As many may know The Drudge report, a blog put together by Matt Drudge is known for its’ simple layout, clever headlines and maybe most famously for exposing Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.

A little bit about Monica: The Lewinsky Scandal

After graduating from Lewis and Clark college in Oregon, Lewinsky landed an internship in the White House in the mid 90s. While working there, she became friends with Linda Tripp, also an employee of the White House. Confiding in Linda, Monica told her of an affair she was having- with Bill Clinton! Though Linda was a friend of Monica’s, she felt it necessary to expose this inappropriate relationship. Linda leaked the story…but surprisingly the first source to hear of the affair decided not to report it. Why? I presume they did not want to be the ones speaking out against the president. Who does?

If you are like me and want to find out more about the Scandal watch this interview with Monica Lewinsky. It provides an interesting look at the scandal from her point of view.               Click here for the link to the interview. Additionally this here is another video from Bill Clinton’s point of view.

Then came along Matt Drudge: The founder of the Drudge Report

Mr. Drudge the founder of the Drudge Report (founded in 1997) decided the affair was something the American public needed to hear, so in 1999 he made the news public and put himself on the map of internet sights to be sure to visit. On the site he links articles from other news sites, posts his own comments about current events and gives advice.

In the beginning, Mr. Drudge presented many conservative views backed by other conservatives so recently when he reported about Gingridge many conservatives were upset.

For Matt Drudge it wasn’t about who he wrote about but what he wrote about. He wants to get the news out there for people to read and if this means he is viewed as more of libertarian than that is fine.

DID YOU KNOW: Matt Drudge runs the blog all by himself!!

It is not a flashy site, but Mr. Drudge uses flashy headings (made up by him) to attract people to the links. He certainly has made a name for himself, with 10,186,259,484 visitors just in IN PAST YEAR. 

Overview: What makes the Drudge Report special

Matt Drudge created the Drudge Report with the goal of providing news to the people. He constantly pushes the limit on what can and can’t be exposed to the public. But most importantly he has learned to pick out the news that people want to know. He is an effective aggregator of news who knows his audience well. Who knew a citizen journalist/reporter with a self run blog would become so influential in the news reporting world.

One last note: How does he make money?

During today’s presentation a note was brought up about how Mr. Drudge makes his money. I presume it is the adds, which in fact do exist on the website. Free standing as well as popup adds appear on the page, though not as many as some other websites display.

MATT DRUDGE created a place where he could decide what news was important and what was not. He is a good example of how one person can make affect the way so many people view and interpret  the news.

Here is an interview with Matt Drudge himself. Interview.