Thanks, I did: In 2015 and 2016, Drudge establi

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In 2015 and 2016, Drudge established himself firmly in support of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, repeatedly featuring pro-Trump headlines.[68] According to Politico, "Ted Cruz accused the Drudge Report of transforming into “an attack site” for Republican front-runner Donald Trump’s campaign in the past month, telling a conservative radio host this week that Drudge just promotes “whatever the Trump campaign is pushing that day.'

A POLITICO analysis of more than 300 Drudge banners this year reveals that Cruz has a strong argument: Matt Drudge’s conservative aggregation site has largely pushed banner pieces publicizing Trump favorably and in recent days either criticizing or deriding Cruz, a stark shift from 2015, when he appeared to be ambivalent toward the billionaire businessman." [69]

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Political leanings[edit]

Matt Drudge has said that he is a conservative, but "more of a populist".[47][48] Some regard the Drudge Report as conservative in tone,[49][50][51][52][53][54][55] and it has been referred to in the media as "a conservative news aggregator".[56] In 2008, Richard Siklos, an editor of Fortune magazine, called the Drudge Report a "conservative bullhorn".[57] Peter Wallsten, writing in the Los Angeles Times, labelled Drudge a "well-known conservative warrior";

[58] Saul Hansell, writing in the New York Times, referred to him as a "conservative muckraker";[59] and Glenn Greenwald, writing in the New York Magazine, called him a "right-wing hack".[60] Greenwald also wrote that the Drudge Report—inter alia—is part of the "Bush/Cheney right-wing noise machine".[61]

Jesse Swick of The New Republic notes that the Drudge Report frequently links to stories that cast doubt upon global warming. "[Drudge] loves a press release from Senator Inhofe almost as much as he loves taking pot shots at Al Gore ... It’s like flashing tasty images of popcorn and sodas between frames at movie theaters, only much less subtle."[62] Ben Shapiro of townhall.com wrote "The American left can't restrict Internet usage or ban talk radio, so it de-legitimizes these news sources. Ripping alternative news sources as illegitimate is the left's only remaining option -- it cannot compete with the right wing in the new media ... They call Matt Drudge a muckraker and a yellow journalist."[63]

A study in 2005 placed the Drudge Report "slightly left of center". "One thing people should keep in mind is that our data for the Drudge Report was based almost entirely on the articles that the Drudge Report lists on other Web sites", said Groseclose, the head of the study. "Very little was based on the stories that Matt Drudge himself wrote.

The fact that the Drudge Report appears left of center is merely a reflection of the overall bias of the media."[64] Professor Mark Liberman critiqued the statistical model used in this study on the basis that model assumed conservative politicians do not care about the ideological position of think tanks they cite, while liberal politicians do.[65][66] The study was also criticized by media watchdog Spinwatch.[67]

In 2015 and 2016, Drudge established himself firmly in support of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, repeatedly featuring pro-Trump headlines.[68] According to Politico, "Ted Cruz accused the Drudge Report of transforming into “an attack site” for Republican front-runner Donald Trump’s campaign in the past month, telling a conservative radio host this week that Drudge just promotes “whatever the Trump campaign is pushing that day.' A POLITICO analysis of more than 300 Drudge banners this year reveals that Cruz has a strong argument: Matt Drudge’s conservative aggregation site has largely pushed banner pieces publicizing Trump favorably and in recent days either criticizing or deriding Cruz, a stark shift from 2015, when he appeared to be ambivalent toward the billionaire businessman." [69]

Influence[edit]

According to Quantcast, the site has more than three million page visits per day.[70] According to Mark Halperin, "Drudge's coverage affects the media's political coverage", effectively steering the media's political coverage towards what Halperin calls "the most salacious aspects of American politics".[71] In The Way To Win, a book written by Halperin and John Harris, Drudge is called "the Walter Cronkite of his era".[71][72] Democratic Party strategist Chris Lehane says "phones start ringing" whenever Drudge breaks a story, and Mark McKinnon, a former media advisor to George W. Bush, said that he checked the site 30–40 times per day.[71]

Despite these bold assertions, researchers have paid relatively little attention to testing the Drudge Report’s actual influence on media coverage. In the only empirical study of Drudge's influence on the media's agenda, Wallsten[73] analyzed the data derived from a detailed content analysis of print, broadcast and blog discussions during the last five weeks of the 2008 campaign. Rather than the broad impact posited by professional political observers, Wallsten found that, even on issues where the site should be expected to have its largest impact, the stories highlighted on the Drudge Report exert a fairly inconsistent influence over what traditional media outlets chose to cover. Specifically, the time series analysis presented by Wallsten shows evidence of a “Drudge effect” on print and broadcast coverage for only five of the 10 political scandals that received the most attention on the Drudge Report between September 30 and November 3, 2008.[citation needed]

Matt Drudge has been criticized by other media news personalities: Bill O'Reilly twice called Drudge a "threat to democracy" in response to Drudge disclosing his book sales figures,[74] and Keith Olbermann referred to Drudge as "an idiot with a modem".[75]

Drudge, along with his website, was labelled one of the "Top 10 anti-Barack Obama conservatives" by the US editor of The Daily Telegraph in February 2009.[76]

