Matt Drudge facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Matt Drudge
Drudge in 1996
Born	Matthew Nathan Drudge (1966-10-27) October 27, 1966 (age 58) Takoma Park, Maryland, U.S.
Occupation	Political commentator, news editor
Known for	Reporting political scandals, creating the Drudge Report

Matthew Nathan Drudge (born October 27, 1966) is an American journalist. He is best known for creating and editing the Drudge Report. This website gathers news from many different sources. Drudge has also written books and hosted radio and TV shows.

Early Life and Education

Matthew Drudge grew up in Takoma Park, Maryland. This town is close to Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. His parents divorced when he was six years old. He then lived with his mother.

As a child, Drudge did not have many friends. He loved reading the news and listening to radio talk shows. He graduated from high school near the bottom of his class. In his book Drudge Manifesto, he mentioned that he "failed his Bar Mitzvah".

Drudge's Career Journey

Starting the Drudge Report

Before creating the Drudge Report, Matthew Drudge was not well-known. For many years, he worked different kinds of jobs. These included working at a 7-Eleven store at night. He also sold books over the phone for Time-Life. He even managed a McDonald's restaurant.

In 1989, he moved to Los Angeles. He got a job in the gift shop at CBS studios. He eventually became the manager there. This job gave him access to some inside information. This gossip helped inspire him to start the Drudge Report.

In 1994, Drudge's father bought him a computer. The Drudge Report began as email notes sent to a few friends. At first, these notes shared gossip and opinions. They were sent as an email newsletter. They were also posted on an online forum called alt.showbiz.gossip Usenet.

In 1996, the newsletter slowly changed. It moved from entertainment gossip to political news. It also moved from email to the internet as its main way of sharing news.

Growing Popularity of the Drudge Report

By March 1995, the Drudge Report had 1,000 email subscribers. By 1997, this number grew to 85,000 subscribers. Drudge's website became very popular in the late 1990s. This happened because he often reported stories before bigger news outlets did.

Drudge first gained national attention in 1996. He was the first to report that Jack Kemp would be Republican Bob Dole's running mate. This was for the 1996 presidential election.

In 1998, his popularity grew even more. He published a report from Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff. This made the Drudge Report the first media outlet to share news about what became the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal.

Drudge met Andrew Breitbart in Los Angeles in the 1990s. Drudge became a mentor to Breitbart. Breitbart later helped run the Drudge Report. In 2005, Breitbart announced he was leaving the Drudge Report. He said it was a friendly parting. However, he still helped run Drudge's website from Los Angeles. He worked the afternoon shift while also running Breitbart.

Drudge's Earnings

A magazine called Business 2.0 estimated Drudge's earnings in April 2003. They thought his website made about $3,500 a day from ads. This is almost $1.3 million a year. After paying for his website servers, they estimated he made $800,000 a year.

In September 2003, The Miami Herald reported Drudge's own estimate. He said he earned $1.2 million a year from his website and radio show. On April 30, 2004, he appeared on C-SPAN. He confirmed that he earned over $1 million.

For many years, Drudge ran the website from his one-bedroom apartment in Hollywood. Today, he runs the website from his two homes in Miami, Florida. To update the site, he watches many TV news channels. He also monitors many websites on several computers in his home office.

Fox News Television Show

From June 1998 to November 1999, Drudge hosted a TV show. It was called Drudge. It aired on the Fox News Channel on Saturday nights. The show ended by agreement between Drudge and Fox News.

Drudge had refused to go on air at one point. He said Fox News was trying to censor him. This was when the network stopped him from showing photos of surgery on Samuel Armas. Fox News said he broke his contract. But after Drudge apologized, Fox said their parting was "amicable," meaning friendly.

Radio Talk Show Host

Drudge also hosted a Sunday night talk radio show. He joked that it was "the only time anyone will let me on the air." This show was also called the Drudge Report. It was shared by Premiere Radio Networks.

He also filled in as a host for conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. Drudge became well-known in the early 2000s. This was because Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin often mentioned him. They used his website for news material on their radio shows. Michael Savage also often said Drudge was a source for topics on The Savage Nation.

Drudge left his radio show with Premiere on September 30, 2007. Cincinnati radio station WLW's Bill Cunningham replaced him. In some larger cities, John Batchelor took his place instead.

