Posted on 01/28/2012 12:19:22 AM PST by dixiechick2000
. . . of online media manipulation isn’t exactly new. In fact, it goes back well before Romney’s 2008 campaign got underway in earnest. It seems to date back to sometime in 2005, when RNC operatives arranged a meeting between Matt Drudge and Matt Rhodes — a highly placed operative in the Romney organization.
Last year, a delegation of RNC officials flew to Miami Beach, where Drudge lives, for a dinner at the Forge steakhouse to introduce the Internet maven to Matt Rhodes, the party’s new opposition research director.
Due to Drudge’s now-close friendship with Romney’s chief aide and longtime GOP opposition researcher, it’s a safe bet Perry supporters won’t have many positive headlines to look forward to from the erstwhile gadfly. Having apparently been fully co-opted by the dread Republican Establishment, Drudge has been feeding the conservative online community a steady diet of pro-Romney headlines for years and, more recently, anti-Perry headlines — just to strike a balance, you see.
Just this week, for example, five of six Drudge headlines about Perry include bad news, from polling to policy: “PERRY APOLOGIZES FOR CALLING GOP VOTERS ‘HEARTLESS’… Iowa: Romney 21%, Bachmann 15%, Perry 14%, Paul 12%…POLL: CAIN ON TOP, PERRY PLUMMETS…PERRY: MY WIFE PRODDED ME TO RUN.”
Romney benefited from similar treatment from Drudge during his last run for the White House, when Drudge went hammer-and-tong against each of his opponents — reserving special scrutiny for Mike Huckabee:
A year ago, Rhodes signed on to Romney’s campaign. Since then, Drudge-watchers have noted Drudge’s consistent refusal to hype–and in many cases to even mention–negative stories about Romney. But now Huckabee threatens to blow Romney’s nomination strategy. Since last week, Drudge has unleashed a torrent of screaming, anti-Huckabee headlines, culminating in today’s “exclusive” (which cites one unnamed Democrat) about the Democrats’ supposed hope that Huckabee will emerge as the G.O.P. nominee.
Rhodes (or Rhoades — the correct spelling is unclear at this time) was brought back on board to head up Romney’s “Free and Strong America PAC” as executive director early in 2015. As Ben Smith noted at the time:
Rhoades, who’s moving to Boston, is a well-regarded guy whose return to Romney pretty much confirms what will surprise nobody: That he’s running in 2012. He’s also, incidentally, been valued for his relationship with a key player in any GOP primary, Matt Drudge.
And by June of this year, Romney had already established a dominant position in what has come to be known as the “Drudge Primary” — which is apparently modeled on the Cuban electoral process:
A survey of the past 13 months of Drudge headlines found only one debatably negative reference to the 2002 Olympics CEO (“Bachmann Outraises Romney”) — and a survey of aides to his rivals found a rising level of frustration at what one described as “favoritism” by one of the most important, if also one of the quirkiest, referees.
“One of the mysteries of Drudge is how he continues to be such a mystery. Never clear how or why he leans for or against candidates. But there is a lot of behind-the-scenes, very quiet and secretive mojo that goes on,” said Mark McKinnon, who, as a top adviser to John McCain in 2008, watched with dismay as Drudge gave top billing to questions about the Arizona senator’s health.
“It looks like someone in Romneyland has figured out the secret code,” McKinnon said.
Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with an outlet having a preference for one candidate over the other. Matt Drudge is certainly entitled to support whomever he thinks is the best candidate and for whatever reasons he chooses to do so. At the same time, though, conservatives who frequent the Drudge Report to glean information are entitled to know of his connections to people involved in campaigns irrespective of whether or not he feels his editorial decisions are affected by those connections.
This post is by no means a call to boycott the influential online news source. That would be as stupid as just about all boycotts are. Instead, it’s a simple reminder to those who read this blog that going to Drudge’s site in search of information on any candidate other than Mitt Romney is going to be a discouraging experience the vast majority of the time. So, when you see the bold red headline with flashing sirens announcing some explosion of support for Mitt Romney, or some manner of crippling blow to any other candidate, keep in mind that it’s been placed there with a specific purpose — and that is to further discourage you.
What’s disappointing about all of this, though, is the fact that from Matt Drudge’s earliest days posting Hollywood gossip on Usenet discussion boards, he’s set himself up as the answer to the biased media that refuses to air, and often actively suppresses, information that shows conservatives in a positive light. Since then, it appears that Matt Drudge has become the new boss . . . same as the old boss.
