I just want some opinions, there should be no need to move this to GD.
A few of my friends insist that the Drudge Report is conservative, because Matt Drudge is. I am more of the liberal persuasion, and I find The Drudge Report to be fairly even-handed. Maybe current events are forcing Matt to admit the obvious, and there is not much room for spin.
Since it’s mostly a link site to other news agencies, the majority of spinning would be done by selecting articles that would be favorable to Matt’s position.
Sometime I think it’s more of a liberal site than anything. Opinions?
Technically yes, but barely. I think basically Drudge is just out for the biggest stories. If it makes conservatives looks like schmucks thems the breaks.
It’s part heavy-conservative/part capitalistic. When money is involved, e.g., a juicy scandal about a conservative that will bring in people, then politics doesn’t matter. When money is not involved it is conservative to a very scary degree.
Note that the occasional bash on a conservative allows it to be labelled as part of the vast liberal media conspiracy so that it can be hailed when it does one of it’s standard conservatives=good, liberal=evil pieces.
Most things that I identify as conservative values make me cringe, I would think that a large number of pro-conservative articles would stand out to me. However, I’ve yet to get the impression that Drudge caters mostly to conservative values. I’m even looking for it these days. I guess I’m just clicking on the links that I like the titles of. As long as there are articles that suit my ideals, I guess I can’t complain if the site is construed as being conservative.
Could I be that oblivious? Matt Drudge is gay right? I’m so confused.
I read a study a couple of years ago on media bias, and one of the surprising findings of it was that the Drudge Report landed smack dab on the median of the bias scale. In other words, it was the most even-handed of all the media outlets measured.
Matt’s been alleged to be gay, but it’s not certain.
Matt did part ways with Fox News over his making anti-abortion points from a photo of a tiny fetus holding the finger of a doctor doing surgery - FNN’s complaint was that he was using a photo to make a point irrelevant to the context of the photo, IIRC.
Matt Drudge is a rumor processor, and he plainly admits he never checks anything. The right wing noise machine has learned to use him, though, and he’s a willing conscript or maybe a dupe. When the Rove/Norquist strategic council writes the Talking Point for the day, you’ll see it first in Drudge. Then it will be obediently parroted by virtually every talking face at Fox News, and amplified by Limbaugh, O’Reilly, John Leo, Jonah Goldberg, and every Republican politico who steps in front of a microphone that day. Check it yourself, and you’ll see it’s true.
I like Drudge. And I enjoy reveling in the discomfort that he provides to others.
That said, he picks up way way WAY more stories that the right would like to see posted than the left. I agree that that is probably due simply more from the right-wing-noise-machine producing more noise.
My observation is that Drudge doesn’t make up or ignore news – but he practices a peculiar brand of "Well they did it too"ism that leans very right
e.g.
Remember the Cheney Diva demands on the Hotel Room? 1 day on Drudge.
There were some fairly innocuous guidelines (& I get that YMMV on this comparatively – these were requests not demands phrasing like “in the event you wish to provide”) that Kerry had made as well during the campaign: 3 days of links on Drudge 2 after the Cheney story had died
There were 3 separate “Democrats took Abramoff Money too” links in the days immediately after the Delay Indictment. Except for the first day when there were 3 related links – Delay’s story stayed as a single link for 2 days. This is where I first really noticed this and started tracking it.
One possible non-political explanation : What I think he may be trying to do is drive the news – “As reported on Matt Drudge” and when the MSM won’t pick it up he drops it. Not saying “so“, just saying “maybe“.
Oh & I am sure of one bias. I think he really, really hates the French (& I am not kidding) anything negative about France makes it - the litmus for non-U.S. news seems to me to be A. Affects the U.S., B. Is really interesting or unusual or noteworthy, C. Highlights something going wrong in France.
Being Funny - but not kidding.
Mr Drudge may himself be conservative, but the most apt word for the Drudge Report is “imprecise”. Will what you read in it be true? Maybe yes, maybe no, but there’s no way of being sure without an outside confirmation.