Drudge Team May Break Up
Andrew Breitbart – long the number two man at the Drudge Report – is rumored to be working behind the scenes with Arianna Huffington's new Webzine, the Huffington Report, according to Washington Times "Inside the Beltway" columnist John McCaslin.
The Huffington Report is scheduled to launch sometime this month, and will cater to the radically chic. Its liveliest feature promises to be a group blog where movie stars, New York media mavens, Hollywood film moguls and other wealthy proponents of class struggle and proletarian solidarity can sound off on politics (see "Arianna Huffington Launches Group Blog for Celebrity Leftists"). In the Washington Times of March 31, John McCaslin writes:
"It might have conservative-turned-liberal pundit Arianna Huffington's name attached to it, but we're told that Matt Drudge sidekick and story contributor Andrew Breitbart is the brains behind the soon-to-start blog, Huffington Report.That's what we call a non-denial denial in the news business. If indeed Breitbart is slated to edit the Huntington Report, it seems unlikely that he will stay with Drudge.
`There's a lot of rumors out there that I cannot confirm or deny,' Mr. Breitbart said yesterday."
Since 1999, Breitbart has worked fulltime for the Drudge Report, in a capacity that is probably more accurately described as co-editor than mere "sidekick and story contributor." His departure would certainly be a blow to the Drudge Report.
Breitbart and investigative reporter Mark Ebner co-wrote the Tinseltown exposé Hollywood Interrupted, published last year by John Wiley & Sons.
11 Comments:
It's been obvious for some time that Drudge is listing leftward. This might be a good time for him to find a more compatible number two unless Matt is going to get on the Hillary bankwagon too.
The endless pictures and articles about Hillary the top choice for president, of Hillary modifying her positions, of the Clinton's many and varied photo ops are becoming more and more unbearable.
I don't know about others, but I don't want to see or hear about them unless they're in shackles being led to prison.
This new blog is a Hillary for president invention. Are there enough antiacids in world to counteract the enormous nausea her candidacy will produce? Buy stock in Tums and Rolaids. Their sales are bound skyrocket.
Well, unlike some, I prefer to treat a rumor as a rumor until it's confirmed.
That said, if it is true, I'm shocked - shocked! - to hear that a webmonkey would jump ideological ships at Midnight.
J
Mr. Tremlett writes: "Well, unlike some, I prefer to treat a rumor as a rumor until it's confirmed."
Dear Mr. Tremlett:
I realize you're not a professional journalist, but since you publish a blog, you might want to bone up on what does and does not constitute "confirmation" before you lecture others on the subject.
Mr. McCaslin of the Washington Times states that he was informed by a source – obviously a source that he considers reliable – that Andrew Breitbart is working for the Huffington Report.
He then asked Breitbart directly if the report was true. Rather than denying it, Breitbart uttered what is called a "non-denial denial." That's journo-speak for a statement which is meant to sound like a denial but is, in fact, a confirmation.
Breitbart's non-denial denial, coupled with McCaslin's unnamed source, constitute a legitimate story by any reasonable standard. That is why a reporter of John McCaslin's stature felt justified in running with the story in The Washington Times.
The only reason I wrote that Breitbart "is rumored to be working behind the scenes" is that I wanted to be extra careful. It would have been perfectly acceptable for me to write instead, "John McCaslin of the Washington Times reports that Andrew Breitbart is working behind the scenes…"
Ironically, you are criticizing me for using language that was more cautious than it really needed to be.
P.S. Oh, by the way, I happen to have some extremely reliable information on this matter from sources of my own – knowledge which I never used because it was imparted to me in confidence.
P.P.S. Have I ever told you, Mr. Tremlett, that you are an extremely unpleasant fellow to have hanging around? Yes… I think I have.
Actually, I was neither lecturing nor criticizing you, Mr. Poe - in truth, I was making a general statement. You simply must stop imagining that this is all about you! : )
But thank you very much for confirming that you have knowledge, imparted "in confidence," that lends weight to the "rumor." It doesn't change how shocked - shocked! - I am, but at least we're not all wasting our time firing live bullets at a make-believe goat-sucker.
Have I ever told you, Mr. Tremlett, that you are an extremely unpleasant fellow to have hanging around?
"If you can't dig me, you can't dig nothing." (Lux Interior)
J
Wow, you guys are funny.
You should take the back-and-forth show on the road.
Shades of Henry Rollins and Jack "Batman" Thompson on debate-tour? Now that would be a spectacle.
I guess the question is... who's paying and what's playing?
J
When two people argue back and forth like this in a comment thread to the exclusion of other people, it always seems like Moonlighting-style foreplay to me.
If you don't mind the interruption, the New York Observer takes this Breitbart departure item a bit further.
I haven't been this despondent at a team's breakup since the cancellation of Laverne & Shirley.
Drudge is a (in the )closet case and he is leaning left you say? LOL - that mixed up boy is no more a democrat than say Jeff Gannon or Ken Mehlman, but is nice nice to see him jump on the Tom DeLay lynching bandwagon.
If you don't mind the interruption, the New York Observer takes this Breitbart departure item a bit further.
Interesting...
Drudge is a (in the )closet case and he is leaning left you say? LOL - that mixed up boy is no more a democrat than say Jeff Gannon or Ken Mehlman, but is nice nice to see him jump on the Tom DeLay lynching bandwagon.
Did you hear that he may have had an affair with another hat?
J
I'm ashamed to know this, but Drudge has cheated on his hat several times.
*gasp!*
That cad!
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