The Big Kahuna

Today, I cover the blog of the most famous netizen, Matthew Drudge:

www.drudgereport.com/

Some may argue this is actually a website, but according to an expert, Kim Komando, it constitutes a blog - and the most visited one at that.

The Drudge Report not only pre-dates blogs, but it almost pre-dates the World Wide Web (if it's called that anymore). It started out with email postings in 1994 (supposedly on the old usenet groups); I remember receiving forwards of them. And they constituted largely celebrity gossip, something that still has a large part of the report. I suspect he got interested in politics by covering the Clinton scandals, which were themselves celebrity gossip.

Matt Drudge is part anchorman, part gossip columnist, part muckracker. He has become the leading news person of the day. And imitated, too - I will post a couple more in the next couple of days. While beloved of conservatives, per Wikipedia, a UCLA professor found that this site actually has a slight left-wing bias (!). However, not only do conservatives go there daily to get their news fixes, but so do moderates, and some progressives. And while a conservative on some issues - he really has not come out with a full Drudge platform - he does say things that are not in line with the conservative movement. His opinions are independent of any movement.

The concept is real simple - find an interesting article, post the headline, and provide the link to the story. Some say that there is little-to-no original journalism that Drudge provides, but it doesn't matter - he is often the first to break news, which is really what matters. And, if you want to look elsewhere for news, he has links to all the major news sites, plus the sites of several prominent columnists, on all sides of the political spectrum.

The Drudge Report is so huge, it will take a long time for something else to overtake it. Walter Cronkite argued that America needs an anchorman today. By the fact that so many people visit the Drudge Report - due to simplicity and convenience - Matthew Drudge has pretty much become the anchorman of my generation. Which Mr. Cronkite, because he belong to different era (and has an inability to understand this era), has an inability to perceive. Sorry, Mr. Cronkite, that this anchorman has been identified (somewhat mistakenly) with the right.

No matter your opinion of Drudges' opinions, there is no argument that he is one of the most influential newsmen of the day. While no longer really that original, it was original when it first started on the web, and originality plus influence plus audience is what earns high praises on this review.

Grade: A