January 31, 2024 • 24 mins
Host Chris Moody takes a trip back to the 90s in search for the origins of The Drudge Report. Matt Drudge rises from Internet obscurity to national fame with a sensational scoop about President Bill Clinton and a White House intern. He becomes a star overnight, but this fedora-wearing newcomer remains an enigma to the media elite.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm having lunch at the Palm restaurant in Washington, DC
with our producer Jamie Weinstein. The Palm is power lunch
central in Washington. It's full of politicians, journalists, and famous
for DC celebrities, and it's where Matt Drudge tucked himself
into the corner of the bar alone and we just
missed him by a few minutes. Here's Jamie, who came
(00:26):
here when we first started the project and almost ran
into Drudge.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
We went to the Palm, where we often come in DC.
We sit down on our table and the matre D,
the longtime major D, comes up to us. Michael excitedly
never really has done this before and goes goes, You're
never gonna guess who was just in here? I go
know who?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Matt Drudge? You what? Michael Malure is the restaurant's general
manager who told us about the rare sighting.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
We noticed a gentleman sitting all by himself in the
bar with a hat on, and we didn't check him in,
so we thought that was interesting, and then one of
my waiters noticed that he looked familiar, so we googled
him and realized it was Matt Drudge and then about
a half an hour later, we looked at the bar
and he was gone. He was here, nobody saw him arrive,
(01:18):
and then he was gone, and nobody saw him exit.
When the word got out in the dining.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
When it was a bit of a buzz, did you
ever see Drudge here before?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Never? And never since. He just showed up and then disappeared.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
That pretty well sums up Matt Drudge's relationship with Washington.
He just shows up and then disappears. He pops in,
makes a splash, but never stays long enough to really
remain plugged in. We heard similar stories from people who
encountered him over the years. He just showed up and
then disappeared. I've started my search for Matt Drudge here
(01:54):
in Washington, DC. This is where he grew up. It's
the city where the biggest story of his life riche.
Drudge spent a lot of time here also in the
late nineties and early two thousands, but he never settled
back in. Everyone I've spoken to here, though, has the
same kind of story that Drudge would appear and then
just sort of vanish. Let's go back to the nineteen
(02:16):
nineties to learn how this all began. It's January twenty sixth,
nineteen ninety eight. President Bill Clinton walks into a room
in the White House alongside his wife Hillary and Vice
President Al Gore. The press and supporters are waiting for them.
(02:39):
The Clintons are there to talk about a childcare initiative,
but the press could hardly care less. They and the
rest of the country want to know just one thing
about a scandal surrounding the president and his alleged sexual
relationship with a young intern named Monica Lewinsky. After remarks
from Hillary Clinton and Gore, President Clinton stands at the
(03:03):
lectern to address the elephant in the room.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
But I want to say one thing to the American people.
I want you to listen to me. I'm going to
say this again. I did not have sexual relations with
that woman, miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie
in not a single time never. These allegations are false,
(03:28):
and I need to go back to work for the
American people.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Well. You know what happens next. The American people learn
all those sordid details of the ken Starr investigation. There's
the stained dress and the cigar.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
If Manico Lewinsky says that you used a cigar as
a sexual aid with her. The Ogel office garriot with
Juvi Bulani, Yes no, or or won't? I will revert
to my forward statement.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
The White House, in turn becomes a national punchline.
Speaker 6 (04:09):
Happy Monica Day.
Speaker 7 (04:10):
Everybody today is Monica Day across the United States?
Speaker 8 (04:14):
Is it a federal holiday? All zippers and half masks?
Speaker 1 (04:18):
I don't know about that one. The Clintons try to
brush it off.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
As this vast right wing conspiracy.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
That was against them. The House impeaches Clinton, but he
evades being kicked out of.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Office on both of the accusations against him. The President
is found not guilty, and that's the storyline of the hour,
the effort to remove president Blip boom, offices and chargers.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
All right, let's rewind that tape even more. To understand
how we got to this monumental moment, we have to
go back to the beginning. Everything that happens next, the
public details of the scandal. The first impeachment of a
sitting president in a century is set in motion by
(05:06):
one man with a dial up Internet connection in Hollywood, California,
Matt Drudge. How could the most powerful man in media
basically just vanish from public Life from JMW Productions in iHeartMedia.
This is finding Matt Drudge at this time in his life.
(05:33):
Drudge is not a household name. He's had some scoops
on his low rent website, The Drudge Report, but most
were about entertainment. He was written off as a gossip monger,
but now he was about to hit the jackpot that
would forever change his life. On January seventeenth, nineteen ninety eight,
Matt Drudge posted a story on his website that said
(05:54):
Newsweek magazine was sitting on a story about an alleged
affair between the president and an in. Michael Izikov was
the Newsweek reporter who was working on the story. According
to Drudge biographer Matt Lee Shak, Lucy Anne Goldberg, who
was trying to feed the story to the press, found
Matt Drudge after Newsweek was dragging its feet. Here's Lee Shak.
