How Drudge Has Stayed on Top

Pretty interesting article about the sustained influence of the Drudge Report:

 

Hadn't been to the site in ... 10 years(?) until tonight.

 

I have a co-worker who adores the site. Next to him is another co-worker who scrolls mediatakeout.com. I enjoy strolling behind them and appreciating the stark contrast.

 

On top of what?

 

The nice thing about Drudge - by just glancing at the page you can figure out what Fox News will be talking about. Has he broken anything since his exclusive that John Kerry was having a baby with a staffer? And no, I'm not confused. Drudge wrote that Kerry and a staffer were having a kid - turned out Drudge was wrong.

 

Sure. Just a week or so ago he broke the story that the White House decided to release the Bin Laden photos.

 

He's been riding that stained dress for years.

Most guys with his batting average aren't doing nearly as well as he is.

People love his particular collection of links.

 

Like many threads on this site, you can get the faint whiff here of penis envy.

That said, the moral of the story – and there is one – is that flash animations and "sexy" slideshows and imbedded videos don't (have to) matter nearly as much as having timely updates and a wide sweep of interesting links.

 

Drudge is the real deal, unafraid to offend the so called politically correct elite.

He also allows callers to talk, unlike Hannity.

 

Plus 1.

 

And, regardless of politics, isn't that a heartening thing to see?

 

When I was a junior in college we talked about The Drudge Report nonstop in one of my media classes. Media History, I think, or Advanced Reporting, as an example of what the hot new thing was and where media was going. It was considered very cutting edge, but I didn't quite understand the appeal, or how anyone would ever go to the Internet for their news. Isn't that where you go hook up?

Reading how old the site is makes me feel old for the second time today. The other time was when I had Pandora on, heard Jeff Tweedy on an old Golden Smog song I recognized, and looked at the date: 1995.