Posted on 03/09/2012 9:30:53 AM PST by jmstein7
Andrew Breitbart was one of us, a “Bulldog for the conservative cause,” as Rush Limbaugh put it. And that is why I was furious when I learned that Matt Drudge callously betrayed him – the facts follow below. Andrew Breitbart tried to vet Obama in 2008 – and Matt Drudge blocked his efforts. One might consider, after reading this article, that Drudge, in fact, helped elect Obama! How do you feel about President Obama? Me too, and that’s why Drudge’s betrayal of Andrew Breitbart infuriates me. Drudge betrayed Andrew Breitbart – and you, because you trusted Drudge too. Back to that in a minute – I want to discuss the severity of Drudge’s betrayal.
There were many examples of this remarkable pro-Obama bias, but I will offer up just a few here as proof.
On February 18, 2008, Michelle Obama famously told two different crowds that Barack’s success running for president was the first time in her “adult life” that she was “really proud” of her country. When Breitbart ended his shift that evening the story dramatically led the Drudge Report. However, just a few minutes later when Drudge himself stepped in, the link (along with two others charging Obama with plagiarism) was suddenly nowhere to be found. The story quickly died and never reached the level of “common knowledge.”
Then, on March 13, 2008, ABC’s Good Morning America “broke” the story of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s controversial sermons and close ties to Obama. Almost exactly twenty fours later, while most of the media was feverishly building a firestorm which would require Obama to do three emergency damage-control network interviews that night, the story was somehow completely absent from Drudge’s incredibly influential news site. Instead, the headline was inexplicably about how the Super Delegates were starting to break towards Obama.
This was not some sort of fluke. The Rev. Wright story was barely ever seen on Drudge and, on the rare occasions when it did get posted, it was astonishingly muted. Andrew and I both felt strongly at the time that Drudge was providing “cover” for the mainstream media to downplay this bombshell. After all, if even the “right wing” narrative maker Drudge felt the story wasn’t a big deal, then why should they aggressively cover a story for which they clearly had no appetite?
Any doubt that Drudge was heavily favoring Obama ended in May around the critical Indiana primary.
The week before, on May 1st, Obama was tanking in the polls there thanks to Rev. Wright’s explosive National Press Club event. I sent Andrew a link to a story on this phenomenon (moments after he had sent me an article about how Drudge “hearts” Obama) and he linked it on Drudge. Literally moments, later Drudge stepped into the website and took the link off the page, keeping its extremely pro-Obama narrative strong. (For the record, this exchange is documented in one of many instant message sessions with Andrew, which I kept at that time because I was starting to sense the profound implications of what was happening here.)
When Obama ended up losing a very tight race in Indiana (despite the best efforts of Gary Indiana’s pro-Obama mayor who, as the Drudge archive indicates, did his very best to pretend that Obama may have actually won the crucial state until deep into the night), Drudge declared the future president to be “The Nominee” just hours later. The mainstream media quickly followed suit, and the rest is obviously history.
Most people on the street don’t even know who Matt Drudge is, I bet.
I don’t know if they had a riff or not, but I noticed in 2008 that Drudge didn’t report on Obama like he reported on John Kerry.
I've been using this for news and haven't been pelted with random garbage. Drudge can go pound sand.
I would not know about Drudge as I have not visited his site in a couple of months now. He has jumped the shark IMHO.
Drudge can do with his site whatever he wants.
And you can follow it or not, as you like.
That’s freedom. Choice. What we defend and fight for in this country.
Same is true for Jim Robinson, TV networks, cable TV, Google, etc. etc.
If you don’t like another man’s viewpoint, express your own. Louder, if that’s what it takes.
Live with it and be thankful for our freedoms.
BTTT
Since then, his website is good for headlines and malware and not all that good for headlines.
I was hoping he might be a player once again this election, but apparently he's just a tool. His time in the sun has passed.
Interesting.
I dumped drudge with that massing number of negative articles about Newt thing.
I’ll not be back. I have a long memory.
Well, this may deserve further research.
But I was watching the Drudge website closely throughout the campaign.
I think that the critical thing was that Drudge was strongly opposed to Hillary. You can’t blame him, I suppose, since she probably threatened to get him after Monicagate. Hillary keeps her grudges forever.
What I noticed is that Drudge favored Obama over Hillary, until Hillary lost. Then he started attacking Obama, and he has done so ever since. If Obama won, it was because McCain handed it to him. As for Hillary, I strongly suspect that she would have been just as bad as Obama, if not worse. Pro-Muslim, pro-Communist, an Alinskiite from her college days. Much worse than Bill Clinton.
Drudge has been in the tank for Mitt Romney for the past month, and has helped slime the other GOP candidates. But that’s another matter. He certainly hasn’t favored Obama, as you can see just about every day on his website. He only sticks at the Birther issue, and so does everyone else.
A month or so ago, something was going on here regarding Drudge. Whoever runs or works on this site was concerned that drudge would pull his Free Republic link because of negative things being said about Drudge here, by us. I could be wrong, but I think drudge might have pulled his FR link (like a threat) and then put it back on. I think that links to popular sites brings in money??? Anyway, I think its time for me to put up or shut up too. I have been avoiding drudge since that happened. I will not go there again.
