On the news some are saying Drudge is the “2nd most powerful man in America”. Even Rush Limbaugh said;
“The fact that Drudge has no competitors is what stands out to me. This guy admits it. There are no competitors. The New York Times ought to be the Drudge page! The newspaper of record? The greatest newspaper in the world? If it were being run by true news people, the New York Times would be what the Drudge page is. If you want to know what’s happening wherever and things that matter and are important, you go there. That’s the reputation all these news organizations want, isn’t it?” exclaimed Limbaugh.”
I’ll admit I have the Drudge app on my phone and what I like about it is its a short, concise, quick to the point, news blog. I suppose it leans to the right but then it only reports what’s already out there and has connections to other blogs, some VERY liberal.
And yes, I find news media to be biased either one way or the other.
He’s a darling of the right wing. So popular, but in no way powerful, in that segment. Not popular or powerful among moderates or liberals. (Which is a lot of people.) Not respected by real media given his tendency to ignore things like facts.
Of course the right wingers have to gloss over a certain issue in his personal life.
That’s still around?
I don’t watch cable news so I don’t see anything about it. What they would do is cite Drudge so they could talk about rumors. The stuff that made Drudge might be true, might be false but is a bunch of unsupported gossip.
I actually see more stories that originate from TMZ.
Drudge used to be a much bigger deal than he is now. He broke the Lewinsky story first while other (more responsible) news organizations in the know were still verifying it.
I used to use his site as launch point quite often (and still do occasionally) for the more obscure news sites I can’t be bothered to bookmark but Drudge as “powerful”? No… it’s just another site and like Limbaugh his personal content is just a predicable conservative crankfest. The site is popular but (IMO) it’s not all that influential lately. I might use it twice a month these days.
The really odd thing about Drudge is that he’s a nightclub hopping, EDM loving gay man who is a homophobic, conservative crank for his day job. That’s an odd combo.
The power he has and has always had is the power to drive traffic. A headline on the Drudge Report has the ability to massively increase the number of views an article gets. He is a gatekeeper and spotlight bringer. In a world awash in information, it is those who filter the information who have power.
At this point, Reddit and its various news-subreddits. Though the idea is so common even Facebook does it. And that’s not considering news aggregators like Huffpo or Yahoo!, who get their content from elsewhere but host a lot of it onsite. I find more of those than real news sites.
Drudge is exactly as ‘powerful’ as you believe him to be. A lot, a little, or not at all. Same as any other columnist or pundit. And saying he has no competition is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. He’s a website. Participation is 100% voluntary. God bless free speech.