Eschewing its own reporting, ABC News relied solely on Drudge to report alleged NY Times Clinton story
A January 3 article* on ABCNews.com cited the website of Internet gossip Matt Drudge in reporting that "Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton [D-NY] believes Sen. Barack Obama [D-IL] is her biggest obstacle to winning the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 but believes that his threat will diminish." Drudge reported on January 2 that The New York Times was set to publish an article by chief political reporter Adam Nagourney on January 3 indicating that Clinton "believes the threat of his [Obama's] candidacy will diminish as voters learn how inexperienced he is in government and foreign affairs!" According to Drudge's "newsroom sources" at the Times, "[e]ditors have placed a story filed by reporter Adam Nagourney in Page One lead positions." The January 3 Times, however, did not feature such an article. Drudge has since updated his story, reporting on January 3: "Publication time: Unknown." In its write-up of Drudge's report, ABC did not mention that Drudge revised his claim about when the Times will publish the story after it became clear that Drudge's original reported publication date of January 3 was wrong.
ABC News political director Mark Halperin has claimed that Drudge "can influence the news like Walter Cronkite did" and claimed that "[i]f Drudge has a siren up, people know it's something they have to look at." Halperin's book, The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008 (Random House, 2006), which he co-wrote with former Washington Post national political editor John F. Harris, includes a chapter titled: "How Matt Drudge Rules Our World." Halperin and Harris also wrote in The Way to Win that Drudge is "salacious, reckless, superficial, and unfair" and that "[e]ven the most devoted of his fans, hunched over basement computers or killing time at company expense, are sensible enough not to put full faith in his punchy communiqués."
*The link to the online version of the article appears to no longer work.
UPDATE: The New York Times has posted the article in question here.
The Drudge Report is a valid source and Media Matters is a smear site.
Didn't news agencies use to at least give lip service to credentials and backing up claims? Madonna can influence the news. Is she a journalist? At least they didn't call him Barack Osama.
but a plunge using cases of K-Y jelly and Astro-Glide to smooth it's way
With ABC and CNN parroting right wing talking points wouldn't we have to considered Fox fair and balanced? They are after all typical of current coverage.
and see one not quite as gooey but it is still a cow-pie...
Also features stories negative & positive about Republican/Conservatives. It is NOT a right-wing SMEAR site.
As far as the NYT piece on Hillary, well IF it does eventually appear [and it likely will--HATE Drudge all you'd like BUT MOST of what is on his site is credible], then Drudge was correct...so what's the big deal here?
And IF it turns out the article reports that Clinton "believes the threat of his [Obama's] candidacy will diminish as voters learn how inexperienced he is in government and foreign affairs!"....Again, so what? It's basically the truth, and it's NOT scandalous so again...what's the big deal here?
And how do we know any of this story is true? It's just the usual right wing schpeil about how evil, scheming Hillary is out to destroy the upstart.
Hardly a Right-Wing SMEAR site...just a collage of stories found elsewhere since links are included.
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Most of the time Drudge just makes things up. He is not a journalist but a gossip columnist that centers on politics. He simply adores unfounded rumors. Sometimes his sources are correct but for the most part his site is fantasy. His radio show is far more explicity right wing, even if it's the sort of "I'm not a republican, really" sort of right wing BS. Even Limbaugh does that.
Can anyone really take anything Drudge says seriously when we see those pictures of him in that goofy hat all the time? Is that the only picture of the guy? But the hat is really beside the point. It seems like the article is mainly based on heresay and should be discounted for that. Does chief political reporter Adam Nagourney actually have a quote of Hillary Clinton saying she "believes the threat of his [Obama's] candidacy will diminish as voters learn how inexperienced he is in government and foreign affairs!" I do not believe he does. Until Nagourney does have that quote, this type of conjecture belongs on Entertainment Tonight or some other gossip show. It's not really news and it is quite ridiculous. What I find most inetersting about that quote is the exclamation point. It's like a fox news special alert scrolling along the bottom of the screen. It makes the whole thing even less credible.
In an early morning attempt to solidify his hubris, ABC News political director Mark Halperin disclosed a top-secret effort, by Madonna, to legally adopt Senator Barack Obama [D-IL] and thus become America’s first lady. Madonna’s active roll will commence immediately after her latest adoptee wins. Halperin went on to appoint Matt Drudge as ABC’s Grand Vizard...The Paradigm of Drudge.
[link to www.nytimes.com]
MMFA didn't care about the comments, they talked about Sludge. Do try to read one day.
Accurate reporting should always be about who said or did what and when. In this article by Nagourney, we have "comments" that are not quotes. That is always a little troubling to me. We have no idea who said it or if it was made up. Here's the reference from the article.
Mrs. Clinton told Democrats that she viewed her two strongest potential Democratic opponents as Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina. They said that she viewed Mr. Obama as her biggest obstacle to the nomination, but that she believed the threat of his candidacy will diminish as voters learn how inexperienced he is in government and foreign affairs.
When did she say this and to what Democrats? Who is telling Nagourney that Hillary Clinton said this? It's really a story that is much-a-do about nothing because Nagourney doesn't source anything. It is not verifiable news and that was my point. I was merely noticing a few things about the article that I found interesting. I do not feel I deserved for someone to insinuate that I could not read.
As for Drudge...clowns will be clowns and unfortunately there are too many Americans buying tickets to the circus, too many of us that take his little sideshow as truth.
BTW- where did that exclamation point go that was in the Drudge report go that is not in the Times article? It's those kinds of things that just drive me up the wall. The almost subliminal assertion that there is some sort of controversey brewering, to make it seem like the Democrats are in disarray.
The devil is in the details my friend.
Because of their hatred for Drudge...mmfa got caught with their pants down on this one. Poorly researched and poorly sourced.
Maloy might enjoy a side of toast and bacon...to go with the egg he layed.
in fact it did not appear as Sludge predicted and he had to revise his prediction. So MMFA was correct. And the NYT needs to find out who is leaking their copywrited content to outsiders.
- In Meetings With Allies, Clinton Hones ’08 Strategy
By PATRICK HEALY and ADAM NAGOURNEY Published: January 3, 2007 - The NY Times
Drudge nailed this one.
If D.A. Nifong is forced to resign...maybe he can apply for an intern job under Maloy.
i don't see anything bad for Hillary or Obama here at all.
1)The Downing Street Memo
2)Male Prostitute who made a number of visits to the White House (Jeff Gannon)
Notice how neither of these got any play in the MSM or on Drudge. Hmmmmm. Anyone want to add any stories he DIDNT greenlight?