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=== Charges of bias ===
=== Charges of bias ===


[[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]] [[Political science|political scientist]] Tim Groseclose and Jeff Milyo, Associate Professor, Department of Economics and the [[Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs]] at the [[University of Missouri–Columbia|University of Missouri at Columbia]], published a paper on media bias in December 2004<ref name="uclabias">{{cite paper| author = Tim Groseclose, Jeff Milyo| title = A Measure of Media Bias| publisher = UCLA| date = December 2004| url = http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/faculty/groseclose/Media.Bias.8.htm| accessdate = 2006-10-05 }}</ref> which concluded—based on a comparison of articles linked to by Drudge with Congressional voting records—that the Drudge Report leans "left" of center, compared to the average American voter."<ref name="uclanews">{{cite web| last = Sullivan| first = Meg| title = Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist| publisher = UCLA News| date = [[2005-12-14]] | url = http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=6664| accessdate = 2006-10-04}}</ref> [[Mark Liberman]], Professor of Computer Science and the Director of the Linguistic Data Consortium at the [[University of Pennsylvania]],<ref> [http://www.ldc.upenn.edu/About/Staff/index.shtml LDC staff.] Linguistics Data Consortium. Retrieved on [[2007-04-02]]</ref> contends that the results were based on a flawed methodology;<ref name="Language Log">{{cite web| last = Liberman| first = Mark| title = Multiplying ideologies considered harmful| publisher = Language Log| date = [[2005-12-23]] | url = http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002724.html| accessdate = 2006-11-06}}</ref><ref name="Language Log.">{{cite web| last = Liberman| first = Mark| title = Linguistics, politics, mathematics| publisher = Language Log| date = [[2005-12-22]]| url = http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002723.html | accessdate = 2006-11-06}}</ref> according to [[Media Matters for America]], a liberal watchdog group dedicated to "correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media"<ref>{{cite news | url= http://mediamatters.org/about_us/ | title= Media Matters - Our Mission - Who We Are |publisher=[[Media Matters for America]] | accessdate = 2007-05-09}}</ref> , “Groseclose and Milyo are former fellows of conservative organizations…” and “…the study employed a measure of ‘bias’ so problematic that its findings are next to useless.”<ref>{{cite news | url= http://mediamatters.org/items/200512220003 | title= Former fellows at conservative think tanks issued flawed UCLA-led study on media's liberal bias |publisher=[[Media Matters for America]] | date= [[December 21]] [[2005]] | accessdate = 2006-12-14}}</ref>. Matt Drudge is also the host of a nationally syndicated weekly radio talk show, where he expreses largely conservative points of view.
[[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]] [[Political science|political scientist]] Tim Groseclose and Jeff Milyo, Associate Professor, Department of Economics and the [[Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs]] at the [[University of Missouri–Columbia|University of Missouri at Columbia]], published a paper on media bias in December 2004<ref name="uclabias">{{cite paper| author = Tim Groseclose, Jeff Milyo| title = A Measure of Media Bias| publisher = UCLA| date = December 2004| url = http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/faculty/groseclose/Media.Bias.8.htm| accessdate = 2006-10-05 }}</ref> which concluded—based on a comparison of articles linked to by Drudge with Congressional voting records—that the Drudge Report leans "left" of center, compared to the average American voter."<ref name="uclanews">{{cite web| last = Sullivan| first = Meg| title = Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist| publisher = UCLA News| date = [[2005-12-14]] | url = http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=6664| accessdate = 2006-10-04}}</ref> [[Mark Liberman]], Professor of Computer Science and the Director of the Linguistic Data Consortium at the [[University of Pennsylvania]],<ref> [http://www.ldc.upenn.edu/About/Staff/index.shtml LDC staff.] Linguistics Data Consortium. Retrieved on [[2007-04-02]]</ref> contends that the results were based on a flawed methodology;<ref name="Language Log">{{cite web| last = Liberman| first = Mark| title = Multiplying ideologies considered harmful| publisher = Language Log| date = [[2005-12-23]] | url = http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002724.html| accessdate = 2006-11-06}}</ref><ref name="Language Log.">{{cite web| last = Liberman| first = Mark| title = Linguistics, politics, mathematics| publisher = Language Log| date = [[2005-12-22]]| url = http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002723.html | accessdate = 2006-11-06}}</ref> according to [[Media Matters for America]], a liberal watchdog group dedicated to "correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media"<ref>{{cite news | url= http://mediamatters.org/about_us/ | title= Media Matters - Our Mission - Who We Are |publisher=[[Media Matters for America]] | accessdate = 2007-05-09}}</ref> , “Groseclose and Milyo are former fellows of conservative organizations…” and “…the study employed a measure of ‘bias’ so problematic that its findings are next to useless.”<ref>{{cite news | url= http://mediamatters.org/items/200512220003 | title= Former fellows at conservative think tanks issued flawed UCLA-led study on media's liberal bias |publisher=[[Media Matters for America]] | date= [[December 21]] [[2005]] | accessdate = 2006-12-14}}</ref>.


