Matt Drudge pulls out his famous election eve race card

[Snellius]

Yes, it's election time again and Matt Drudge has carefully decorated his influential website with the usual panoply of clever disinformation and suggestive slurs. Last year during the midterm elections, he featured a large photo of a group of happy and rather overweight African Americans standing over a new voting machine, preparing to cast their vote. The prominent caption read: "May the best candidate win." Today on the eve of the celebrity deathmatch in California, the mischievous muckraker has pulled out of his bag of tricks this story, first headline of column 1:

BLACK ARTISTS ARE TOP OF THE POPS: Black artists have filled all top 10 slots on this week's Billboard singles chart for the first time...

It links to a BBC site with the heading:

Black artists take over US top 10

Interesting that the original headline carries a more explicit innuendo than Drudge. Perhaps, after what happened to Limbaugh, he had to hide his race-baiting cards a little closer to the chest.

Of course, many will say, this is just a coincidence. Maybe Drudge has started to take an interest in 50 Cent and Black Eyed Peas? Maybe he is just applauding the success of Black Americans like P.Diddy or Donovan McNabb? Somehow I don't think so.

[Maddy McCall]

1. Racism is more dangerous when it is subtle...

because you don't know exactly who the enemy is nor what you are up against.

The Council of Conservative Citizens here in Mississippi was no less racist the Klan--they just used more covert forms of racism, and if you ask me, more detrimental forms. At least the Klan was easy to spot; the CCC used silent economic retribution that was less easy to see.

Several days ago, a DUer asked for help finding racist statements that Rush had made (before the recent outrage). The thing is that he may not have made overt racist statements, but his racist implications (things said that he knew his listeners would interpret the "right way") are just as bad.

Send the message, leave it up to your readership to interpret, and meanwhile you can defend yourself from "racist" labels by saying "I didn't say anything racist...I can't help how people interpret it."

And those of us who see inherent racism are accused of being overly sensitive liberals who look for a racist in every corner.

[psychopomp]

2. It really is news

Drudge often passes on the blab from the entertainment scene. If anything else, it got my mind off of Ah-nuld for a few minutes.

[James Maxey]

3. What the ... ?

I am at a loss to see how this qualifies as race baiting. Are you somehow implying that Drudge manipulated the Billboard top 10 to contain nothing but black artists the day before the California election to produce a huge groundswell of racist white outrage in California that would bring out the racist right to kick out Governor Gray Davis, who they had otherwise planned on supporting? I notice that the headline right next to it is about Roy Horn requesting that the tiger that mauled him not be killed. Is this some kind of animal rights baiting? For the last few months, Drudge has been the first place I've read news about Swarzenegger's fondling, Nazi sympathies, and racists comments. It was also the first news source where I found the Rush drug story. Drudge rakes muck, and it's raked over right wing figures with a certain amount of giddy fervor, albeit nothing like the way he went after Clinton.

I will now turn this into an impassioned plea to help me never have to look at the Drudge Report again. I hate being so addicted to Drudge. But, the fact remains, Drudge Report has several aspects as a news site that appeals to me that I have yet to find a match for. Advantage one: Frequent updates. The site is updated with the latest rumors, innuendo and speculation the second they are available. I'm a news junky who happens to like rumors and innuendos. I'm skeptical enough to dismiss almost all of it, but I like getting a sense for what the "buzz" will be. Buzzflash is also a good source of this not-quite-news news, but is slow as molassis. Advantage two: A political slant, but not to the point of blindness. Drudge focuses on the political hot topics of the day, but also has news of other big events, like Hurricane Isabel or science news or the aforementioned entertainment news. Again, my favorite left-wing sites, like Buzzflash or Democratic Underground have such a narrow focus on politics that a hurricane just isn't news to them. Finally, one of the biggest advantages of Drudge is design. On my little iMac, Drudgereports predominantly text layout loads in seconds. Buzzflash also has a text layout, but while drudge will limit to about a dozen headlines, Buzzflash with list about 30, some weeks old, and will also mix in book ads in the form of headlines, which is sleazy if you ask me.

