October 22, 2007
The Power of Drudge
The Drudge Report is arguably the most powerful political website. The site originated during the Monica Lewinsky scandal as a place for rumor and innuendo, which many times turned out to be fact.
Since the days of Clinton scandal, the site has grown into one of the most popular sites on the web, especially for conservatives. The headline on the Drudge Report has the power of driving the daily news cycle, and the statistics support this claim. Drudge contends that more than 16 million people visited the site last week alone.
The Clinton campaign appears to recognize the capacity of Drudge to effect the news cycle, and is trying to use the site to its advantage instead of being caught in the site’s cross hairs. The NY Times reports, the Clinton camp leaked the 3rd quarter fundraising statistics to Drudge just as Barak Obama was going to give a speech criticizing Sen. Clinton on the war in Iraq.
The Clintons, better than anyone, understand the ins and outs of the news media and the 24/7 news cycle. This calculated leak the Drudge Report( a former Clinton opponent) blunted Obama’s speech and message for the entire news cycle. Will other campaigns be able to adeptly utilize the web and news media to compete with the Clintons?
Posted by Buzz Webster at October 22, 2007 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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