In addition to its media influence, the Drudge Report has influenced design elements on other sites, some with opposing viewpoints [77] and some which use the same format for listing news. A left-leaning[78] parody site called Drudge Retort was founded in 1998 as "a send-up of Mr. Drudge's breathless style".[79][80][81] According to online analytics data for April 2010 from the Newspaper Marketing Agency, the Drudge Report is the number one site referrer for all online UK commercial newspaper websites.[82]

Archives[edit]

Many reports from 1995 to early 1997 are available in the Usenet archive provided by Google Groups. A more extensive archive of the website is provided by the Drudge Report Archives, which has archives dating back to mid-November 2001 and stores snapshots of the Drudge Report's homepage every two minutes.[83]

Notable stories[edit]

Monica Lewinsky scandal[edit]

The Drudge Report attained prominence when it was the first to report what came to be known as the Lewinsky scandal. It published the story on 17 January 1998, alleging that Newsweek had turned down the story.[84]

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth[edit]

During the 2004 US presidential campaign, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group made claims about John Kerry's war record, which were mentioned by Drudge and investigated by major newspapers and TV networks.[71] The book Unfit for Command: Swiftboat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry became a best-seller in part due to its promotion in the Drudge Report.

Obama photo[edit]

Drudge[85] published a photo of Barack Obama in Somali tribal dress on February 25, 2008,[86] and reported that the photo had been sent to him by a Clinton campaign staffer.[87] The publication of the photograph resulted in a brief war of words between the Clinton and Obama campaign organizations.

US Senate problems[edit]

On March 9, 2010, The Senate Sergeant-at-Arms claimed that the site was "responsible for the many viruses popping up throughout the Senate...Please avoid using [this] site until the Senate resolves this issue...The Senate has been swamped the last couples (sic) days with this issue." The Drudge Report countered stating that "it served more than 29 million pages Monday without an e-mail complaint about 'pop ups,' or the site serving 'viruses'."[94]

Controversial stories, errors and questions about sourcing[edit]

Exclusives[edit]

Research by the media magazine Brill's Content in 1998 cast doubt on the accuracy of the majority of the "exclusives" claimed by the Drudge Report. Of the 51 stories claimed as exclusives from January to September 1998, the magazine found that 31 (61%) were actually exclusive stories. Of those, 32% were untrue, 36% were true and the remaining 32% were of debatable accuracy.[21]

Sidney Blumenthal lawsuit[edit]

In 1997, the Drudge Report reported that incoming White House assistant Sidney Blumenthal beat his wife and was covering it up. Drudge retracted the story the next day and apologized, saying that he was given bad information, but Blumenthal filed a $30 million libel lawsuit against Drudge. After four years Blumenthal dropped his lawsuit, saying that the suit had cost him tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees. He agreed to pay $2,500 to Drudge's Los Angeles attorney for travel costs, claiming that Drudge was "backed by unlimited funds from political supporters who use a tax-exempt foundation".[95][96][97][98] The Individual Rights Foundation, led by conservative activist David Horowitz, paid Drudge's legal fees in the Blumenthal lawsuit. A federal judge noted in the judgment that Drudge "is not a reporter, a journalist, or a newsgatherer. He is, as he admits himself, simply a purveyor of gossip."[99]

Alleged John Kerry intern scandal[edit]

During the 2004 Presidential campaign, Drudge ran a story quoting General Wesley Clark, in which Clark claimed that the John Kerry campaign would implode over an intern affair. Drudge reported that other news outlets were investigating the alleged affair, but removed it from the site shortly afterwards when the other news outlets dropped their investigations.[100]

Alleged Bill Clinton illegitimate child[edit]

In 1999, the Drudge Report announced that it had viewed a videotape which was the basis of a Star Magazine and Hard Copy story. Under the headline, Woman Names Bill Clinton Father Of Son In Shocking Video Confession, Drudge reported a videotaped "confession" by a former prostitute who claimed that her son was fathered by Bill Clinton. The Report stated, "To accuse the most powerful man in the world of being the father of her son is either the hoax of a lifetime, or a personal turmoil that needs resolution. Only two people may know that answer tonight." The claim turned out to be a hoax.[101]

Alleged heckling of Republican Senators by CNN reporter[edit]

On April 1, 2007, Drudge cited an unnamed "official" source saying that CNN reporter Michael Ware had "heckled" Republican Senators McCain and Graham during a live press conference.[102] Drudge reported that:


An official at the press conference called Ware's conduct "outrageous," saying, "here you have two United States Senators in Baghdad giving first-hand reports while Ware is laughing and mocking their comments. I've never witnessed such disrespect. This guy is an activist not a reporter."

— Matthew Drudge, The Drudge Report

A video hosted by Rawstory shows that Ware did not make a sound or ask any question during the press conference.[103][104]

Oprah and Sarah Palin[edit]

On September 5, 2008, the Drudge Report reported that Oprah staffers were "sharply divided on the merits of booking Sarah Palin". Drudge said that he obtained the information from an anonymous source. Winfrey responded in a written statement to news outlets saying, "The item in today’s Drudge Report is categorically untrue. There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show. At the beginning of this presidential campaign when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates." Oprah Winfrey's public statement came after she had already endorsed Barack Obama for president on Larry King Live in 2007.[105] Drudge was accused by some commentators of planting a false story for political ends.[106][107]

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