Matt Drudge is the bestest journalist on the whole planet! He reports the things the mainstream media won’t touch! Mainstream media is dead! We love Drudge! He’s new media!

OK, that’s not a direct quote, but it’s a good compilation/paraphrase of the Drudge supporting comments in a discussion I was recently involved in on line. Apparently, Matt Drudge is seen by his many, many fans as being the best journalist EVER, and mainstream media is old and outdated … and jealous of his success. So let’s look at Drudge’s journalism this morning as it appears on his web site. Right now he links to the following:

7 Associated Press stories
5 Reuters stories
2 WorldNet Daily stories
2 Smoking Gun stories
… and 1 story at each of the following locations:
Aviation Week - Bloomberg - Review Journal - Time/CNN - CBS Chicago - WYFF News Charlotte - Charlotte Observer - Star Telegram Dallas/Fort Worth - Times Online - Fox News - KETV News Omaha - Politico (blog) - KTUU News Alaska - Accuweather - Science Direct (journal abstract) - NewsNet 5 Omaha - ESPN - Sydney Morning Herald

No original news stories written by Drudge himself. Every last link leads to … another news source and a story written by someone else. So how exactly is he a journalist again? Oh sure, he’s had one or two scoops on stories over the years, but then, so have I, and I am no journalist and my web site is not a news outlet. And occasionally he breaks the White House embargo on releasing speech texts before the speech is given, but it isn’t like the day before a big presidential speech there aren’t talking heads all over the internet, TV and newspapers telling us all exactly what is going to be said. They just don’t post the transcript until after the speech (and they do have it before, how do you think Drudge gets it). So once again? How is he a journalist again?

The Drudge Report is a news aggregator in organic form. He gathers together links to interesting or unusual stories … or stories that are being widely talked about … writes up slanted headlines to use as links, and posts them to a web site with ads on it. If that makes him a journalist, then I guess I am a journalist too, but at least I take the time to tell you my personal thoughts about it as well.

And if mainstream media were to die and suddenly drop off the face of the planet, no Reuters, AP, Fox News, etc., Matt Drudge wouldn’t have anything on his web site … unless he actually got up off his ass and became a journalist and found some news to report on. Hey, I visit that page at least once a day myself, but not to find original news written by Matt Drudge. I go there to see what’s on his radar and compare it to what is on my radar, and to see stories about two-headed cows. Great source for a quick news fix? Yes. Journalist? Hell no.

To counter the claims that he gets soooo many visits every day making him the highest visited news source, let me say that “visits” mean nothing. When he starts posting the statistics for his “unique visitors” (actual individuals making one visit) then I might be impressed. As it is, my measily little web site gets 1.8 million visits a year … but only 50,000 of them are unique visitors, because the same people come back over and over again or refresh the page (also counted as a visit by most stat software). I’ve had The Drudge Report open in a tab since I got up this morning and started this post, and it refreshes every 180 seconds, so how many visits am I personally responsible for in his stats so far today? In comparison, CNN gets about 5 million unique visitors a day and who knows how many visits. You do the math.