Matt Drudge: "assignment editor for the national press corps"

[DeepModem Mom]

Politico: Drudge keeps campaigns guessing
By JONATHAN MARTIN & BEN SMITH | 6/2/08

....“He serves as an assignment editor for the national press corps. If he has a story up, you know the cable networks are going to cover it all day,” said Kevin Madden, who was Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign press secretary during the GOP primary. “Print reporters would call up and ask, ‘Did you see this on Drudge?’” Madden recounted. “I can’t tell you how many calls I got that were prefaced with that explanation.”

The primary provided repeated demonstrations of Drudge’s power, and also of his new respect in the liberal, pro-Obama political precincts.

At 6:51 a.m. on Feb. 25, Drudge posted an old image of Obama in African clothes, with the claim that Clinton staffers “circulated” the photo, and a quote from “one campaign staffer, in an e-mail obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.” The Obama campaign embraced Drudge’s report of a dastardly smear, and the story burned for days in the mainstream media and liberal and conservative blogs alike, cementing the perception that the Clintons would do anything to stop Obama.

"I find it interesting that in a room of such esteemed journalists that Mr. Drudge has become your respected assignment editor," Clinton spokesman Phil Singer later lectured reporters.

More recently, Drudge almost singlehandedly elevated Clinton’s reference to Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination into a campaign crisis and helped fuel her demise by leading with a YouTube.com link of the declaration by NBC’s Tim Russert following the Indiana and North Carolina primaries that the Democratic nominee had been chosen. The Clinton campaign at one time attempted to establish a relationship with Drudge, to little avail. The site has been energetically ushering her offstage and even Clinton's victory in Puerto Rico Sunday won only another gloomy headline: "THE END."...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/10744_Page4.html

[Miss Authoritiva]

1. No kidding

More recently, Drudge almost singlehandedly elevated Clinton’s reference to Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination into a campaign crisis....

Nice of Politico not to mention its own Pavlovian response to Drudge on that story. In fact, Politico issued a sort-of apology for going fult-tilt bug screwy.

Why do reporters (and their editors) look to Drudge as a de facto national assignment editor? They all can't be that lazy, can they? But there do seem to be a lot of people in the field who simply shouldn't be there, people who are truly clueless and know they are. Drudge as the Dispenser of Clues must seem like a godsend to them, even though he's a Dispenser of Clues Both True and False. They're willing to take the risk (a statistically high one at that) that a Drudge story boomerangs.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. I don't rule out laziness. Also, I think what we used to call the "cool kid" mentality...

among the press is far from gone. Drudge gets a lot of buzz, and they want to be part of it. They want to be invited to the parties. Not so cool in school, they're now stars of a sort (although the true players, like Bill Clinton, can only be written about by say, Todd Purdum).

And, of course, the kind of stuff Drudge inflates into sensational stories is the kind of tabloid stuff that lures readers and viewers -- and is profitable.

[Fearless]

3. So only when he attacks Obama are we going to remember that he's a dipshit?