Matt Drudge is an Ass

Matt Drudge in the Sunday Times (h/t Sisu):


Now he sounds disillusioned and says that the "din" is growing into a cacophony: "There's a danger of the internet just becoming loud, ugly and boring with a thousand voices screaming for attention." He is no fan of the blogging phenomenon (weblogs linking sites): "I don't read them. I like to create waves and not surf them. And who are these influential bloggers? You can't name one because they don't exist."


The Drudge Report earns Matt about $1.2million a year, a figure that has been climbing since Drudge shot to fame covering Clinton and Lewinski in the 90's. The Report, a muddled mess of news links and popups draws in, according to Drudge, over 200,000,000 visitors a month - far more than any blog.

Could it be, though, that Matt worries that the success of the blogosphere in recent times may come to overshadow his own success? Could it be that his position in the world of citizen journalism is in danger? After all, while no one site comes close to his level of traffic, the blogosphere as a whole drowns out the voice of Drudge in what he himself describes as a cacophony. But its a good cacophony.

For a journalist like Matt, suddenly bursting into the spotlight and gaining notoriety as an outsider long before anyone had heard the term 'blog', it must be worrying to watch the medium go beyond his control - to watch so many voices emerge in such a short time. These voices rarely have access to the inside sources that give Drudge his exclusives, but together they dig away at leads until they find the story with only their computers and the occasional phone call.

Anyway, have you seen the Drudge Report? It's like the front page of Google News designed by a drunk monkey. With no hands.


Update: Patrick Ruffini agrees.

Not about the drunk monkey part. Just the other stuff.