Tip of the Fedora to Mr Drudge, who turned turns 42 today. Anyone reading this already knows who Matt Drudge is, editor of the infamous Drudgereport. Sure, I could bore you with his biography (which has been done and redone too many times for me to count, but if you are really interested, check out the New York Magazine article on him, perhaps one of the most unbiased look at him). Wikipedia has its perfunctory bio as well, but it seems rather sparse, which makes me wonder if he is not controlling what is entered on that site pretty carefully. I certainly would not blame him.

Personally, I think he is a keen observer of what is interesting to people like himself, internet junkies. People like to argue about politics and he seems to me as merely that “arms dealer” for these arguments rather than a leader for either side. It is rather surprising, and almost amusing that so many call him bias in what he links to. I think when you throw your name up as the name of the report, it should go without saying that there is some personal preferences involved. More power to him for doing so. Perhaps if he was selling his site as a source of unbiased news and called it something like The American Times or the Associated Report, we would have some expectation of fair and even reporting. But its not, its just a slick, fast website that points to some of the popular, and not so popular stories of the day, without waiting for video or graphics to load. There are times I just want to see what is happening without wading through all of CNN or MSNBC, and The Drudge Report gives me that quick snap shot, usually without comment or explanation and lets me decide whether I am interested enough to follow the link. Lastly, to be perfectly honest, who among us would not love a tenth of his traffic? Perhaps there is a certain amount of jealousy among his critics. Then again, there may be the same jealousy among his fans as well! So in honor of Matt, today we’ll look at his top hits and misses over the years:

1. Monica Lewinsky – Hit
2. John Kerry Intern – Miss
3. Swift Boat – Hit
4. Sydney Blumenthal Libel – Moss
5. Barack Obama’s Tribal Picture – Hit
6. CNN Reporter Heckling during Press Conference – Miss
7. Prince Harry in Afghanistan – Hit
8. Bill Clinton’s illegitimate child – Miss
9. Jack Kemp as Bob Dole’s running mate – Hit
10. Evan Bayh as Barack Obama’s running mate – Miss

Here’s hoping the next 11 years of the DrudgeReport will be as interesting as the first 11!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 11:54 am and is filed under 10 Best Lists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.