What exactly is the Drudge Report?

[Ladyhawk]

For the past ten to fifteen years, I've been politically disillusioned, not happy with Democrats or Republicans. I was a nominal Republican until last summer, when Shrubya's actions convinced me he was evil incarnate.

I catch my mother and brother reading something called the "Drudge Report" online. Because my family are a bunch of fascist neocons (and I mean that in the kindest, gentlest way) and actually listen to and agree with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, I assumed it was a rabidly right-wing site and stayed the hell away from it.

Before my father died, he force-fed Rush Limbaugh to me. Every morning for three hours. Ungh. I grew to despise Limbaugh. Since then, I have tried to stay away from that poisonous mindset as much as is humanly possible.

So, is the Drudge Report an obnoxious right-wing online publication? And if it is, is there a fun way I can keep my brother from accessing it on my computer? It would be fun to re-direct him to Buzzflash every time he tried to get there. :D

[MattNC]

1. here:

http://www.drudgereport.com/

[Ladyhawk]

2. Yeah, I know the URL

I just went there and saw enough to make me want to puke.

[IranianDemocrat]

3. Isn't Drudge a Log Cabin Republican?

?

[Sapphocrat]

6. He might be...

...if he would admit he's gay.

[private_ryan]

11. if he's gay

it doesn't really matter if he admits it or not.
Based on what I've read from David Brock he's one. Unless straight guys now started to buy roses for their friends before taking them out to dinner and gay bars...

[Clete]

4. He's not professional enough to be called a yellow journalist.

Mostly it's biased misinformation, like Rush. Welcome to the light. I grew up in a conservative Puke house too. I know how depressing and confusing it is before you realize everything they taught you was crap.

[Ladyhawk]

5. Lovely.

I figured out a way to block access to drudgereport.com on my computer, but what I really need is a way to redirect to a liberal site or to something that says:

Poison your mind on your own time.

That would kick ass. :)

[ConsAreLiars]

7. If they access Drudge via bookmarks --

You should be able to go into some bookmark handling option (like bookmarks/Manage bookmarks/properties/) and change the web address associated with the name to something more challengin.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

15. I can tell you how to do it if you are using a windows PC...

If you are serious about blocking drudge, there is a way to do it that will work no matter how they try to access it. Another poster suggested changing the URL in any favorites or bookmarks, but that doesn't work for links on other web pages.

However, there is a way to do it in Windows.

In the windows directory (eg C:\Windows\) there is a file called 'HOSTS' (there may be one called HOSTS.sam but the correct file has NO EXTENSION ie. no ".***")

If you open this file in notepad and add the line:

199.96.2.183 www.drudgereport.com

You will redirect any link that is pointing to "http://drudgereport.com" to the IP address listed, which just happens to be the address corresponding to "http://buzzflash.com".

Once you save the file, any click on a link or typing in of the URL "http://drudgereport.com" will redirect to Buzzflash. But here is the best part: The address listed in the address bar will still say "http://drudgereport.com" So it will look like drudge is mirroring the buzzflash page.

The HOSTS file is actually a sort of DNS server. Any internet connection attempt using a domain name first checks the HOSTS file to see if the name is listed there, and if it is, uses the corresponding IP address to establish the connection. If the name is not listed in the HOSTS file then it asks the ISP's DNS server to provide the correct address.

This will work for any address-domain name combination, and you can add as many redirect links as you want. I'm not sure how you have blocked your computer from visiting drudgereport.com, but you may have to unblock it in order for this to work.

[Ladyhawk]

19. Hey Thanks!

I'd totally forgotten about the hosts file! :D I was trying to do it through a software proxy, but this is oh-so-much-easier. Now, when you type in the address for Drudge Report, you get the Smudge Report.

Question: would it be mean of me to do the same thing to the other three computers I built? I built one for my mom, one for my brother and one for my nephew.

Free Republic should re-direct here, don't you think? :) I should see what other right-wing sites they frequent and re-direct them to corresponding left-wing sites. Too bad you can't do the same thing to the TV. My mother watches Faux News and Pat Robertson constantly.

:D

[deandem215]

8. give me a break!

Most of his articles are from the Washington Post and why on earth would a right-wing web site have a link to Hunter S. Thompsons' ESPN column? His site is just a mish mosh of crap for political junkies of all stripes. Tolerance is key.

[yankeedem]

16. Are you serious?

Then why do the "special reports" all impugn Democrats? To get educated, read Sidney Blumenthal's book. Then you will see what Drudge is all about.

That and he's best girlfriends with Coulter.

