ABC News: Drudge Report Sets Tone for National Political Coverage

[kurth]

Drudge Report Sets Tone for National Political Coverage
Book Compares Online Newsman to Walter Cronkite

Oct. 1, 2006— - In the crucial congressional elections, now about five weeks away, one of the strongest weapons in the Republican arsenal is a man running a Web site out of his apartment in Miami. His name is Matt Drudge. Drudge broke the Monica Lewinsky story and has had a tremendous influence on what you know about politics ever since. From the comfort of his apartment, Drudge can send shock waves through newsrooms and campaign headquarters nationwide with breaking news often heralded by his trademark siren.

"If Drudge has a siren up, people know it's something they have to look at," said Mark Halperin, ABC News Political Director. Mark McKinnon, one of President Bush's top campaign consultants, said he checks the site 30 to 40 times per day. "When there's a siren, that's a three-alarm news deal," he said. Republican operatives keep an open line to Drudge, often using him to attack their opponents. "I know that we'd have meetings and that information would find its way to Drudge," McKinnon said. And then the mainstream media often picks it up.

One classic example: the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. In the heat of the 2004 presidential campaign, the group made often unfounded claims about John Kerry's war record, which were pushed hard by Drudge and then investigated by major newspapers and TV networks. A new book, co-authored by Halperin, compares Drudge to Walter Cronkite...

http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2514276&page=1

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Pardon me while I throw up.

[Moochy]

1. puuuuke... I wanna be like Matt Drudge!

"Mark McKinnon, one of President Bush's top campaign consultants, said he checks the site 30 to 40 times per day."

Did you get the memo yet Matt ? Did you run that smear that me and Karl sent you?

Fucking ridiculous, Drudge is pond scum, and thats unfair to pond scum.

[babylonsister]

2. Comparing Drudge to Cronkite? How delusional! nt

[Donnachaidh]

3. Are you f*cking kidding me?

Little Mattie Drudge? Little mister I wanna be hedda hopper?

ABC has lost it's collective frigging mond.

[Bluebear]

4. Not even in one of Drudge's wet dreams. nt

[TheDonkey]

5. what a load of crap

Drudge is whack, and only a bunch of DC cybernerds jack off to his tabloidish news.

[featherman]

6. Drudge must be pretty conflicted by the Foley story

I won't go there but it would be interesting to know how he is handling it.

[Moochy]

7. it?

diddle diddle?

[Nitrogenica]

8. A fair comparison would be.....

THEY ARE NOTHING LIKE EACH OTHER!

[CatWoman]

9. isn't this a book they are discussing?

the author is more than entitled to his "opinion"......

[aquart]

10. Arghh. I just duped this.

It was just on TV.

[DainBramaged]

11. Drudge, news for the brain damaged and addled Freepers

[Canuckistanian]

12. The ONLY thing he has in common with Walter Cronkite

Is that they both own fedoras.

Any similarity ends right there.

[last1standing]

13. There are some very important points in this story.

I admit I didn't read the whole thing because I'm trying not to go to ABC's website if I can help it. However, from what was printed here I see 3 important statements.

1. The repub party uses drudge to disseminate "news" in the best light possible for them. I know that's not stunning news here, but it is the first time I've seen that admitted by the M$M. It's also important for what follows.

2. ABC's Political Director is a repub who is going out of his way here to tell us that he supports repubs and directs ABC's political coverage to do the same. He plainly says in this article that ABC uses unfiltered right wing propaganda without even bothering to check for accuracy. PT911 anyone?

3. Finally, what I don't see in the story is any mention of a drudge alternative that is used for Democratic stories and spin. While somewhere in the article it might mention Buzzflash, I doubt it greatly.

What all this means is that ABC is admitting, on their own website, that they are a propaganda arm of the repub party. Once again, we've known this for years, but I've never seen any of the M$M admit it so brazenly before. This is why Dem stories don't get out and why it's so easy for repubs to go on the air and say we have no plan while never being asked for their own.

So the question is, what can we do about it? I really don't have a clue at the moment. Any ideas?

[babylonsister]

15. The only problem with that analysis is on Friday,

three stories took up the majority of their network news.
Foley, Woodward's book and the damaging effects it will have on this admin, and Abramoff and his ties.
It wasn't leaning right at all; for once, it was actually reporting news. I do think they still have some valid, honest journalists who get lost in the shuffle.

[last1standing]

20. If ABC hadn't broken that story CBS would have.

Or some other organization. ABC knew that and moved on their lead because they wanted the ratings. Any other operation would have done the same regardless of political bent.

[babylonsister]

21. My point is out of 3 stories, none appeared to have a r/w bias.

I don't usually defend ABC and think their involvement in that movie was disgusting and full of lies, but I did see it Friday and thought I was watching real news for a change.

[last1standing]

22. Man! That reply didn't take long. :-)

I understand what your saying, I just don't give them as much credit as you do. Also, reading what I did of that article it seems to me like they are pretty much spelling it all out for us and rubbing our noses in it.

[underpants]

25. The installation of the "new truth" is almost complete

I agree and apparently you don't need to read the whole article-you were dead on. What you have is a Republican coronation of a Republican tool to that ABC now can just cite Drudge as an actual source.

This was clearly the plan when Drudge was given the Lewinsky story to break.

[grasswire]

27. Mark Halperin has damaged the Washington press corps...

..with his nannying of reporters and urging a pack mentality to be a "Kool Kid." I have hated his newsletter for years.

[Poiuyt]

14. I like RawStory myself

[peacetalksforall]

16. Looks like ABC or its owners are investors in Drudge.

What an insult to a man of quality from a gutter company and a gutter gossip freak.

[chat_noir]

17. one ABC viewer gets it

I was just watching your Sunday evening news broadcast and I had to chuckle when I saw ABC news political director, Mark Halperin saying that "Today Matt Drudge can influence the news like Walter Cronkite did," .

The last time I checked any of the links on Drudge, they all bring us to stories written by actual reporters at the BBC, CBC, Reuters, Times (NY and London), Breitbart, etc etc etc...Matt even posts the links at the bottom of his site.

I'm sorry, this guy is not shaping the news, he's shaping his website. He is only playing email alert editor and he rarely does it in a way that doesn't portray his own bias. We can all do much better. All it takes is actually subscribing to the email alert services of various online newspapers and news services.

On one hand, it would force us to actually look at stories from different perspectives and perhaps more importantly, we could send Drudge packing and maybe get some journalists back to work rather than quoting "Drudge" as their source.

What say ye?

http://forums.go.com/abcnews/WNT/thread?threadID=441193

[gatorboy]

18. The laughing 9/11 bombers is his top story?

They've been dead for 5 years. Are they afreaid that their ghosts will return?

Whore that terra Drudge! :eyes:

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

19. Uneasy truth.... Any one of us can be the next Drudge.

The guy's not any brighter or sharper than anyone here at DU. He got embraced and caught a wave. That's all.

Internet popularity is oh so transitory.

[gatorboy]

23. That's what's silly about the Cronkite comparison

He's not an investigator. He's just lucky that someone sends him a link to something.

[Initech]

24. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!

:puke: at that thought.

[grasswire]

26. Mark Halperin is a smarmy dope

He's been running the ABC Kool Kids "insider" newsletter for years, and there never was a bigger blight on the Washington press corps. He nannies the reporters nearly every day, trying to shape coverage. And he leans right. A pox on him.