A Critical Warning: How Drudge has Betrayed Andrew Breitbart – and You

The Red Side of Life Conservative Musings from New York ^ | 3/9/12 | RedInNewYork

[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.

Think about how you feel when someone you trust betrays you. I certainly feel extremely angry. You may feel violated. Now, magnify that feeling by the millions of conservatives who have put their trust in the Drudge Report. I want you to feel the magnitude and depth of that massive betrayal.

Before moving on, I want to issue a disclaimer. Just note that fact that Matt Drudge is a homosexual is irrelevant to me, and I don’t believe that his homosexuality affects his character or judgment, or makes him a liberal, or is per se a reason to distrust him and question his motives. But, I digress.

The Drudge Report’s betrayal of conservatives became evident to me a long time ago. Think back to 2004. Do you remember the CBS Air National Guard controversy (TANG), engineered to damage President Bush and detract from the Swift Boat Vets, who put their Honor on the line to tell the truth about John Kerry? Did the Drudge Report investigate the claims of Dan Rather and company? No! What did Drudge do? Right – he put up a big siren on his site, drawing maximum attention to the CBS story. The result was a magnification of the false charges against President Bush, and a distraction from the pleas of the Swift Boat Vets, who served their country with honor. Drudge caused the “Swiftees” to be marginalized and ridiculed by the left, under the radar, while the Drudge Report focused all eyes on the TANG story! That story was false and that is why Drudge cannot be considered an investigative journalist or trusted. It took “We the Breitbarts,” the “pajama media,” to investigate the CBS documents and report that they were a forged fraud. Matt Drudge could have done the same – but he did not. Instead, he perpetuated a false story that hurt the Republicans and Vietnam Veterans.

We don’t need the Drudge Report anymore. Do you need Drudge to tell you what headlines are important, or are you capable of making your own decisions? Do you need an out-dated, one-page website to dictate to you what is and is not news? Did you know that Drudge hired two Romney operatives, Joe Curl and Charles Hurt, to help run his site? How does that makes you feel you Perry, Paul, Santorum, and Gingrich supporters? Rage.

I’ve learned to live without Drudge – it’s quite easy. I haven’t looked at the Drudge Report since January, and I still know what’s going on in the world. In fact, I believe I know more, because I’m no longer relying on a website that is censored and twisted to not just “report” the news, but to subconsciously dictate how I feel about it. The blinders are off, and I feel great. I personally enjoy Jim Robinson’s Patriotic “Free Republic.”

Drudge betrayed Andrew Breitbart in 2008. John Zeigler, a Conservative filmmaker, was recently interviewed by Chris Daniel on California’s KMJ 580 AM. Breitbart confided that “Matt Drudge was totally in the tank for Obama, and he blocked [Andrew Breitbart] from doing anything about it.” Every time Breitbart put something up that was anti-Obama, Matt Drudge would at least move it down, if not take it off entirely, which he hardly ever did to Andrew. On some occasions, Drudge even totally cut off his [Andrew's] ability to update the web page and completely stopped linking to Breitbart’s site.

Ziegler states as follows:

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.

And it is. You should now have no doubt that the Drudge Report is a tumor. And we must not let it grow any larger.

[gaijin]

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.

[SaraJohnson]

Gay agenda.

[JimRed]

I never knew Drudge was queer; now his support for Obama starts to add up...birds of a feather.

[infowarrior]

I’ve learned to live without Drudge – it’s quite easy. I haven’t looked at the Drudge Report since January, and I still know what’s going on in the world.

Where has *this* guy been? I haven't looked at the Drudge Report since January either, that is January of 2001...

the infowarrior

[jmstein7]

bttt

[samtheman]

I believe the actual number was 14.

[beaversmom]

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.

[beaversmom]

Maybe he doesn’t Wuv Mittens, but really Wuvs Obama. Curious that both he and Coulter are for Romney. Wonder what happened?