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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow the Drudge Report, With Its Condoleezza Rice ‘Scoop,’ Again Rules the Media
How the Drudge Report, With Its Condoleezza Rice Scoop, Again Rules the Media
by Lauren Ashburn
Jul 15, 2012 4:45 AM EDT
His Condi Rice item went viral despite its utter implausibility. Lauren Ashburn on why the press is held captive by the conservative bloggers thinly sourced gossip.
The headline screamed across the homepage of the Drudge Report: ROMNEY NARROWS VP CHOICES; CONDI EMERGES AS FRONTRUNNER.
Drudge Report on Condi
Screen grab from the Drudge Report
Matt Drudgethe shadowy, fedora-wearing Internet gossip machine who has boasted from day one that he is a conservativecrowed that his sources revealed former secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is at the top of the veep list. He even went so far as to punctuate the scoop with an exclamation point!
Bull. Im a good enough poker player to know a campaign bluff when I see one. The claim is so ludicrous as to be laughable, and Drudge must know it considering his reported alliance with the Romney campaign.
Yet in typical fashion, the mediaknowing the claim had little basis in realitywent along for the ride. The Today show, Good Morning America, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, even The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, along with plenty of others, took the bait and devoted countless minutes and column inches to the tale.
snip//
Former New York Times reporter Steve Roberts, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, is criticallike others who covered news in the non-digital ageof the principles that guide too many websites: Were not telling you this is true, were just saying other people are reporting it. He calls the process highly unethical.
Redistributing the work of others is so easy and has become a form of news, says Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Research Centers Project for Excellence in Journalism. Rosenstiel adds reporting on another journalists reporting raises serious questions about fact-checking someone elses anonymous sources. When you post something because it is out there and can get you attention, traffic, even revenue, are you responsible if it is wrong?
Apparently not. Its pretty obvious that most of those who picked up this story failed to vet it before blasting the claim to the worldor trumpeted it even if their own sources called the idea absurd. They know Drudge is a monster traffic-driver and that even if they ignore his tasty tidbits, their rivals wont.
more...
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/15/how-the-drudge-report-with-its-condoleezza-rice-scoop-again-rules-the-media.html
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How the Drudge Report, With Its Condoleezza Rice ‘Scoop,’ Again Rules the Media (Original Post)
babylonsister
Jul 2012
OP
onehandle
(51,122 posts)1. A Romney campaign honcho clicked Drudge on speed dial and said 'we need a distraction...'
'...here's a lie. The check is in the mail.'
End of story.
babylonsister
(171,429 posts)2. Yep, pretty much. nt
Drudge is pathetic.
BumRushDaShow
(138,018 posts)4. Martin Bashir called his site "bucketfuls of excrement"
I literally had to pick myself off the floor with that one!
babylonsister
(171,429 posts)5. I missed that, but I am getting very attached to Mr. Bashir;
he's a keeper!
BumRushDaShow
(138,018 posts)6. I'm normally not home yet in time
to catch him except maybe the last 10 - 15 minutes. But this past Friday, I was so desperate to catch him at the beginning, I fired up my SiriusXM app (that streams MSNBC) and there he was. I think I'll try to do that from now on during my commute.
As a "Londoner" (as I have seen him dubbed), his command of the intricacies of the English language is masterful.