George Rice
02-23-2004, 02:49 PM
Post in the "Drudge Retort" which makes some of the points I was trying to make in another post.
http://www.drudge.com/2004/20040219.htm
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XXXX DRUDGE RETORT XXXX 14:26:29 EST FEB 19 2004 XXXX
Matt Drudge loses advertiser in wake of Kerry blunder!
**DRUDGE RETORT EXCLUSIVE**
Sound the siren: Matt Drudge has lost a long-time advertiser in the wake of last week's groundless report alleging that Sen. John Kerry had an extramarital affair with a 27-year-old woman.
AT&T Wireless has pulled all advertising from the Drudge Report in response to a complaint about its sponsorship of the site.
"We care about the places our on-line ads appear, and that site doesn't reflect the values of AT&T Wireless," e-mailed Jeremy Pemble, the company's vice president of public relations.
Matt Drudge earns $1.2 million a year from advertising and his weekly radio show, selling a single banner ad for $4,400 a day, according to a September 2003 story in the Miami Herald.
The loss of an advertiser comes during a week in which Drudge has taken numerous hits for spreading the Kerry rumor while making no claim it was true -- passing it along simply because news organizations were supposedly looking into it.
As Drudge wrote: "Intrigue surrounds a woman who recently fled the country, reportedly at the prodding of Kerry, the Drudge Report has learned."
In spite of the lack of a single on-the-record source willing to back up the claim, the story spread within hours from Drudge to conservative talk radio shows and the British tabloid press. As it began appearing in the mainstream U.S. media, Kerry and the woman, former AP reporter Alexandra Polier, both denied the allegation.
Polier's full statement to the press: "For the last several days I have seen Internet and tabloid rumors relating to me and Senator John Kerry. Because these stories were false, I assumed the media would ignore them. It seems that efforts to peddle these lies continue, so I feel compelled to address them. I have never had a relationship with Senator Kerry, and the rumors in the press are completely false. Whoever is spreading these rumors and allegations does not know me, but should know the pain they have caused me and my family. I am in Kenya with my fiance visiting his family, and we ask that the press respect our privacy and leave all of us alone."
Kathleen Parker, Dan Kennedy, and other professional journalists blasted Drudge for spreading the story. "Drudge is even more unreliable and wrong than he used to be (and he was pretty bad to begin with)," Michelangelo Signorile wrote in the New York Press.
AT&T Wireless cancelled its Drudge Report ads after receiving a complaint Monday by Robert Caraway, who described himself as a Kerry supporter.
"I find your support of Matt Drudge both distasteful and alienating," e-mailed Caraway. "By advertising on his site, you are condoning his current smear campaign against a very popular presidential hopeful."
Though Matt Drudge is widely credited with being right on Newsweek's Monica Lewinsky story, the self-styled Walter Winchell has made several infamous blunders over the years:
Reporting in January 1999 that a 13-year-old boy who "looks exactly like the President" was the secret love child of Bill Clinton and a prostitute. DNA tests proved it was a hoax.
Reporting in August 1997 that Sidney Blumenthal had been in court on charges of domestic violence. He retracted the story a day later.
Making up a source in a May 2001 story, claiming that Drudge Report webmaster Andrew Breitbart was a professor with the Cashmere Institute of Media Studies, a fictitious organization.
Note: This story has been edited to reflect a comment e-mailed to the Drudge Retort by Jeremy Pemble after its original publication: "We did pull advertising from this site -- because it should not have been placed on the site in the first place ... independent of any recent articles that may have appeared on that site."
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http://www.drudge.com/2004/20040219.htm
[ QUOTE ]
XXXX DRUDGE RETORT XXXX 14:26:29 EST FEB 19 2004 XXXX
Matt Drudge loses advertiser in wake of Kerry blunder!
**DRUDGE RETORT EXCLUSIVE**
Sound the siren: Matt Drudge has lost a long-time advertiser in the wake of last week's groundless report alleging that Sen. John Kerry had an extramarital affair with a 27-year-old woman.
AT&T Wireless has pulled all advertising from the Drudge Report in response to a complaint about its sponsorship of the site.
"We care about the places our on-line ads appear, and that site doesn't reflect the values of AT&T Wireless," e-mailed Jeremy Pemble, the company's vice president of public relations.
Matt Drudge earns $1.2 million a year from advertising and his weekly radio show, selling a single banner ad for $4,400 a day, according to a September 2003 story in the Miami Herald.
The loss of an advertiser comes during a week in which Drudge has taken numerous hits for spreading the Kerry rumor while making no claim it was true -- passing it along simply because news organizations were supposedly looking into it.
As Drudge wrote: "Intrigue surrounds a woman who recently fled the country, reportedly at the prodding of Kerry, the Drudge Report has learned."
In spite of the lack of a single on-the-record source willing to back up the claim, the story spread within hours from Drudge to conservative talk radio shows and the British tabloid press. As it began appearing in the mainstream U.S. media, Kerry and the woman, former AP reporter Alexandra Polier, both denied the allegation.
Polier's full statement to the press: "For the last several days I have seen Internet and tabloid rumors relating to me and Senator John Kerry. Because these stories were false, I assumed the media would ignore them. It seems that efforts to peddle these lies continue, so I feel compelled to address them. I have never had a relationship with Senator Kerry, and the rumors in the press are completely false. Whoever is spreading these rumors and allegations does not know me, but should know the pain they have caused me and my family. I am in Kenya with my fiance visiting his family, and we ask that the press respect our privacy and leave all of us alone."
Kathleen Parker, Dan Kennedy, and other professional journalists blasted Drudge for spreading the story. "Drudge is even more unreliable and wrong than he used to be (and he was pretty bad to begin with)," Michelangelo Signorile wrote in the New York Press.
AT&T Wireless cancelled its Drudge Report ads after receiving a complaint Monday by Robert Caraway, who described himself as a Kerry supporter.
"I find your support of Matt Drudge both distasteful and alienating," e-mailed Caraway. "By advertising on his site, you are condoning his current smear campaign against a very popular presidential hopeful."
Though Matt Drudge is widely credited with being right on Newsweek's Monica Lewinsky story, the self-styled Walter Winchell has made several infamous blunders over the years:
Reporting in January 1999 that a 13-year-old boy who "looks exactly like the President" was the secret love child of Bill Clinton and a prostitute. DNA tests proved it was a hoax.
Reporting in August 1997 that Sidney Blumenthal had been in court on charges of domestic violence. He retracted the story a day later.
Making up a source in a May 2001 story, claiming that Drudge Report webmaster Andrew Breitbart was a professor with the Cashmere Institute of Media Studies, a fictitious organization.
Note: This story has been edited to reflect a comment e-mailed to the Drudge Retort by Jeremy Pemble after its original publication: "We did pull advertising from this site -- because it should not have been placed on the site in the first place ... independent of any recent articles that may have appeared on that site."
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