If you've been following the Democratic primary race, then you probably heard about the Drudge Report posting of a photo of Barack Obama in Kenyan dress, claiming it had been sent out by a Clinton campaign staffer. The story -- and the photo -- were widely picked up by mainstream media outlets, including the New York Post and Daily News, who both put it on their covers. And the news even made it into a New York Times article in the A section, headlined "Clinton Campaign Starts 5-Point Attack on Obama."
But all of these papers were citing Drudge as their only source -- no one had any other confirmation that the item was sent out by a Clinton staffer, which is the only thing that makes it newsworthy.
It's interesting that these mainstream newspapers, who have standards of journalistic ethics and -- at least at the NYT -- standards on how they verfiy things from blind sources, are putting so much stock in Drudge. It just goes to show how someone with little more than a Web site and an email address can gain tremendous credibility, even in journalistic and political circles.
Even more interesting is whether what Drudge is doing should be called journalism. On the one hand, he regularly writes his own headlines that are links to other publications -- but they are often overstated, dramatized or misleading. But, when he originally posted the Obama photo, he included his post photos of Sen. Clinton and President Clinton also wearing ethnic dress -- much as a mainstream journalist might try to qualify a statement in a quest for objectivity.
For Matt Drudge's perspective, you can read this speech he gave at the National Press Club ten years ago, called "Anyone With A Modem Can Report On The World."
It's interesting that these mainstream newspapers, who have standards of journalistic ethics and -- at least at the NYT -- standards on how they verfiy things from blind sources, are putting so much stock in Drudge. It just goes to show how someone with little more than a Web site and an email address can gain tremendous credibility, even in journalistic and political circles.
Even more interesting is whether what Drudge is doing should be called journalism. On the one hand, he regularly writes his own headlines that are links to other publications -- but they are often overstated, dramatized or misleading. But, when he originally posted the Obama photo, he included his post photos of Sen. Clinton and President Clinton also wearing ethnic dress -- much as a mainstream journalist might try to qualify a statement in a quest for objectivity.
For Matt Drudge's perspective, you can read this speech he gave at the National Press Club ten years ago, called "Anyone With A Modem Can Report On The World."
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