Matt Drudge

Matt Drudge (born October 27, 1966) is an Internet journalist and muckraker.

Drudge's web site, Drudge Report, founded in 1994, consists primarily of links to stories about politics, entertainment, and various current events, although Drudge occasionally authors a story of his own. He has cultivated a persona of a fedora-wearing newshound working for the people, not the powers-that-be. Drudge started his website on a 486 from an apartment in Hollywood. Today, Drudge maintains the website from his condominium in Miami, Florida along with an anonymous right-hand man based in Los Angeles. Drudge has assimilated numerous connections with industry and media insiders to break stories sometimes before they hit the mainstream media. In many ways, Drudge fashions himself as a modern-day Walter Winchell.

In 1998 Drudge 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. After Drudge's report, Newsweek published the story.

When his site reached the 1 billion viewer mark for 2002, Drudge posted to the front page of his website, "In every state and nearly every civilized nation in the developed world, readers know where to go for action and reaction of news -- at least one day ahead... Free from any corporate concerns, there are simply too many to thank since the site's inception in 1994. This new attempt at the old American experiment of full freedom in reporting is ever exciting. Those in power have everything to lose by individuals who march to their own rules."

Drudge also hosts a weekly Sunday night talk radio show—"The only time anyone will let me on the air," he claims. Drudge hosted a short-lived television show on the Fox News Channel starting in June 1998. He also wrote a book in 2000 titled Drudge Manifesto (Hardcover ISBN 0451201507, Paperback ISBN 0451204913).

External Links

• Drudge Report (http://www.drudgereport.com)
• The Secrets of Drudge, Inc. (http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,47762,00), by Geoff Keighley, Business 2.0, April 2003