[RTC]

9. Drudge supoprted Hillary for Senator

I watched a television interview in which Drudge expressed delight that Hillary Clinton won the NY Senate seat. He said, "what would I do without Hilary?" ;-)

[private_ryan]

10. gay dating site

[Lexingtonian]

12. tabloid chic

First of all, the way that reporting/writing works these days is that "controversy" pays. The more "controversy" about something, the more money it generates for those 'reporting' it. "Controversy" relies mostly on angry conservatives suffering grief over the way the country has changed in the past 15 years, though since 2000 there's been more and more of a market hoaking kitsch and 'anger' of the liberal variety.

Yes, Matt Drudge is gay. He openly hopes for the full set of equal rights and privileges for gay people. Gay people, particularly those widely suspected of being closeted, get loads o' exposure (with obvious winks to them and the readers) on DrudgeReport.

He's also clearly an immoralist at bottom, a not uncommon phenomenon in gay society and a response to society-wide internalized homophobia. That commitment is what puts him in league with the radical Right rather than all those people- liberals- who just "don't get" how much Fun real power- abusing people you don't like, feel inferior to- really is. He has an immoralist's agenda of wanting to show up all the people who are considered decent as (also) immoral and indulgent and hypocrites. The Right is all these things and knows it but hides it; it's the real, respectable, reformers/liberals and such that Drudge wants to expose as being secretly weak and given to immorality as much as the Establishment is. (The point of the Establishment lies in providing privilege to engage in immorality, that's Drudge's essential political dogma AFAICT.)

In other words, Matt Drudge embodies all the things Conservatives consider the real Gay Agenda: overt/flagrant indulgence in immorality, selfhating sociopathy, voyeurism, projection, sublimation, cunning, hatred of actual virtue and internalized selfhatred at the very bottom. I imagine that notion would not make your family members very happy. But they can watch the site for a few days or weeks and figure out whether this conjecture holds up.

[LTR]

13. Drudge is gay? Oh, the irony...

First off, Drudge Report is one of the first news sites I visit every morning. Maybe because I like the format. Plain and simple, few pictures. No sign-ins or registration for every single page like most newspapers nowadays. I overlook the gossipy feel of it, but at least it gives me a few headlines at a glance.

Most would consider Drudge to be more right-wing after his pounding of the Clintons and the fact that he is mentioned occasionally by Rush Lowbrow...er Limbaugh. True, he does skewer the left more than the GOPers. He kisses ass to Fox News, ironic since they fired him.

But one has to wonder how any homosexual who cares about advancement in mainstream society could stomach siding with conservatives? But I have seen stranger things. After all, look what's in the White House.

[TreasonousBastard]

14. Drudge is where they plant stories...

and rumors they'd rather not bother the more "legitimate" press with.

Coulter, Limburger, Drudge... they're the "B" list who get to say the stuff politicians and "respected" pundits don't want to be caught saying, but gets the troops all aroused.

You can play with bookmarks, but it would be real fun to hijack your own browser so that any url the kid types in, it would redirect to Bartcop or Smirking Chimp. Or DU. Or randomly to something on Hated.com :eyes:

[piece sine]

17. more then a whiff of homophobia here

Can't anybody think of anything to good to sayabout being gay? So many sexist pokes at his sexual orientation. He invented the newsblog; his site is LINKS to news and views already in print somewhere. He pulls down well over a billion unique hits a year. He's scrutinized by every assignment editor in America. Its matter not whether we like his personal politics -- what matters is that millions of others read DrudgeReport as those of us who must stay informed to remain competitive have to read the most popular news site around --even if we happen to wish he'd take a different tack.

Some folks her prefer the synchronicity of echo chamber. Free thinkers want to know what's going on! Avoid Drudge at your own political peril. And lose the anti-gay remarks -- you sound like hooting College Republicans!

[LuCifer]

18. Screw Drudge! Check out SmudgeReport.com instead!

At www.SmudgeReport.com you'll get THE TRUTH! Oh man, I need to look up the emoticon things, I need the puke one, cuz Drudge IS JUST THAT! :puke: There! Pweh! I feel better now! Seriously y'all, check out SmudgeReport.com, I've found some damn good articles there, that I haven't seen linked ANYWHERE else (well, I'm lazy, that might have something to do with it!) on other sites.

Lu Cifer

[DrBB]

20. If brother is using a bookmark

If he's using a bookmark to get there you can alter the url the bookmark points to without altering the bookmark's identifying title, so you'd still have a bookmark that said "Drudge Report" but the url would actually point to http://www.bartcop.com or whatever. Might work once or twice, especially if it's a "favorites toolbar" link, though it's not exactly a genius-level hack.

[leftofthedial]

21. tabloid-style, reactionary infotainment

designed for those who want to be spoonfed simplistic right-wing crap.

Avoid it just as carefully as you avoid Limbaugh.