Speaker 9 (06:17):
After it's a cough left and said that they weren't
going to run his story and called her said you know,
I have this friend and he'll publish it.
Speaker 10 (06:26):
And Lucy Anne told me she.
Speaker 9 (06:29):
Called Matt up on a phone and gave Matt Drudge
the entire story and when she woke up the next
morning and saw it on the internet, she said that
she knew everything had changed.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Here's Iakov, who first met Drudge when Drudge visited the
Newsweek office in the summer of nineteen ninety seven, before
the story broke. What was your first impression of him
when he walked in the room and you saw him.
Speaker 10 (06:51):
I mean, you know, he was clearly a character, a type.
Speaker 11 (06:56):
You know, he wore that hat, he sort of gave
area of somebody in the know, and well, he was.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
A character. Later ezy Cuff started working on the Clinton.
Speaker 11 (07:11):
Story, it did not become a story as far as
I was concerned until I learned that Star had entered
the fray. That's what made this a story. And that's
when I really started to aggressively put everything together because
(07:35):
I knew then that this was going to be explosive.
It had become officially sanctioned secret Justice Department investigation of
the president.
Speaker 10 (07:48):
Drudge didn't have any of that. Everybody thinks Drudge broke
the story. You're looking what he wrote on his website
that night when Newsweek, you know, in its infinite wisdom,
decided to hold my story.
Speaker 11 (08:04):
Sarcastic by the way.
Speaker 12 (08:07):
Uh dressing nad that didn't say anything about Star didn't
say anything about the sting. He didn't say anything about that,
which was the most explosive part of the story.
Speaker 10 (08:18):
It just like you know, shouting matching Newsweek about weather
report that Clinton had in an extra roo affair with
Monica Lewinsky.
Speaker 11 (08:26):
That's not what the story was. I knew that once
he put that out there, that, you know, my scoop
was doomed. But there was nothing I could do about it.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
You had this scoop and why was it not run?
Why was it delayed?
Speaker 10 (08:44):
Basically they were nervous.
Speaker 11 (08:47):
I mean the editors, you know, this was.
Speaker 7 (08:50):
Like they wanted to know everything, but like, well wain second, like,
you know, can we really report that Clinton well has
been having an affair with an intern?
Speaker 11 (09:03):
The story was going to come out, this question of
how and when right, but the fundamentals.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Were already there.
Speaker 11 (09:12):
It was just too explosive. They couldn't handle. It was
too big to report.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
And at that time, what was the perspective about people
like Matt Drudge, Folks who were not tied to a
publication that had their own website that they put up
themselves and were pumping out information.
Speaker 11 (09:32):
He kind of pioneered it right the knee. I mean,
there weren't a lot of people doing what he did,
but you know, he seemed he was in with this
crowd of you know, conservative activists and lawyers, political operatives,
(09:52):
and so he's picking up all this sort of anti
Clinton gossip and just throwing it out there. And it
got him an enormous audience, right And I mean, people
were fixated on this stuff, even if they weren't, you know,
anti even if they weren't Clinton bashers. I mean, I
think there was an appetite for gossip about the Clintons,
(10:16):
and Drudge was basically a gossip calumnist at that point.
Speaker 10 (10:21):
Now he was more.
Speaker 11 (10:22):
Than that because he had all these links and he
had a pretty good news sense. That was always what
I think was his greatest as set. He just had
an instinct for news and what is going to blow
up and what would get people's attention. So they had
sort of an old fashioned tabloid newspaper editors instinct for
(10:42):
what's going to play.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Tucker Carlson was a young reporter in Washington at the time.
He remembered how the Clinton scoop was what put Drudge
on the map.
Speaker 13 (10:52):
This guy was called Matt Drudge, and I remember thinking
that's like totally out of dickens. There can't believe someone
called Matt Drudge. But everybody in a hollyw would read
Matt Drudge. And then nineteen ninety eight, the monical Winskey
story breaks. It was being prepared in Newsweek by Mike Isakov,
who was later became kind of bitter and ridiculous, but
(11:14):
at the time was a very serious reporter and I
knew him well, and you know, he's a real reporter.