===Errors===
===Errors===

Revision as of 22:22, 18 June 2007

File:DrudgeReport.jpg
A typical day at the Drudge Report.

The Drudge Report is a U.S.-based news website run by Matt Drudge. The site consists primarily of links to stories from the US and international mainstream media about politics, entertainment, and current events as well as links to many popular columnists. Occasionally Drudge authors a story of his own. The Report originated around 1994 as a weekly subscriber-based email dispatch. It is most famous for being the first news source to break the Monica Lewinsky scandal to the public after Newsweek killed the story. [1]

According to Mark Halperin, "Drudge's coverage affects the media's political coverage", effectively steering the media's political coverage towards what Halperin calls "the most salacious aspects of American politics."[1] In The Way To Win, a book written by Halperin and John Harris, Drudge is called "the Walter Cronkite of his era."[2][1] Democratic Party strategist Chris Lehane says "phones start ringing" whenever Drudge breaks a story and Mark McKinnon, a former media advisor to George W. Bush says he checks the site 30–40 times per day.[1] Matt Drudge has been criticized by other media news personalities: Bill O'Reilly who twice called Drudge a "threat to democracy",[3] and Keith Olbermann who referred to Drudge as "an idiot with a modem".[4]

Origins

Drudge began publishing his email-based Report from an apartment in Hollywood, California, using his connections with industry and media insiders to break stories sometimes before they hit the mainstream media. He now maintains the website from his home in Miami Beach, Florida, with assistance from an unidentified coeditor who monitors the news when Drudge is asleep or indisposed. Drudge's reports were electronically syndicated by Wired News from November 1996 to May 1997; AOL carried his reports until 1998. He began his website in 1997 as a supplement to the email reports but eventually stopped the email reports in favor of exclusively updating his website.[citation needed]

Drudge first received national attention in 1996 when he broke the news that Jack Kemp would be Republican Bob Dole's running mate in the 1996 presidential election. In 1998, Drudge again made national waves when he broke the news that Newsweek magazine had information on an inappropriate relationship between "a White House intern" and President Bill Clinton (the Monica Lewinsky scandal), but was withholding publication.[5][6] After Drudge's report, Newsweek published the story.[7]

Content

The website has a simple design, consisting of a banner headline and a number of other selected headlines in three columns. These linked stories are almost always hosted on the external websites of mainstream media outlets. The rest of the site contains links to media outlets and a number of columnists. Although the site initially featured very few images, it is now usually illustrated with five or six photographs. Generally the images are similarly hotlinked from other news agencies' servers.

The Drudge Report site sometimes includes stories authored by Drudge himself—usually two to three paragraphs in length. These stories generally break a rumor concerning a story that is about to break in a major magazine or newspaper. Drudge also occasionally publishes Nielsen, Arbitron, or BookScan ratings, internal email messages, or early election exit polls that are otherwise not made available to the public.

Criticism

Charges of bias

UCLA political scientist Tim Groseclose and Jeff Milyo, Associate Professor, Department of Economics and the Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri at Columbia, published a paper on media bias in December 2004[8] which concluded—based on a comparison of articles linked to by Drudge with Congressional voting records—that the Drudge Report leans "left" of center, compared to the average American voter."[9] Mark Liberman, Professor of Computer Science and the Director of the Linguistic Data Consortium at the University of Pennsylvania,[10] contends that the results were based on a flawed methodology;[11][12] according to Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog group dedicated to "correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media"[13] , “Groseclose and Milyo are former fellows of conservative organizations…” and “…the study employed a measure of ‘bias’ so problematic that its findings are next to useless.”[14].

Errors

The Drudge Report ran a story saying that incoming White House assistant Sidney Blumenthal beat his wife and was covering it up. Drudge retracted the story the next day, saying he was given bad information. Drudge told Salon magazine that "I seemed to have about 80 percent of the facts" about the Blumenthal report.[15] Blumenthal sued Drudge for breach of libel law, but in 2001, Blumenthal dropped his lawsuit after agreeing to a settlement which required Blumenthal to pay Drudge's attorneys if Drudge did not file a counter-suit.[16][17]

Similarly, during the 2004 Presidential campaign, Drudge ran a story quoting General Wesley Clark, where Clark claimed that the John Kerry campaign would implode over an intern affair; and he reported that other news outlets were investigating the alleged affair; Drudge removed it from the site shortly thereafter when the other news outlets dropped the investigations. [18]


In 1999, the Drudge Report announced that it had viewed a videotape which was the basis of a Star Magazine and Hard Copy story. Under the headline, "WOMAN NAMES BILL CLINTON FATHER OF SON IN SHOCKING VIDEO CONFESSION", Drudge reported of a videotaped confession by a former prostitute who claimed that her son was fathered by President Bill Clinton. The Report stated, "To accuse the most powerful man in the world of being the father of her son is either the hoax of a lifetime, or a personal turmoil that needs resolution. Only two people may know that answer tonight." The claim turned out to be a hoax, although Drudge's story and headline were technically accurate.[19]


