First of all, this is going to be a casual discussion diary. Random theories, even conspiracy theories, are welcome, mainly because I don’t think there are any official answers to the question I’ve been wondering about for a while now.
Which is: Did someone buy up the Drudge Report or hack Matt Drudge’s brain?
Let’s back up a bit. If you haven’t visited TDR for a long time, or ever, I understand. Matt Drudge and his junk journalism website have, for the last two decades, been equally annoying, frustrating, nauseating to liberals like me. As well as hugely influential.
Because the site has always been utterly, utterly conservative to the point of lunacy. Climate change denial, Tea Party fanaticism, cruel insinuations against political opponents, Matt Drudge has dabbled in all of it during his tenure. All the while branding himself the Last True Journalist on Earth, complete with fedora and quizzically raised eyebrow on the few photos he ever publishes of himself.
In other words, you’ll be excused if you’ve missed this, but over the last two years and especially the last six months, The Drudge Report has practically become anti-Republican.
I’m not just talking about the site slowly souring on Trump himself. It’s day after day of any bit of bad news for the GOP being shouted from the black/white rooftops of what used to be a site so devoid of the illusion of balance that Drudge famously went on Alex Jones’ show and stated that a brain in a jar would be a better president than Hillary. This was only 4 years ago.
You’re hard pressed to find anything critical of the Democratic Party on the site anymore. It’s
- quotes damning Trump
- bad election results for his party
- attention being brought to the bungling of COVID-19 on state and federal level
- attention being brought to election interference and police violence
- neutral-to-positive coverage of BLM
All of it in the usual wrapping of outlandish tech stories about sex robots, celebrity gossip and scandals.
I’m not looking to praise Matt Drudge in any way. That ship has sailed. But I’m utterly fascinated by what currently seems like a total turnaround from Trump sycophantism back in 2016/2017 to what would fool me into believing I had stumbled onto a left-wing news site if I had never heard of it before now.
Strategic recalibration? Secret takeover by Soros? Actual display of integrity at the end of a long and dark tunnel?
Give me your best theories.