The Awl

Washington Punditocracy: The Littlest Achievers

Alex Balk — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:10:31 +0000

"For the Washington punditocracy, to attain last-name status on Drudge marks an achievement of sorts: It’s recognition that political observers find your work so familiar that a first name is hardly needed. 'Having your last name touted on Drudge is sort of the Washington equivalent of first-name recognition in Hollywood, where Jen and Brad and Angelina need no further identification,' said The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz."

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Please Explain The Drudge Report To Me

Alex Balk — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 11:30:51 +0000

Okay, help me with this. I've read the article to which it refers. I understand that it's a play on the title of Woodward's most famous book. I've looked through various online dictionaries to see if I'm overlooking something. But I can't for the life of me figure out what Matt Drudge is trying to say here with "All The President's Hen." The president is a chicken? He's a woman? I'm perfectly happy to admit that I'm missing the point, but there is something a little disturbing about the thought that I can't even understand Drudge's cheap digs anymore.

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Matt Drudge, Polytheist Meteorologist

Alex Balk — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:36:41 +0000

Finally, an explanation of what Drudge believes in instead of global warming. I can't exactly say I'm surprised.

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Color Of Money Has Right Seeing Red

Alex Balk — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:30:16 +0000

As Abe Sauer noted amid yesterday's unveiling of the new $100 bill, the crazier elements of the right were sure to complain about "how this demonstrates Obama is making good old US greenbacks all colored like that socialist euro money." Vanity Fair's Juli Weiner took things even further, suggesting the bill might as we be a Euro and appealing for the crackpot version of the Bat Signal: "Um, Drudge-siren! Is this bill a Communist-style invasion of our civil liberties?" Well, it's not exactly a siren, but Matt did indeed take note. Whether this is an indication of self-awareness or the typical knee-jerk response to anything involving the administration-and it could easily be both-don't let it be said that Mr. Drudge won't play to type.

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WILL BARACK OBAMA RETURN $551,683 IN NATIONAL AMUSEMENTS INC. CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS?

Choire Sicha — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:20:27 +0000

And! WILL BARACK OBAMA RETURN $551,683 IN NATIONAL AMUSEMENTS INC. CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS? Those swindling pornographers from Massachusetts, owned by legendary grifter Sumner Redstone, provide Americans with 3D porno and make America fat at the same time with their absurd movie theaters! What's more, National Amusements Inc. owns controlling interest in Viacom, which includes MTV, which includes JERSEY SHORE. When will Barack Obama stop doing Snooki's bidding in our WHITE House?

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Matt Drudge Gives Obama Reasons To Drink

Alex Balk — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:45:40 +0000

Matt Drudge is STILL running this meretricious caption which implies that Barack Obama has a drinking problem even though it was clearly debunked yesterday. In fact, he's added the debunking bit to make it look as if the President doesn't take good care of his teeth. He's crafty, that guy. Anyway, the President does not have a drinking problem. But, really, could you blame him if he did?

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How Reuters Pays For Traffic

Choire Sicha — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:15:45 +0000

Here is an in-depth look at the relationship between Reuters and Matt Drudge and Andrew Breitbart. Drudge and Breitbart's business decisions couldn't be more brilliant, so I suspect their relationship with the news wire service is equally genius. After a legal fracas, Reuters and Breitbart made an arrangement that including using a click-tracking code in Reuters URLs-like that used for Amazon "partner" links, basically-which indicates a commercial understanding.

The Drudge Report linked to Reuters.com just 29 times from January 1, 2005 to October 14, 2005. Then, Breitbart signed his new deal to drive traffic to Reuters.com for money. From October 15, 2005 to December 31, 2005, the Drudge Report linked to Reuters.com 229 times. In all fairness, it may be that this abrupt 2900% increase in Reuters.com links didn't have all that much impact on the Drudge Report's content.

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Active Man Too Thin?

Alex Balk — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:10:29 +0000

Is this man TOO SKINNY TO BE PRESIDENT? We should have an investigation or something.

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Drudge Report Aggregates Stories, Study Finds

Alex Balk — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:20:36 +0000

Some unfortunate son of a bitch at the University of Illinois analyzed six years of posts and links-171,717 page updates-from the Drudge Report to find that the site "relies heavily on wire services and obscure news outlets to find small stories that will break large tomorrow, making it highly dependent on mainstream 'old media' sites.'" Also, Matt likes to smear Democrats, show unflattering pictures of Hillary Clinton, and is happy to post anything that will make black people or immigrants look bad. [Via Politico, full study here.]

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The "Angry Black Man" Meme, 2009 Edition

Alex Balk — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:27:37 +0000

See, I would have gone with "That colored guy looked at me funny!" I guess that's why Matt's still the king.

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