Drudge Report is one of the highest traffic sites on the web. Matt Drudge rose to prominence as a guerilla journalist putting articles online that the mainstream media couldn’t get or wouldn’t publish, but two recent incidents have made us question whether Drudge has surrendered his guerilla street cred to the enticements of the Republican establishment.
In the run-up to the February 28 Michigan primary, Drudge has been running a steady stream of articles trashing rising Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum. It is as if the Romney campaign hands over a chapter or two of their opposition research file every day -- and Drudge obliges them by first publishing the material that would make Santorum look bad, and then following-up with the predictable reaction stories from Romney shills and Democrats.
This pattern is similar to one Drudge followed in the lead-up to the Florida primary in which Newt Gingrich was savaged on a daily basis, culminating in a sustained three-day attack so virulent that even the mainstream media noticed.
Drudge Report still carries some great material on the economy and Obama that is difficult, if not impossible, to find in the mainstream media. However, we liked Matt Drudge a lot more when he was wearing the mismatched plaids of the guerilla journalist instead of the gray pinstripes of the Republican establishment.
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