Monday, October 22, 2007

Message to NYT- LOOK IN THE MIRROR

This is a spectacle, and not in the way the Times appears to intend.

It's about the Drudge report website and how it works, and now how the Clinton campaign has developed a rapprochement and working relationship with Drudge.

But along the way the Times seems to be looking in a mirror when it critiques what Drudge does, with key lines like "peddling scandal gleefully", "with no apparent effort to determine truth", and this really interesting bit here:

<...what appears on Drudge can, for a few minutes or an entire day, drive what appears elsewhere, making it, “a force in the political news cycle for both the press and the campaigns,” said David Chalian, the political director at ABC News.>

I suspect this is a thinly disguised bit of jealousy, as the province of driving the news cycle was once occupied exclusively by the Times. They wish, no doubt, that it still was. Drudge does now what they proudly did for decades, and still do on the left side of the news.

This little column, which Drudge himself is featuring today on his site, is a real insight for those quick enough to catch it. The Times is jealous of Drudge's ability to influence the news and the public, and are eager to ascribe to him dubious motivations and sloppy practices; they themselves are intimately familiar with both traits.

I would not be surprised if, in some sort of thorough independent audit, it turned out that there was more truth to be found on average at the Drudge Report than on the first ten pages of the New York Times.

And there is more truth in this blogpost than in the entire op-ed section.

No comments: