I guess my question is, why wouldn’t I read Drudge? So many of my liberal friends don’t because of his obvious right wing slant. We know this to be true. I read him several times a day and have for years. I even used to listen to his radio show and truthfully, it was funny. I think this might make me a bad liberal but I’m a bad everything else so I might as well be a bad liberal. Drudge does what so many have tried and failed at. It isn’t his political slant that keeps people coming back. It’s his ability to capture new news. He leads the headlines much of the time and that is truly where his talent lies. Why he has influence is simply because he’s such a must-read. If you draw enough people to your site and he’s right up there with the New York Times, you can’t help but have influence.
Many bloggers make the mistake of thinking people are there to read your vitriol. They aren’t, necessarily. Maybe a good chunk of them are but the serious numbers comes from providing something no one else can. Huffington Post is a bore to me simply because most of the stuff I read on there is stuff I can find anywhere else. Being Drudge means doing what others can’t. I think you have to be a regular reader to know this about him. His is the only site I look forward to checking – and not even because of the politics – perhaps because of the hysteria. He makes the mundane world exotic and controversial. He also seems to be on PETA’s mailing list because he always outs people who are assholes to animals.
And come to think of it, he often outs child abuse and gun violence. He has an obvious personal moral code underneath all of the hysteria. The one thing he hates, however, is Hollywood. Faltering stars is a favored topic and he really hates stars who corrupt politics, or attempt to.
All in all, there isn’t a better site for breaking news and there isn’t a more interesting site out there than his. This is one of the reasons many of my liberal friends and family disregard anything I think or say about politics – they think I’ve become a conservative and that I only listen to conservative reactionaries. It isn’t true; I read Drudge despite the politics.