An online source of news originally censored or downplayed by the mainstream media although it once boasted over one billion pageviews a month. However, the Drudge Report became anti-Donald Trump and the backlash caused alternatives to spring up and Matt Drudge’s website bled traffic (the conservative and right-wing alternatives to the Drudge Report are the Bongino Report, The Gateway Pundit, American Drudge Report, Breitbart, Citizen Free Press, Whatfinger News, Gab Trends, National Pulse, Revolver News and Infogalactic News. See: Drudge Report alternatives).[1][2][3][4] The latest drop in numbers in 2023 are even more startling. Pajamas Media reported on Matt Drudge and his flailing anti-Trump website.
Now, if you go to the Drudge Report, you’ll find links to a bunch of left-wing UK sites and well-funded mainstream media sites like the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and the New York Post. Good for them, I guess. For whatever reason, Matt Drudge, who was reportedly apolitical and more interested in the success of his site than any agenda, decided to tank the site. A comparison of Similar Web (a site that ranks websites based on various metrics) shows that Drudge was listed as #41 in the nation with 164 million visits in October 2018. Currently, the site ranks at #145, with 51 million visits in October 2023. That’s a major, major drop.
The Drudge Report played an instrumental role in breaking the story about President Bill Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky after The Washington Post refused to publish the story in 1997. This posting on the internet of this story by the Drudge Report led to the impeachment of President Clinton. The Drudge Report thereby played an important historical role in establishing the political power of the internet. Drudge also features news from Hollywood about box office receipts and the happenings of stars and starlets. It is named after its founder, Matt Drudge.
By 2018, the Drudge Report had become significantly more left-wing than in previous years, and most of the time, it would refer readers to mainstream media outlets such as CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.[5] Apparently, the Drudge Report had been sold years ago and a condition of the agreed upon sales price was for Matt Drudge to never speak about the transfer of ownership.[6] Additionally, Matt Drudge, a homosexual, has attacked conservatives such as Steve Bannon and Roy Moore for their conservative positions, and during the 2020 primaries, has also repeatedly backed the “married” homosexual mayor and Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg. It also has mocked President Trump.[7] Because of this leftward shift, many Drudge readers abandoned him for Whatfinger News and other conservative news outlets.[8]
In 2022 Robert Barnes observed,
After Drudge sold Drudge Report (in secret to maintain brand value, but that didn’t really work as everyone saw the changes pretty quickly), Drudge Report is a useful place to see what the establishment is thinking. They are still pretending Putin will be overthrown any day now, the Russian economy will imminently collapse, China & India will come begging to be part of the sanctions regime, the Russians are just about to lose and head home from Ukraine, and so forth. Propaganda distilled & curated in one page.”
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