Books Written by Drudge

The Drudge Revolution: The Inside Story of How Talk Radio, Fox News, and a Gift Shop Clerk with an Internet Connection Took Down the Mainstream Media was published on July 28, 2020. Matthew Lysiak wrote this book. He interviewed over 200 people who knew Drudge.

Drudge wrote a book with Julia Phillips in 2000. It was called Drudge Manifesto. This book made it onto the New York Times Best Seller list. The book includes a talk Drudge gave at the National Press Club in 1998. In this talk, he explained his main purpose. The book also has emails from his readers. It even has talks Drudge had with his cat.

Reviews of the book were mixed. The Washington Post said that much of the book was not new material. The Columbia Journalism Review said the book was "padded." They called it a "weird, stream-of-conscious mixture."

Drudge's Influence in News

In 2024, Mediaite named Drudge one of the most influential people in news media. Mediaite said Drudge would stay a powerful person in the news.

In the 2020 book Drudge Revolution, author Matthew Lysiak explains Drudge's influence. He says that every major presidential campaign since the late 1990s had a staff member. This person's job was to connect with Drudge. They hoped to influence the Drudge Report. For example, before the 2008 Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton's communications director, Tracy Sefl, became friends with Drudge. She said this relationship was "scary" because of how much power the Drudge Report had.

In their 2006 book The Way to Win, Mark Halperin and John Harris wrote about Drudge's impact. They said Republican National Convention chairman Ken Mehlman "kind of brags" about using the Drudge channel. They also wrote that Drudge played a central role in the 2004 election.

In 2006, Time magazine named Drudge one of the 100 most influential people in the world. They described the Drudge Report as a mix of gossip, politics, and weather. They noted it was still mostly put together by Drudge himself.

ABC News said the Drudge Report helps set the tone for national political news. They stated that Republican political workers often use Drudge. They use him to criticize their opponents.

In October 2006, Washington Post editor Len Downie spoke at a convention. He said, "Our largest driver of traffic is Matt Drudge." This means Drudge's website sent the most visitors to the Washington Post website.

On October 22, 2007, New York Times reporter Jim Rutenberg wrote about Drudge. He said that presidential candidates from both parties worked with Drudge. They tried hard to get good news about their candidates on the Drudge Report. They also tried to get bad news about their rivals on the site. They knew that TV producers, radio hosts, and reporters checked the Drudge Report for the latest news and gossip. Nielsen/NetRatings showed that the Drudge Report had three million unique visitors each month. This was about one percent of the U.S. population.

During the 2012 Republican presidential primaries, some people thought Drudge favored Mitt Romney. This included former presidential candidate Fred Thompson.

Drudge's Personal Life

Matthew Drudge used to live in Hollywood, California. As of 2007, he owned two homes in Miami, Florida. One was a Mediterranean-style house on Rivo Alto Island. The other was a condominium in Miami's Four Seasons hotel. By early 2009, Drudge was earning millions of dollars a year. He traveled a lot and moved to another property in Miami. In 2003, he said his only luxury, besides travel, was his Corvette car.

Political Views

The Daily Telegraph has called Drudge a conservative populist. A populist is someone who supports the rights and powers of ordinary people. In 2002, Drudge said he was "Free from any Corporate Concerns." This meant he was not influenced by big companies.

In a 2005 interview with The Sunday Times, Drudge explained his politics. He said, "I'm not a right-wing Republican. I'm a conservative and want to pay less taxes. And I did vote Republican at the last election. But I'm more of a populist."

What Journalists Say About Drudge

Many journalists have shared their opinions about Matthew Drudge. Mark Halperin and John F. Harris called him "the Walter Cronkite of his era." Walter Cronkite was a very famous and trusted news anchor. Todd Purdum of The New York Times called Drudge "the country's reigning mischief-maker."

Michael Isikoff of Newsweek said Drudge was "a menace to honest, responsible journalism." He added that if people believed what they read on his site, it could be "dangerous."

On the other hand, Camille Paglia praised Drudge. She called him "the kind of bold, entrepreneurial, free-wheeling, information-oriented outsider we need far more of in this country." David McClintick described him as "a modern Tom Paine." He saw Drudge as someone who might lead millions of people to use the internet to share news, like town criers of the past.