Another error occurred on April 1 2007 when Drudge cited an unnamed source saying that CNN reporter Michael Ware "heckled" two Republican Senators.[20] In a response on CNN April 2 2007, Ware disputed the claim, saying no one was willing to put their name on the report, as it was an anonymous claim; he told curious parties to view the tape.[21] Video hosted by Rawstory shows that Ware did not make a sound nor ask any question during the press conference.[22][21] [23]


Archives of older reports are generally not easy to find. A number of reports from 1995 to early 1997 are available in the Usenet archive provided by Google Groups. A more extensive archive of the website is provided by Drudge Report Archives, which has archives since mid-November 2001 and says it takes and stores snapshots of the Drudge Report homepage every two minutes.[24]

Traffic

As of May 10 2007, Drudge Report posted the following statistics on its homepage:

VISITS TO DRUDGE 5/10/07
015,563,659 IN PAST 24 HOURS
466,526,827 IN PAST 31 DAYS
4,567,555,100 IN PAST YEAR

It is not stated whether the statistics represent unique visits, or page loads, the latter of which is inflated by the meta refresh tag on the page, which is set to refresh the page every three minutes.[25]

In October, 2006, Washington Post editor Leonard Downie, Jr., speaking at the Online News Association's annual convention in Washington, D.C., stated "Our largest driver of traffic is Matt Drudge."[26]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c "Drudge Report Sets Tone for National Political Coverage". ABC News. 2006-10-01. Retrieved 2006-10-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Halpernin, Mark (2006). The Way To Win. Random House. ISBN 1-4000-6447-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  3. ^ Drudge, Matt (2003-12-18). "Host Unhinged After Sales Figures Revealed; Calls DRUDGE 'Threat To Democracy'". Drudge Report. Retrieved 2007-03-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Kurtz, Howard (1998-09-15). "MSNBC Pundit Rises With Clinton Crises". Washington Post. pp. E1. Retrieved 2006-10-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Drudge, Matt (1998-01-17). "Newsweek Kills Story On White House Intern". The Drudge Report. Retrieved 2006-10-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Johnson, Glen (1998-01-23). "Newsweek got, held scoop on Clinton story". AP/Denver Rocky Mountain News. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  7. ^ Fineman, Howard (1998-02-02). "Sex, Lies and the President". Newsweek. Retrieved 2007-04-05. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Tim Groseclose, Jeff Milyo (December 2004). "A Measure of Media Bias". UCLA. Retrieved 2006-10-05. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ^ Sullivan, Meg (2005-12-14). "Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist". UCLA News. Retrieved 2006-10-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ LDC staff. Linguistics Data Consortium. Retrieved on 2007-04-02
  11. ^ Liberman, Mark (2005-12-23). "Multiplying ideologies considered harmful". Language Log. Retrieved 2006-11-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Liberman, Mark (2005-12-22). "Linguistics, politics, mathematics". Language Log. Retrieved 2006-11-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ "Media Matters - Our Mission - Who We Are". Media Matters for America. Retrieved 2007-05-09.
  14. ^ "Former fellows at conservative think tanks issued flawed UCLA-led study on media's liberal bias". Media Matters for America. December 21 2005. Retrieved 2006-12-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Broder, Jonathan (1997-08-15). "A Smear Too Far". Salon.com. Retrieved 2006-10-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ "Blumenthal Pays $2,500 To Settle Drudge Suit". Wall Street Journal. 2001-05-04. p. B.8. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ Kurtz, Howard (2001-05-02). "Clinton Aide Settles Libel Suit Against Matt Drudge -- at a Cost". Washington Post. pp. C01. Retrieved 2007-04-11.
  18. ^ Polier, Alexandra (2004-06-07). "John Kerry intern scandal - Alexandra Polier's account". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2004-06-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ Special Reports Personal Collection. Drudge Report Archives. Retrieved on 2007-04-02
  20. ^ Drudge, Matt (April 2 2007). "McCain heckled by CNN reporter". Drudge Report. Retrieved 2007-04-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ a b "CNN's Ware flatly denies report that he "heckled" McCain, but right-wing media flog it anyway". Media Matters for America. April 2 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ "CNN reporter slams Drudge's charge that he 'heckled' McCain; Exclusive video confirms his claim". Rawstory. April 2 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ CNN's Ware fires back at Drudge report about 'heckling', USA Today April 2, 2007
  24. ^ "Drudge Report Archives". Drudgereportarchives.com. Retrieved 2006-10-05.
  25. ^ "Traffic Tricks: Matt Drudge's Spin" (html/php). ValleyWag.com. 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  26. ^ Hirschman, David S. (2006-10-06). "'Wash Post' Editor Downie: Everyone in Our Newsroom Wants to Be a Blogger". Editor & Publisher. Retrieved 2006-10-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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