So, my plea is this: Where can I find the anti-Drudge? Where can I find news that is politically slanted but not purely political, rapidly updated, friendly to a slow computer, and doesn't have ads hidden as headlines? Politically, I'm as far from Drudge as a human can get, and it embarrasses me that no one closer to my views has managed yet to put together a news service quite as good as his.

--James Maxey

[bpilgrim]

4. buzzflash.com - GlobalFreePress.com

http://buzzflash.com
http://news.GlobalFreePress.com

peace

[Snellius]

5. Welcome. "Where can I find the anti-Drudge?"

You found it right here.

On edit:
With Drudge you always have to ask yourself: "Why did he choose that story? Why does he position it where he does? What does he link to?" Drudge is devilishly clever with this "secret code" journalism. It's like those ambiguous puzzle pictures that can be interpreted in different ways. You either see it or you don't.

[Maddy McCall]

6. Are you SERIOUS???

You said: "The site is updated with the latest rumors, innuendo and speculation the second they are available."

And that is a reason to read Drudge? Rumors, innuendo, speculation are NOT news.

[James Maxey]

11. Well, sure I'm serious

I'm not of the opinion that there are any objective news sources. Google news might be the closest, since it is gathered by inhuman machine devils (or something like that) but Google almost never has the stories I want to read about at the top. And by stories I want to read about, I mean stories I never knew I wanted to read about until wham, there they are. I never knew I wanted to see a naked picture of Ah-nold, for instance, until it was posted on Drudge. So I'm perfectly aware that Drudge has an agenda, although I'm a little foggy on how exactly it is a racist agenda. It seems to me to be a more sensationalistic, conservative, touching on libertarian agenda. (He really seems to hate red-light cameras, for instance.) I'm also definitely aware that Buzzflash has an agenda. I like agendas. I like news with a slant. People who have points to make are more interesting than people who aim for objectivity. This is why I prefer Mclaughlin Group, say, to the Connection (a news discussion show on NPR, which I listen to frequently, but not avidly). I also like news sources with a sense of humor, such as As It Happens, the Canadian version of NPR. And I love fringe news sources such as Fortean Times. Basicly, I devour news for its entertainment value, and in the course of digesting it some of it turns out to be useful fuel for thought and most of it winds up as crap.

I read Democratic Underground as part of my hunting/gathering pattern for news, but mainly for the top 10 conservative idiots, one of the most slanted items published here.

Junk news is like junk food. I might live longer and healthier if all I ever ate was organic brown rice, but I'm going to get more enjoyment out of greasy pizza's and buffalo wings. And if my head grows fat in the process, well, hey, every thing has trade offs.

--James

[newyawker99]

8. Hi James Maxey!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[MrPrax]

9. So eloquent for a first post...

Drudge is the first place people hear about a lot of things....Monica Lewinsky or the fact Arny isn't going to run or how many books his buddy Ann Coulter is selling compared to Hillary

You know, I go to his site occasionally, but if you are looking for an alternative new source, I can't help but notice that Drudge himself quotes a lot from the Washington Post or Yahoo and really all he has done is culled headlines that are a little bias and usually readily available elsewhere...including CNN's site

You can get more of the diversity you want by simply going to GoogleNews--they cover all the big events and hurricanes and give multiple sources for their headlines.

I scan 5-10 sites a day on a regular basis BTW...KNOWING that the electronic media of radio and television usually priorize the 'news' for the masses anyhow (hurricanes, house fires, which scandals the media has decided are real scandals, who is winning on Survivor, missing children, latest sports cliches spoken by athletes)...
Durdge formats his INTERNET site similar to electronic news--he 'priorizes'
I can set my own priorities on what I think is the priority of news from around the world

[marshmellow]

7. Simple but effective strategy.

Rush, Drudge and the opinion shapers that are an arm of the RNC have been assigned to push a strategy during the recession that promotes the myth that blacks get unfair advantage for success. That includes the music industry, sports, anywhere it can be believed to be true. Remember the Univ of Mich debate. This is a programmed strategy.

This is an old strategy but highly effective. If there is only one job available for every 10 people, and the RNC helps you believe that a black person might get it because of their color, you might decide to vote against the party that supports affirmative action.

[RummyTheDummy]

10. I'm not sure I get your point...

Seems like you're reaching.