Is Drudge Becoming Irrelevant?

I have been addicted to "The Drudge Report" since at least January, 1998 when he seemed to lead the coverage of Bill Clinton's sordid tryst with Monica Lewinsky--probably before that, too; I can't remember when I didn't visit the sight multiple times a day to check what's new.

Increasingly, I've been going elsewhere for my latest news fix. I get multiple email alerts on breaking news from various news web sites--the Washington Post, for example.

As I await Obama's VP decision, I keep thinking I better click on Drudge and then I remember that I signed up on Obama's website to get the news immediately via email. I still visit Drudge regularly, but I learn more from going to CNN's site or MSNBC's.

Also, increasingly, Drudge seems filled with links to the bizarre and supernatural and shocking, making it feel sometimes like the online equivalent of reading the tabloid headlines while waiting at the supermarket checkout.

I checked Drudge just now and found the big headline on the VP pick, Waiting for the Mate!, links to stories on the Russia's bad behavior in Georgia, news from Kabul, news on Iran and its nuclear plants, but then also, all there at once on Drudge's page:

Puerto Rico corpse kept upright for 3-day wake (with photo)
Condom ringtone launched in India
Nurse published surgery pictures on FACEBOOK
SCORCHED: Japan reports 2 iPod fires, suspects defect...
Mugger Attacks 85-Year-Old Woman; Steals Cane...
SHOCK VIDEO...
Uproar as star diagnosed with cancer live on reality TV...
Yoda: The cat with FOUR ears...(with photo)

That and Drudge's obsession with weather-related stories--Tropical Storm Fay soaks southwest Forida; ADVISORY....WARNING CONE...RADAR....SATELLITE--that don't particularly interest me.

Drudge, with his fedora and baggy suits and Walter Winchell manner always had a 1940s look to him. But his site always seemed, if not cutting edge, at least a place where people who were up to date went. Now "The Drudge Report" seems not only slightly outlandish, but also outmoded; the equivalent of depending on the morning paper for the latest news.

A lifelong insomniac and an almost lifelong news junkie, I used to hear the newspapers landing at the doorstep. It was still dark outside when I would jump out of bed, eager for the headlines on the four papers that I still have delivered every morning. On particularly restless nights I would read them through, hours before anyone in my family was awake. I no longer am tempted to do that because most of the news in the morning paper I already know before I go to sleep. Lately, when I click on Drudge, I have that same feeling.

Comments

[officewag]

Matt Drudge is more an aggregate site, doesn't often break stories. Obsession with proving there is no global warming a bit tedious...his links to other sites helpful. There's also the left leaning drudgeretort, but it is not very clever.

[RapidRay]

Au contraire dear author. Drudge may have merely been a little ahead of the curve. MSNBC has given Rachel Maddow her own show and she promises more stories of naked men committing crime and better coverage of the Iraqi National soccer team.
Life imitating schlock...

[biographer]

I watch and listen to Rachel Maddow all the time (on radio and television) and she seems obsessed with politics; totally focused on politics. Where do you get the idea that she'll be covering, so to speak, naked men committing crimes? The Iraqi National soccer team is another matter.

[copernikus]

biographer,

"Where do you get the idea that she'll be covering, so to speak, naked men committing crimes?"

She actually said that on Countdown. I watch her a lot and I think she was just being silly, but she did say it.

[MajorKong]

Drudge exists mainly to inject right-wing talking points into the media stream.

Example: Drudge posts a story from the Washington Times (readership approximately 100,000),
right wing talk radio picks up story from Drudge, FOX News picks up story from talk radio, MSM then pretty much has to report it.

[thereigoagain]

PROOF DRUDGE IS STILL RELEVANT:
Obama's half brother story on Drudge this morning. A couple of hours later, strangely it turns up here.
Just one more example, milo9, keep laughing, but I'm right. deal with it.

[goutgrec]

Drudge was big in the run up to the Wing Nut take over. Now there are other places to go with better reporting. And let's face it, weather is big since Katrina and it's about his speed. Now we even have Liz Smith on the internet so evidently irrelevance is no longer an obstacle to anything.

[wizened]

Drudge doesn't seem to get the scoops he used to get, and which made his site interesting. the sicko stuff appears to be a desperate attempt to keep the hits coming, since no one can analysis who is hitting or why.

[dexxjones]

i stopped going to drudge about two years ago. i replaced him with rawstory.com and huffpo. drudge is fox new's "rawstory"

also, he is a perfect representation of the GOP- closeted, hateful and full of crap.

[milo9]

Of course he's irrelevant. To be relevant, he'd have to post the failings of the Republican Party.

[Darthzero]

What the hell is a Drudge?

[biographer]

see http://www.drudgereport.com/

[rickmv]

Hardly. He averages almost four million hits a day. Not only that but other news outlets practically design their headlines to get his attention.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-drudge4aug04,0,4136919,full.story?coll=la-home-center

[milo9]

Is he relevant, not is he popular.

[andyg]

It's both.

[RobinSeattle]

I read Drudge just to see what that day's rightwing talking points are so that I don't have to tune in to Oxybaugh to get a big heapin' helping of GOP bs. Then I go to Americablog and Huffington Post to see those talking points gleefully eviscerated.

[thereigoagain]

Huffington Post gets many many stories from Drudge Report. Whenever there's a big story on Drudge, wait 10 minutes and you'll see it here. Drudge is still the go-to place.

[milo9]

Ha, ha!

[thereigoagain]

good comeback potsie.