Well for your info. I have posted here and as the thread deveolped and then pinged matt and after a few he puts it up. so I don't think he is always watching.
The best place to get news on a breaking story is FR. We get it first from the thousands of citizen reporters posting here.
Do an experiement the next time there is a breaking story. Monitor the thread on FR and keep a browser window open to Drudge. Ask you track the thread and FR you can see Drudge's page change just after some new information is posted to the FR thread. I've seen this several times.
Your ping likely was not what prompted his page change. He just saw the thread at the same time you did and posted what he found. He can get it faster of FR than he can read all the mail he gets.