am, I’d emailed Andrew telling him I really liked it. A minute later my phone rang, it was Andrew.
He had a bunch of questions about what I thought about this or that part, etc., the way any author is before their book comes out. I told him the only thing I wished was different was I wanted to know more about his relationship with Matt, which was only casually mentioned, almost in passing. Andrew told me he wished he could, but if he’d written one more word about him that Matt “would never speak to me again.”
To say he’s private is an understatement.
So as the Drudge Report turns more anti-Trump, we’re left to wonder why. Because Matt won’t say.
I did get a hint. I have a friend who is actual, real-life friends with Matt. I asked them what the deal is. After all, no website was more pro-Trump in 2016 than the Drudge Report. Matt even ventured to a debate to see it all firsthand. The answer was telling, if only because there’s so little to go on.
“Maybe he’s sick of nothing being done on the border,” was the gist of the answer.
If that’s the case, it would be good to know. Because the entire tone of the Drudge Report has changed. Stories about Trump’s failures, impeachment, and Democratic talking points dominate the coverage of the president. Headlines you’d expect to see on the Huffington Post are now in that familiar black text on white background.
If it’s just one issue, that seems incredibly petty. If it’s more, the audience that has made Matt Drudge a multimillionaire would like to know what it is. Since Drudge answers to no one, it’s unlikely we’ll ever know.
I believe drudge has returned to his roots. He enjoyed the celebrity he got from breaking the monica story and rode that for many years but now, he has gone back to liberal weenie.
Same here, I deleted his page from my favorites so I don’t even have to see the name anymore.
Goggle owns and obvious controls it .
Drudge maybe a figurehead role for awhile to fool us .
Just research the sale online .
Its a Google left wing site.
So did I. I still come to FR every day. I haven’t been to the Drudge site in months.
I think someone on another site did some digging and found that Matt Drudge had sold the site - or the rights to it - to his father or someone else in his family.
Matt, as you may know, is gay and apparently has checked out in favor of a retirement of sorts with his partner.
Whoever is in charge now is concerned solely with clicks. At one point it was stated that Drudge had dropped all advertising (ostensibly in the name of editorial independence) but I just checked and there are still a few ads there although nothing like the bad old days.
He had a good run predicated mostly on one story that fell into his lap. Impeachment has fizzled despite the attempts to make it sound important, serious, etc.
There is a vacuum now and hopefully someone will fill it - cos Drudge is d-u-n.
He chose not the love of truth, and is now deluded into believing the lie.
GOP Establishment took it over Globalist Fox News Paul Ryan style.
EVERYBODY has a price tag..... what would YOU do for a million dollars...….. what would you do for $10,000,000?
Its the only place I read news that talks about “Deep Fakes”, “Aliens”, “Sex Dolls”.
<< “Maybe he’s sick of nothing being done on the border,” was the gist of the answer. >>
I don’t buy that for a second.
He’s either been compromised or has developed a severe case of TDS. Either way, his site has been unreadable for a while now.
The media and government is infested with faggotry, so he’s right at home.
Obama’s intelligence agencies weren’t “hammering” everyone who might be able to bring pressure to bear on the administration for the fun of it. Drudge, like Roberts, is probably compromised by state security. It’s impossible to tell how pervasive this is. If I were a public figure, aspects of my 63 year history might sway my comments about individuals protected by state security.
No matter what should happen, I will always admire and respect Matt Drudge.
I strongly disagree with that statement.
The first signs that Drudge was undergoing a political transformation appeared in 2015.
By election day in 2016, Drudge was completely neutral or slightly negative on Trump.
Drudge was the first page I visited every time I turned on my computer for almost 20 years.
Several months ago, I stopped clicking on his website at all.
Losing Drudge is an irreparable tragedy for Conservatives.
Although Drudge was never a Conservative, he had an international audience, he was the greatest headline writer of his generation, and he forced the Democrats to play defense EVERY day.
My guess about what happened?
There definitely seems to be a powerful tradition of politically active gay men moving to the Left as they age.
And, I would not be surprised if Drudge is in a relationship with someone who is much further to the Left than Drudge is.
Bongino is creating one!
I like Breitbart, Free Republic (though there is a lot that has slipped here due to overzealous "mods"), ZeroHedge (look out for the market apocalypse stuff which founded the news site), TheDailyCaller, and even CTH and TGP.
What a stupid story. Writer should have just searched this site. A kajillion threads on the topic..the answer has been known for some time. I think his dad sold out too.
My take on Drudge-—which I noticed sliding in 2015-—is that first, when Andrew Breitbart left to start Breitbart, Drudge had to find its own identity. It moved on momentum from Andrew for a few years, but when Trump came along, Drudge decided to move into the anti-Trump camp.
From 2015-2016, Drudge was merely snarky toward Trump. But after it was clear Trump had won and would be here, he threw in totally with the neverTrumper crowd.
NOTE, this is about the same time that Menopausal Ann began to abandon Trump. I think the two are friends, but not lovers if you catch my drift.
As Breitbart continued to grow in popularity, Drudge saw his only chance to grow at being anti-Trump. That failed. He has lost significant eyes. I haven’t been there but maybe one or two times int he last year, always just to make sure my assessment of him wasn’t wrong.
Liberty Daily is good, but their ads are gross.
“Just research the sale online.”
I can’t because it did not happen. He changed to a leftist advertising agency.
If you know something no one else on earth knows, then you should make it public.
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