I do remember when Drudge had Freerepublic linked on his website then removed it. I haven’t been to his site in years so I don’t know if he ever linked it up again. I feel Drudge lost his credibility when he did that.
Yes, I believe Drudge did dump FR.
I dunno. I haven’t seen anything on Drudge that would cause me to not go there. But, then, I don’t expect anything but links, and go to a number of other places too, so I don’t think I’ve been exposed to any bias on Drudge’s part.
We need to be very careful, and not dump those who might be friends or neutral in a fit of pique because they don’t openly support our candidate.
Not sure, but the link is there right now.
I used to have Drudge's app on my IPad. During the Herman Cain dust-up, my Drudge alert kept going off with each false allegation against Cain. I canned the app because I found it deplorable that he was alerting app holders to allegations made by unnamed sources.
There is a link to “Free Republic” on Drudge’s site. I just checked.
Bill O'Reilly also mocked and dismissed them, which is yet another reason I stopped watching him years ago. I don't think I tuned him in even once since then.
I have been looking for an aggegator substitute for Drudge since I dropped him.
Yeah, it’s pretty clear the pod people got to him, Ann, and several others we used to count on as thought leaders.
What may have happened to Drudge is that he went from the ‘Manifesto’ guy railing against the MSM to being one of the MSM. He has been consistently outdrawing MSM competitors for a good long while now.
He won’t get my clicks anymore. I can’t get my head around GOP-E support of Romney. They are carrying the water for Romney like Rush admitted doing for the Republicans some years back. Rush actually got on the air and was relieved that he no longer felt obligated to do it.
FR is linked to Drudge and Drudge is linked to FR.
Give Patriot Post a try. It took me a few days to get used to the format, but it’s much more news-oriented. Less entertainment and garbage, more pure news.
I’ve stopped going to Drudge’s site for some time now. Others just need to do the same.
Drudge is an A-Hoe , I merely tolerate his blog to catch obscure news
In the days before telegraphy, and for years afterward, when every town of 5000 had two or three newspapers, people knew this. The automatic caution shown people like H.V. Kaltenborn and other radio news readers and presenters shows the healthy cynicism lasted through the beginnings of the Television age, at least through the rapid decline in literacy on the domestic front between World War II and the Korean War years.
Anyone who utilized Drudge beginning in 1996 has to know Matt's never been a Conservative.
>>Most people on the street don’t even know who Matt Drudge is, I bet.<<
Plenty do.
That’s the problem.
I remember thinking I sure hope he and Breitbart never had anything going. (I am ashamed to type anything negative about Andrew, but that was my thought at the time.) Maybe, Drudge just was in love with Andrew. Breitbart served the conservative cause well. Drudge, at one time, did the same. Drudge is useless now.
Thank you. Finally, a voice who agrees with me. Sometimes, the political correctness at FR is appalling.
Between Bill O’Reilly’s constant big hands waving and constantly interupting who he is interviewing, I could no longer stand him.
The waving hands drives me nuts. (I know...I’m being petty).
Obama was elected to loot the US Treasury...and the loot was spread far, wide and deep into every nook and cranny of the country, up and down both sides of the aisle, throughout the legislative and judicial branches in the Federal,and many states.
Obama was elected to loot the US Treasury...and the loot was spread far, wide and deep into every nook and cranny of the country, up and down both sides of the aisle, throughout the legislative and judicial branches in the Federal,and many states’ governments.
I am really afraid the only way to recover all the massive stolen loot would be just to zero out the dollar and make a new dollar. Almost like a Biblical year of jubilee.
I hate that so many crooked, filthy dirt bags have screwed with our economy and country and are now living high on the hog with ours and our children’s future.
“The statement that Drudge had on his page the day of Andrew’s death was strangely homosexual sounding. I read it and said, WTH?”
You weren’t the only one.
Thanks for the link!
We’ve never been a Drudge Report attendee. Other than a handful of occasions following a story that was linked to Drudge’s site, we’ve never desired to go there. Everything we need is right here at FR. Even before FR when we were L-dotters we were’nt into the Drudge Report.
Just how is being critical of Drudge politically correct? I don’t like Drudge, won’t go to his site and, I can assure you, I’m not “politically correct”. If you like it that’s fine but other people may have a different opinion. That doesn’t make them appalling.
Thank you for sharing the link.
I don’t know if it’s right-sided political correctness, or just ignorance.
But it is discouraging.
Drudge also mostly does not report about “Fast & Furious”. A couple headlines? Yes. But he doesn’t cover the real stink like the old Drudge used to.
More and more it appears Matt has changed.
I think someone powerful and liberal has video recordings of Matt doing something that appears profoundly un-conservative.
I think Matt is trapped.
Gay agenda.
I never knew Drudge was queer; now his support for Obama starts to add up...birds of a feather.
Where has *this* guy been? I haven't looked at the Drudge Report since January either, that is January of 2001...
the infowarrior
bttt
I believe the actual number was 14.
I noticed that the coverage of Breitbart’s death wasn’t what I thought it would be on the Drudge Report. He definitely covered it, but it didn’t seem to rate as big as I thought it would with him.
Maybe he doesn’t Wuv Mittens, but really Wuvs Obama. Curious that both he and Coulter are for Romney. Wonder what happened?
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