Why the Whims of Matt Drudge Move the Media

Every day journalists in newsrooms across the country hope, pray and scheme to enhance the chances that one man will notice their breaking news. That man, Matt Drudge, controls Internet traffic so vast that a mention drives hundreds of thousands of readers to a single story. The same MSM types who decried his conservative bias and inaccurate stories in the late '90s now compete for his attention, the LA Times reports.

The "menace to honest, responsible journalism," as Newsweek investigative reporter Michael Isikoff called him, is now a gatekeeper to the internet news universe. Even stalwart "60 Minutes" leaks upcoming interviews to him. Drudge, who ran his blog out of his $600-a-month Hollywood apartment, and didn’t even make money on it until an adman showed him how, now lives in a $1 million Florida condo. (More internet stories.)