The capitulation, complicity and cowardice of the "US
mainstream news media" during the rise of the "vast
reich-wing conspiracy" is easily understood. The goal
of corporate media monopolies is to make money -- not
to pursue excellence in the profession of journalism, or
keep "freedom of the press" alive for the health of
our republic -- the sponsors (who pay freight on the
air waves) don't want any trouble...Ah, but those
sponsors can be pressured too...Here is a weapon that must be weilded...especially in this struggle for the
Presidency in 2004...(P.S. If you want to know more
about Dredge then wants you to know, read David
Brock's brave, explosive Blinded By The Right.)
www.drudge.com: 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.
Break the Bush Cabal Stanglehold on the "US News
Media," Show Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush
(again!)
http://www.drudge.com/2004/20040219.htm
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."
© DRUDGE RETORT 2004