Matt Drudge causes global warming!

Not really.

We just wanted to call your attention, Drudge-style, to a story in Saturday's Times and on this website now detailing the amazing rise and growing clout of Matt Drudge, a reclusive blogger who once operated out of a cramped Hollywood apartment and now monitors the world on a bank of computers from a million-dollar Miami penthouse.

The Times' Joel Sappell has the full story in a fascinating Column One feature on this man whose eclectic choice of tabloidy type stories to include on DrudgeReport.com drives hundreds of thousands of people back and forth across the Web all day every day. A mere mention on his site can dispatch thousands to visit other sites, and he's sought after by news and network TV executives alike. Some even send advance copies of scripts seeking a plug.

But few have ever written about Drudge like this in an attempt to attract his attention.

In June, the Drudge Report had three million unique visitors, each spending more than an hour clicking around the unpredictable site and finding such items as "Man dead after dog mauling," "Bizarre submersible found floating off New York City," "Vote chaos on Hill after computer glitch," "Arkansas couple welcomes 17th child!" and "Murtha nabs $150M pork."

Once, back in the late '90s he was denounced as a conservative tool by the mainstream media, which secretly read him often. The Drudge Report now is a must-read for followers of politics and journalism. Most browsers return several times a day. No one knows how much office work is not completed nationally because of the Drudge site's irresistible appeal.

It's a lot like Top of the Ticket except for the sex, scandal, outrage, feral cats and millions of readers.

--Andrew Malcolm

Photo: Matt Drudge; Credit: Evan Agostini / Getty Images

Comments

[Jim H]

All this attention on Drudge is somewhat ominous for the L.A. Times. If you're talking about numbers of unique visitors, he is dwarfed by the Daily Kos. One suspects that the Times is moving in that direction politically, and sucking up to Drudge sends a message to all the right-wingers current management is favoring -- like the repulsive columns by Jonah Goldberg.

[Loonesta]

Matt Drudge is to journalism what O J Simpson is to literature.

(Ans: Gee, don't think even he claims to be a journalist. It's the web.)

[MatthewB]

The mainstream media may have stopped describing Drudge as "a conservative tool," but that doesn't mean the characterization is outdated. And his site can't reasonably be called "a must-read for followers of politics and journalism," since most progressives see his site only when blogs cite some politically skewed choice Drudge has made.