Talk Radio, Matt Drudge, Michelle Malkin

FIGHTING THE FUTURE

Once Again, It's Drudge Vs New Media







Why does Matt Drudge so despise the new media?

Confirming the worst fears of bloggers and other Web 2.0 rabblerousers, the increasingly isolated and paranoid Drudge Report kingpin is once again working to undermine those he sees as a threat.

Proving he has now become everything he had originally fought against, Matt used his syndicated talk radio show this week to blast Michelle Malkin and her Hot Air videoblogging venture:

Just ugh. The things I want to say right now. But we’ve got an FCC. The things I want to say. Maybe we’ll do, uh, uh, a commentary on the Internet like Michelle Malkin. Maybe I’ll stand in front of like a blue screen and hold a banana and start talking into the Internets.

(Sneering tone) ‘This is Matt Drudge reporting on Hot Air.’ Agggh. You know. It’s ridiculous. Looks like, you know, Captain Kangaroo time, Michelle. Get real.

...

We have entered an era vibrating with the din of small voices. Every citizen can be a reporter, can take on the powers that be. The difference between the Internet, television and radio, magazines, newspapers is the two-way communication. The Net gives as much voice to a 13-year-old computer geek like me as to a CEO or speaker of the House. We all become equal.

Particularly over the past year or so, Drudge has become increasingly vocal about his opposition to these emerging websites. This is the first time he has actually denounced a blogger in public, however.

With very few exceptions, Drudge refuses to link to bloggers on his website, even when the content in question is of great significance.


At Hot Air, meanwhile, Malkin responded with this:

“Get real?” Got whine?

We at Hot Air certainly don’t have the resources to look like the slicksters at CNN or the dinosaur networks. We don’t have multi-million dollar sets, graphics, and wardrobes like Katie Couric. We put substance first over bells and whistles. (You would think someone with a website design circa 1980 might appreciate our priorities.)

That said, folks in the broadcast industry have had nice words about our production values and I’m proud of what our team has accomplished in less than a year. In fact, we’ve had broadcast network engineers and producers ask us how we do it.

...


What’s it to you, Matt, if we bring our little “banana” microphones and cameras to Baghdad or CPAC or the Doolittle Raiders reunion or the local illegal alien hangout or the Gathering of Eagles (which barely rated a blip on the almighty Drudge radar screen)? What’s it to you if authors find it worth their time to sit down with us for Internet broadcast interviews? Why does it bother you so?

What’s it to you, Matt, if my fellow hosts and I spend our time standing in front of a green screen in our basement studio so we can practice the very kind of Internet citizen journalism you once preached yourself?

Remember when Matt was a hard- working and fearless investigator who regularly broke major news stories? That was a long time ago. Now, Drudge himself has confirmed he's a card- carrying member of the old- line mainstream media.

Hey Matt, remember the way they treated you? Why become one of them?

And given this personal transformation, how relevant is Drudge to talk radio today? Is it time to rethink the syndicated weekend show? Are his listeners really tuning in to hear personal attacks against those he sees as a threat to his business?


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