Drudge Drives News Cycle (Again): Press Reports Drudge on HIGHLY Unlikely Condi Rice Romney V.P. Pick Report

Jul 13, 2012 by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief

The new and mainstream media have bitten the often-political-operative-baited Drudge Report hook again.

The question is: who is now reeling ‘em in?

Once upon a time this modest site would rush to report the Drudge Report’s latest BIG SCREAMING HEADLINE ON ITS ORIGINAL REPORTS as soon as we saw them. After all, Matt Drudge’s site is one of the very best news aggregators. He is widely acknowledged to be able to drive the news cycle, almost at a whim. And he did accurately once report some news story that had a bit of impact (I think it was about a young woman named Monica Lewisky, something about a dress and some Democratic President a few decades ago). But, since then, the site’s original reporting sometimes seemed like political plant stories from a political camp. And — as others have noted — when an original piece of reporting on the Drudge Report is wrong, it somehow would vanish into thin air, usually without any acknowledgement that it was wrong or any follow up — certainly not a follow up proving it wrong in BIG HEADLINES.

And now we see the case of the Condoleeza Rice for Romney VP story.

It was splashed on the front page of Drudge – a site widely believe to have strong ties to the Romney camp, coincidentally on a day when a press narrative highly problematical for Romney was taking on a life of its own: the Bain Capital story. The supposed boomlet was reported by the Wall Street Journal, among others, and generated a huge amount of posts on weblogs.

But, in this case, even though it sparked reports many appear to have been seen for what it was: a “scoop” that is almost laughable and, if anything, further diminishes the credibility Drudge with his huge hits could have if he avoided running politically motivated stories that seem cynically aimed at driving the news cycles and actual reliable, solid, original reporting. CNN and Red State’s Eric Erickson, who can hardly be called a member of the “liberal media” minced no words – a sign that if anything the story on Drudge’s site clearly coming from a Romney source makes the Romney camp look bad by floating it:

If you head over to Drudge you will find that there are rumors swirling that Condi Rice is at the top of the short list to be the Vice Presidential nominee.

I don’t know who is hitting the crack rock tonight in the rumor mill, but bull shiitake mushrooms.

Condelizza Rice is pro-abortion.

She worked for George Bush for eight years.

In those eight years at National Security and then at State, our relations with Russia deteriorated though she was an expert in that field. Central and South America went to pot as well, the ramifications of which still have not been sorted out. She was one of George Bush’s most trusted advisors and her supporters would have you believe that everything bad that happened, happened because of Cheney and Rumsfeld.

The problem is that this ignores the Americas and Russia, areas where State played a big role.

Further down:

But hey, this is a great way to get the conversation moving past the Bain Capital nonsense the Obama camp is pushing and get the focus back on Romney for his veep pick. Well played in that regard. But really, we’re going to buy these rumors?

Few saw Sarah Palin coming. Many have speculated on Condi Rice, which I think makes it less likely. I don’t even think this is a serious leak from Team Romney. It’s just silly.

Here are some additional thoughts, also put bluntly:

But all of this is meaningless.

We’re all now indulging in the little ballet the new and old media do.

Everyone knows this is not a serious option for Romney.

But Drudge reported it. And so it gets reported.

How long before those reporting THE SCREAMING HEADLINES learn? It may take a while…

Until next time.

(And the time after that.)

Photo via shutterstock.com

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