Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) blazed headlines when he declared that “the Drudge Report has become the attack site for the Donald Trump campaign” earlier in the week. While Matt Drudge fired back with his usual snarky headlines, there is no question that Cruz is correct: Drudge is in the tank for Trump.
Politico conducted an analysis of Drudge’s banner headlines in 2016 and concluded the vast majority of them portray Trump in a glowing manner while endlessly “deriding” Cruz. For instance, the Drudge Report’s headlines have been parroting Trump’s talking points that the Colorado caucus system was rigged against Trump. The American Spectator‘s Ross Kaminsky highlighted the headline that screamed: “Fury as Colorado has no primary or caucus!” as well as the following headlines:
- “SHOCK: Republicans cancel presidential election in CO…”
- “Voters burn registrations in protest…”
- “1 MILLION REPUBLICANS SIDELINED…”
- “PAPER: GOP Made Big Mistake…”
Kaminsky went through each headline and debunked how misleading each of them was:
- The first headline is “borders on journalistic malpractice” since it links to a seven-month old article about Colorado changing their election process, which was nothing more than abolishing a nonbinding straw poll. While Kaminsky argues that Colorado’s process may not be the best system, the implication that Colorado didn’t partake in the election process is simply false.
- The second headline would cause one to think a mob of angry voters burned their registration forms in the streets while holding pitchforks. The link went to a video of Larry Lindsey, a man who burned his registration form after claiming to have been disenfranchised as a Trump delegate. As it turns out, Lindsey lied.
- The third headline is also false because Republicans were free to participate in Colorado’s caucus on March 1.
- The fourth headline links to an old Denver Post editorial criticizing the Colorado state GOP for changing the process. While an argument can be made against the system, the problem is that “Trump and Drudge are obviously complaining only because they lost.”
Drudge has also become increasingly unhinged on Twitter over Colorado, as he tweeted out: “Does George Bush have to invade Colorado to make it a Democracy? STUNNING Republicans had NO PRIMARY or CAUCUS. At least Dems are faking it!” and “Hello Colorado Republicans, even Iraqis get a vote!” The infamous news aggregator also derided The Boston Globe for devoting a front page to mocking a Trump presidency.
The Politico analysis also noted how the Drudge Report hides Trump’s numerous vulnerabilities and even provides excuses for them:
For example, when Trump incensed conservatives and anti-abortion groups by suggesting on March 30 that women be punished for having abortions — if the procedure were outlawed — Drudge instead focused on Sanders’ possible exclusion from the D.C. ballot. And when Trump refused to disavow the Ku Klux Klan in late February, it was instead Sen. Jeff Sessions’ endorsement of Trump that topped the site.
More recently, when Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was charged with simple battery late last month, Drudge, perhaps showing his skepticism of the impending verdict, put battery in quotations. A day later, the banner story shifted to the prosecutor in the case being a Hillary Clinton supporter.
By contrast, here is how Drudge has covered Cruz:
But from January until now, banners have included stories exposing Cruz’s mothers’ birth certificate, which came amid Trump’s suggestion that Cruz could be constitutionally ineligible for the White House; Trump surrogate Sarah Palin blasting Cruz for “Dirty Politics” in Iowa; the Texas senator’s uphill battle to garner 87 percent of the remaining delegates in mid-March to secure the nomination outright; and Cruz’s advantage with key convention posts in Louisiana despite losing the state to Trump.
Drudge also drew the ire of many conservatives and Christians when he smeared Cruz with a headline mocking him as “the anointed one” as one of the four banner headlines, which also included: “Holy Ghost Video Revealed,” “Dad Speaking In Tongues,” and “Supporters ‘Lay Hands’ On Cruz At Rally.” Columnist Michelle Malkin took Drudge to task for these despicable headlines, as she explained that the video Drudge was mocking involved a pastor who baptized Cruz at birth calling on his congregation to lay hands on Cruz and pray, as many Christians do:
“Funny, but I don’t remember the armageddon-style headline about Donald Trump’s having hands laid on him at his Trump Towers just a couple of months ago by Christian and Jewish leaders,” Malkin said. “Holy hypocrisy Drudge! We have enough Christian bashers in the media, Hollywood and the White House. Next time, lay off the laying on of hands.”
Drudge also raised a lot of eyebrows when his banner story portrayed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as a midget:
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) March 9, 2016
This caused radio host Glenn Beck–who has drawn savage mockery in the headlines of the Drudge Report for passionately campaigning for Cruz–to snap at Drudge.
“I don’t know what the hell has happened to Matt Drudge, but it happened a few years ago, when he started hanging out with Alex Jones,” Beck said. “And now he is in this weird conspiratorial Alex Jones kind of place, and now he has taken and started to Photoshop pictures.”
Beck is spot-on with this analysis, as Drudge’s most recent media appearance was on the conspiracy theory-laden Alex Jones Show, and in that interview Drudge spouted numerous conspiracy theories of his own. Jones, naturally, is all in for Trump and attacked Cruz for having the temerity to accuse Drudge of being in the tank for Trump.
But it’s apparent to any rational thinking human being that based on Drudge’s tweets, the headlines of the Drudge Report, the fact that Drudge constantly links to Breitbart, which The Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro has called a “Trump Pravda site” and in the pro-Trump columns of Washington Times columnist Charles Hurt–an editor for the Drudge Report–that Drudge is in the tank for Trump, and it’s not hard to figure out why: Trump is Drudge’s dream candidate.
Left-wing rag Salon actually gets it right in describing Drudge as “fanning the flames” of “anti-establishment populism” and has put immigration as his top priority. Drudge has also been a thorn in the side of the Clintons, as it was he who broke the Monica Lewinsky story.
“Matt Drudge’s dream 2016 presidential match-up is his anti-establishment, anti-immigration populist Donald Trump against his favorite target, Hillary Clinton,” writes Salon‘s Jimmy LaSalvia. “He’s going to do everything he can to make that dream come true by making sure that his sizable audience stays loyal to Donald Trump in the primary.”
Conservatives have started to see through Drudge’s propaganda and have had enough, as a conservative alternative to the Drudge Report, called Social News Watch, has recently been established.