Apparently, he's blinded by his friendship with Drudge.
No. It was there all last night while numerous pot-stirrers were claiming it was removed. It is there now.
He sure did. I was listening on satellite radio on the way back from an oil patch job -- If I had been at the computer I would have immediately sent of an email to him asking him to look beyond his friendship with Drudge to the anti-Newt pieces he has up. At one point in the last few days he had as many as 14 links to hit pieces.
I hate that...really, really hate it. There should be a law against east-coast liberals always setting the momentum for every election. We have moderate Iowa, followed by liberal NH, then a conservative state, followed by another liberal FLA, setting the momentum every election year. That is not balanced in my opinion.
Very insightful posts.
For all of you who are interested, this is the thread I read last night. I checked Drudge myself, and the link was not there.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2839134/posts
He took it down some time ago because of Lucianne, but restored it a couple or three years ago. I checked last night, and it was gone, again. Did you see the boycott thread? I bet that had something to do with it.
I can’t say that I blame him and Rush for sticking up for Drudge. Drudge has been a wonderful advocate for conservatism.
However, he went full bore against Newt, and that doesn’t sit well with the base. The argument is that Drudge puts up articles that are out there, and doesn’t editorialize. In this case, the articles he chose made the site an editorial page against Newt.
I don’t know if he ever posted the Jeffrey Lord piece debunking Elliot Abrams.
FORBES
FOXNEWS
FOXNEWS NATION
FRANCE 24
FREE REPUBLIC <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
GALLUP
I know it’s there now, but it wasn’t last night, and I linked to a thread discussing that matter.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2839134/posts
.......And I checked it the link "still" works from the last time we went through this so what is the problem.
ENT WEEKLY
FINANCIAL TIMES
FORBES
FOXNEWS
FOXNEWS NATION
FRANCE 24
FREE REPUBLIC
GALLUP
GAWKER
HOT AIR
HELLO!
I don’t know what your problem is but the the link is there and operable.
I don’t understand why you can’t click on the link I provided to show you that there was a thread the other night where the FR link had been removed, and then restored. I checked Drudge at that time, and the FR link WAS GONE.
Just for you, I will post it again. Please click on it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2839134/posts
Good grief. Can’t you even bother to click on the link I provided?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2839134/posts
It was off of Matt’s list for a while, and was then restored.
BTW, I checked it myself before I mentioned it on this thread, and FR was not there.
*****************
....."Frustrated rivals think they know the secret: a low-profile, hard-driving Republican operative named Matt Rhoades, who is Romney’s campaign manager. Rhoades met Drudge, as POLITICO Editor-in-Chief John F. Harris and co-author Mark Halperin reported in their book “The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008,” when he became research director of the Republican National Committee and was introduced by his predecessor on a special trip to Miami. Rhoades has since been seen as a pipeline to the reclusive Drudge, who now has two veteran Washington reporters working on the site as well.".... Source
John McCain's 2008 Romney Opposition File (200 pages) (for all the good it did -- with Drudge on Romney's side)
Wonderful, awesome, fantastic post!
Thank you so much, and thanks for the links!
Thank you for high lighting this.
I do not click on Drudge now — unless it is to see what the opposition is doing.
And I do not miss all the links that left me so depressed about humanity and the state of things — not one bit.
There is good in this country and the world but Drudge seems hell bent on making us believe we are lost and the world is in decay. And when people believe that, they will look for government saviors (like Mitt).
No more Drudge and his “I got 200,000,000 hits this week” for me.
Have you noticed that the dems politics of personal destruction have bled onto the reps? RE: Romney?
Political attacks, I can understand. But, I’ve never seen such personal attacks in my lifetime as I have this time around.
Oh wait...I did during the ‘08 election between Obama and Hillary. They threw the race card at Bill Clinton!
The Romney campaign studied Obama’s last campaign.
As much as Drudge did for conservatism before, he’s cancelled that out this time. So has Ann Coulter.
I don’t visit either site anymore.
Read on a thread a few days back that Romney’s daddy was an admirer of Saul Alinsky. Had a picture posted of the two of them. Have no clue as to the veracity of the statement, but It sure looks like Alinsky tactics to me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.