Drudge 'retracts' story on Howard Dean after receiving letter from DNC

[onehandle]

Drudge 'retracts' story on Howard Dean after receiving letter from DNC lawyer

Conservative heavyweight Matt Drudge has all but retracted a story about Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean after receiving a letter from the DNC's lawyers, RAW STORY can report.

Saying he took the DNC at their word -- and declining to mention the fact he had received a letter from a DNC lawyer asking him to take the story down -- Drudge posted an update to a story claiming that Chairman Dean had intervened in the New Orleans mayoral race. His update noted that the DNC had vehemently denied the report.

"The DRUDGE REPORT takes chairman Dean and his spokesman at their word," Drudge wrote. He did not offer an explicit retraction.

DNC communications director Karen Finney said the move came only after the Committee's lawyer had penned a note to Drudge asking him to take the story down.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Drudge_retracts_story_on_Dean_after_0522.html

[ReadTomPaine]

1. Sounds like someone "Roved" Drudge.

Only from the other side of the aisle. This should happen a lot more.

[Julius Civitatus]

18. YES! I like that idea

Time to fight back, use the same Rovian nastiness. That'll learn them!

[IndyOp]

23. Drudge wasn't 'roved' from the other side - this is typical GOP action.

Yesterday the talking points the rightwing think tanks sent to rightwing bloggers and talk show hosts were all about how to focus on Nagin's re-election so as to embarass Democrats. Lots of RW'ers stuck with the lies about Nagin not taking the initiative to use the buses (which were underwater and which Louisiana was told *not* to use because FEMA buses were on the way).

Drudge chose to go with a lie that would make Democrats appear racist - this is typical, typical RNC strategy. Accuse the other guys of what you are guilty of...accuse the Dems for being elitist because the GOP is elitist; accuse the Dems of being racist because the GOP is racist.

Why? Because if the GOP accuses the Dems of being racist, and the Dems turn around and claim the GOP is racist, the Dem accusation looks weak and reactionart. "I'm not, but you are!" Weak.

The Dems have to get out ahead and start calling the GOP exactly what they are...

[depakid]

2. Defamation suits

Are one way to put a stop to all the lies getting fed into the echo chamber. Progressives need to get more agrressive here. A couple of multi-million dollar verdicts, and the far right's destructive rumor mill will start to think twice.

Just like this Professor- who's going after Horowitz and his publisher:

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/14543692.htm

[MadMaddie]

11. That;s what I don't get why haven't the Dems pursued this

avenue of defamation....the right feels like they rule the world because no one has shown real opposition to their tactics...

[Tuttle]

13. check out Blumenthal v Drudge

Sidney Blumenthal went after Drudge when the bottom-feeder told his mouth-breathing readership all about Blumenthal beating his wife: the Arkansas Project provided Drudge with a dream team of legal eagles who kept the case in perpetual 'stall' mode, until Blumenthal had run out of $$$ for legal represenation. He had to settle and Drudge walked away without even any stench of innuendo on him, Blumenthal's personal finances in tatters!

Tut-tut

[spooky3]

20. because it is very hard to win a defamation case in the US if you are

a public figure. The law treats cases differently if you are famous versus the average person, such as the professor in the Horowitz case. Here's why:

http://www.expertlaw.com/library/personal_injury/defamation.html

[Rose Siding]

3. Drudge is up to an uncorrected retraction a day

Today, he pulled a Gore smear-

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/22/drudge-falsely-smears-gore/

[johncoby2]

4. Drudge is a puss!

If he had any balls he would have stuck to his story. What a weak pussy.

[The Wizard]

14. Drudge, Balls?

The only balls Drudge is familiar with are the ones slamming into his chin.

[Raster]

21. Xcellent!!! I wonder if he and ken "closet case" melhman haunt the same

leather bars and bathhouses in Dupont Circle?

[stanwyck]

5. I read Drudge

because he's a weathervane of where the right wing paranoia is pointing. Da Vinci! Hillary! Gore! If you need a quick reference guide of right wing scary movies, visit Drudge. He's wildly inaccurate. (but, then, he's right wing - so his supporters don't even know when he's lying). But he is an excellent source of what's really scary to conservatives.
And. Mostly that's Hillary. Hollywood. Al Gore. And the weather. Drudge lives in quaking, quivering fear of weather. Any weather.

[janx]

19. The weather part is probably translatable in biblical terms

somehow. Maybe that's why he likes to include it. He knows wingnuts will translate extreme weather into the apocalypse.

[orwell]

6. Did he...

...flip flop?

...cut and run?

Nevermind...

[saltpoint]

7. Can there be a new Godzilla movie in which Godzilla stalks after

Drudge the length of the continent and finally devours his sorry ass in a Wendy's parking lot in Daly City?

[rpannier]

8. I thought that's what happened in Jurassic Park

Wasn't he the guy the T-Rex devoured at the outhouse?

[saltpoint]

9. LOL! Coulda been. SHOULDA been!

[robbedvoter]

26. Newman!

[bluestateguy]

10. Drudge is a panzy who never admits he's wrong about anything

It's almost like he is proud of not having any journalistic standards. Has he retracted that story yet about Sid Blumenthal beating his wife?

[barb162]

12. A very liberal friend mentioned to me today that Dean wanted

Nagle out and I took it at face value. Glad I read this thread! I will be sure to tell him it is a phony story about Dean.

[MGKrebs]

15. In keeping with my policy of rewarding the DNC when they make me happy,

I am sending another $50 right now.

[wisteria]

16. Now someone should tell Imus, he is still repeating this lie and

commenting on it.

[Julius Civitatus]

17. Drudge is SCUM

Why people would believe this guy for anything is beyond me.
He's been proven a liar time and time again.

[DinahMoeHum]

22. Like I said, Drudge as a source ain't exactly above reproach. . .

...or reliable
...and that's an understatement.

:evilgrin:

[liwkenne]

24. Matt Drudge Jumped the Shark a long time ago

His claim to fame was publishing details about the Lewinsky scandal, but that was 8 years ago.

He's completely irrelevant now. I don't know anyone who even bothers to look at his Web site.

[robbedvoter]

25. During primaries he pulled the same slander vs Clark as RNC's

Mehlman tried 24 hours later (that he supported the war in his testimony before congress in 2002).
Clark held a press conference, debunked the lies - a few minor papers mentioned it -) but the slander was way better displayed. (including on DU, sorry to say). Standard GOP tactic. Misinfo on war/finds of WMD was put out this way daily as well.

[ClintonTyree]

27. Wow, Drudge is a CONservative lying piece of shit.........

:boring: wake me when you've got some REAL news. Drudge telling the unbiased truth about Democrats........now THAT would be a scoop!

[Evil Bush]

28. Is Matt Drudge

his real name?