Drudge Loses Advertiser in Wake of Kerry Blunder

The Drudge Retort (drudge parody site) ^

[sdk7x7]

XXXX DRUDGE RETORT XXXX 14:26:29 EST FEB 19 2004 XXXX

Matt Drudge loses advertiser in wake of Kerry blunder!

**DRUDGE RETORT EXCLUSIVE**

Sound the siren: Matt Drudge has lost a long-time advertiser in the wake of last week's groundless report alleging that Sen. John Kerry had an extramarital affair with a 27-year-old woman.

AT&T Wireless has pulled all advertising from the Drudge Report in response to a complaint about its sponsorship of the site.

"We care about the places our on-line ads appear, and that site doesn't reflect the values of AT&T Wireless," e-mailed Jeremy Pemble, the company's vice president of public relations.

Matt Drudge earns $1.2 million a year from advertising and his weekly radio show, selling a single banner ad for $4,400 a day, according to a September 2003 story in the Miami Herald.

The loss of an advertiser comes during a week in which Drudge has taken numerous hits for spreading the Kerry rumor while making no claim it was true -- passing it along simply because news organizations were supposedly looking into it.

As Drudge wrote: "Intrigue surrounds a woman who recently fled the country, reportedly at the prodding of Kerry, the Drudge Report has learned."

In spite of the lack of a single on-the-record source willing to back up the claim, the story spread within hours from Drudge to conservative talk radio shows and the British tabloid press. As it began appearing in the mainstream U.S. media, Kerry and the woman, former AP reporter Alexandra Polier, both denied the allegation.

Polier's full statement to the press: "For the last several days I have seen Internet and tabloid rumors relating to me and Senator John Kerry. Because these stories were false, I assumed the media would ignore them. It seems that efforts to peddle these lies continue, so I feel compelled to address them. I have never had a relationship with Senator Kerry, and the rumors in the press are completely false. Whoever is spreading these rumors and allegations does not know me, but should know the pain they have caused me and my family. I am in Kenya with my fiance visiting his family, and we ask that the press respect our privacy and leave all of us alone."

Kathleen Parker, Dan Kennedy, and other professional journalists blasted Drudge for spreading the story. "Drudge is even more unreliable and wrong than he used to be (and he was pretty bad to begin with)," Michelangelo Signorile wrote in the New York Press.

AT&T Wireless cancelled its Drudge Report ads after receiving a complaint Monday by Robert Caraway, who described himself as a Kerry supporter.

"I find your support of Matt Drudge both distasteful and alienating," e-mailed Caraway. "By advertising on his site, you are condoning his current smear campaign against a very popular presidential hopeful."

Though Matt Drudge is widely credited with being right on Newsweek's Monica Lewinsky story, the self-styled Walter Winchell has made several infamous blunders over the years:

Reporting in January 1999 that a 13-year-old boy who "looks exactly like the President" was the secret love child of Bill Clinton and a prostitute. DNA tests proved it was a hoax. Reporting in August 1997 that Sidney Blumenthal had been in court on charges of domestic violence. He retracted the story a day later. Making up a source in a May 2001 story, claiming that Drudge Report webmaster Andrew Breitbart was a professor with the Cashmere Institute of Media Studies, a fictitious organization. Note: This story has been edited to reflect a comment e-mailed to the Drudge Retort by Jeremy Pemble after its original publication: "We did pull advertising from this site -- because it should not have been placed on the site in the first place ... independent of any recent articles that may have appeared on that site."

© DRUDGE RETORT 2004

[stands2reason]

There will soon be NO AT&T Wireless

Good riddance.

[cyncooper]

Really? You don't seem to understand what Drudge's "claim" was.

How are you in a position to declare it groundless, or make any comment on something you know nothing about?

[jimbo123]

And Mr. Pemble will be working at McDonalds after the merger.

Jeremy H. Pemble, Vice President,
Public Relations--Mobile Multimedia Services
Fax: 425-580-5935
jeremy.pemble@attws.com

[leadpenny]

Hey, we bit pretty hard on the story (through the British press) around here too. Although, in fairness, many FReepers warned that it could be a set-up.

As for AT&T, I have their Universal Credit Card. I'm going to quit using it. They won't mind, though, because I always pay it off. Maybe I WILL keep using it just to spite them.

[Rebelbase]

tis a hoax, go to the link.

[jimbo123]

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/index.asp

PEMBLE, JEREMY
CHICAGO,IL 60610
ATT WIRELESS
3/24/2000
$250
Democratic National Cmte

[cyncooper]

I was talking to the poster.

I'm not sure why you are pointing out something to me that I already knew.

[JonH]

Somehow I do not quite believe that we have heard the last of this. There are too many rumors about interview tapes, etc. Time will tell if Drudge was wrong.

[PhilipFreneau]

>> I wonder if AT&T is so honorable in all their advertising...

Certainly they would not advertise in tabloids news papers such as the New York Times, or on tabloid media such as the BBC.

[Bush Cheney]

So what website do you frequent, the "Drudge Retort" or the "Drudge Report".

For those interested, there's also a Smudge Report

[tiamat]

Does your browser have a feature to turn off pop-ups?

Mine (Safari) does and it makes web surfing SO much nicer!

[BluH2o]

AT&T Wireless cancelled its Drudge Report ads ...

Interesting ... Cingular purchased AT&T Wireless just this past week. Curious as to whether that might have played a role in the cancellation of advertising on Drudge.

[finnman69]

this is news?

[HostileTerritory]

Um, was there ever anything to the parents' "changing their tune" than a quote from a British tabloid that they denied ever making?

[CPOSharky]

IIRC, Drudge just said something to the effect that several major news outlets were researching the allegation.

[21st Century Man]

At the moment I'm in my office using IE6 (ARGHH!), but I usually use Opera 7, which is totally awesome. ;-)

I also use Outpost Pro which kills most pop-ups on its own, but I'm noticing more & more sites are unviewable with even the basic firewall settings.

The Internet has become a very trashy place to visit.

[cubreporter]

There could be more to this and it may come out and if it does, Drudge will be exonerated.

[phil1750]

I quit doing business with AT&T when they were the primary sponsor of the first gay Olympics in NY several years ago.
I used to get telemarketing calls wanting me to resign them as my long-distance carrier and I always had to explain to the telemarketer that I don't do business with companies that promote the homosexual lifestyle so blatantly.

[tiamat]

Hey, if it weren't for smut, AOL wouldn't exist! LOL!