And he had the story that the President had been
having a sexu relationship with his intern, which at the
time was legitimately shocking, and for whatever reason, cowardice mostly
Newsweek didn't want to run it, and out of nowhere,
(11:34):
Matt Drudge scooped him on his own story on this
thing called the Drudge Report. I had read the Drudge
Report before, but that was the moment when he went
from internet blogger to fixture in the news universe, when
he scooped that story and basically reported the real story,
which was Yakov had this and his editors at Newsweek
(11:54):
were refusing to run it, so that was kind of
the big change for Drudge and for a in journalism.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Izakov was furious at his editors. He had the scoop
of the century, and some rando in California beat him
to it.
Speaker 11 (12:09):
I remember the New York Times asking me if I
felt suicidal when the Newsweek editors held the story. Yet
I said, I don't know about suicidal, that I wouldn't
deny that I might have had homicidal in sticks. That's
that time.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Newsweek realized that they would have to act fast. They
couldn't wait to post their story until the next print
edition hit news stands in several days. So they did
what they'd never really done before. Spurred by the speed
the Drudge and others were posting online, Newsweek posted an
original story on its website. In essence, Matt Drudge had
(12:48):
kicked internet journalism into life.
Speaker 11 (12:51):
This was the moment that internet journalism became a thing.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
It was also the moment that launched Matt Drudge as
a media superstar. With his newfound fame, Drudge became a
Washington fixture. He was invited on national television shows and
was invited to exclusive parties. He had finally made it
with drudges Clinton scandal scoop rocking Washington. He was asked
to appear on Meet the Press, one of the most
(13:18):
prestigious news shows in the nation, and the other guest
who was slated to peer with him, Mike is a cuff.
Speaker 11 (13:25):
I was asked to be on Meet the Press the
Sunday after the story broke with him on a panel
with him on it. And you know, Russer called me
up and asked her to be on, you know, to
come on, and you know, I said, who else? And
he told me he was gonna have Drudge And I said,
you know, you really have to have Drudge and no,
(13:48):
Russy said, well, he's part of the story. She was,
So I agreed to do it.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Here's Drudge on the show talking about Clinton's response to
his reporting.
Speaker 14 (13:58):
I think we're going to give him some more And
if this is how they're going to go out, if
this is going to be their attack, to not go quietly,
but to go out screaming and kicking. When you've got
a line of women who have testified under oath that
they've had relationships with this man that had been improper.
He thought last week was bad, this upcoming week is
going to be one of the worst weeks in the
(14:19):
history of this country if they're going to take a
attack that this is all made up.
Speaker 11 (14:25):
Sitting opposite Drudge bothered me. Why are you going to
have him on? I had complained to rust In a
few days before. He's a reckless gossip merchant. He's part
of the story too, Russell replied, I wrote, he was right,
So I realized that there was no way to exclude
him and his role in the way that's played out.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Outside the studio, a gaggle of reporters stood waiting for
Drudge like he was some kind of celebrity. They set
up a microphone for him to speak, and when he
stepped outside, he was happy to indulge them and bask
in the glow of his You found fame.
Speaker 14 (15:01):
I intend no mercy. I'm working on it hard, got
a few leads, and it's up to the Washington Press
Corps if they keep the heat applied.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Do you know where Matt Drudge is? If you have
a great Matt Drudge story, they can shed insight into
the mysterious mogul and help us on our search. Call
us at three zero one two zero zero two four
one four and tell us about it. We may even
air your message in the final episodes of the show.
If you want us to credit you, please say so
and leave your name. Drudge relished in his status as
(15:41):
a media bad boy when his book Drudge Manifesto made
the New York Times bestseller List. He couldn't help but gloat.
Speaker 14 (15:49):
I'm not supposed to be in the New York Times
Bestsellers list because I'm not even a reporter, and I'm
not even a journalist. According to them, I'm just a troublemaker.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
That was on CSP with Brian Lamb, where Matt Drudge
became a regular guest. Brian Lamb, the founder of c SPAN,
embraced Drudge early. You know c SPAN. It's that cable
channel that broadcasts live from the Capitol Building and other
political events with little commentary. But se SPAN also hosts
public affairs talk shows in Washington in the mornings, and
Brian Lamb insisted on bringing Drudge on the show whenever
(16:22):
he could.
Speaker 6 (16:23):
The guy has had a tremendous amount of impact, if
nothing else, on the news business, because you know, those
of us in the news business are as thin skinned
as anybody in the world. And when he would scoop stuff.
It would drive people crazy. When it comes to Matt Drudge,
he was people were intrigued by it. Who is that guy?
(16:45):
And how can he get away with this? Where was
he educated? It's all in typical stuff. There is a
community of journalists in this town that have set their
own rules and if you break their rules, and you're
a bad guy. And I think it's easy to say
that he broke rules. You know how much he a
(17:06):
guy like that drives people in this town crazy. It's
it's the unknown, It's the sticking his finger in other
people's eyes. It's that, it's you know, where did this
guy come from? Attitude? He was cocky. I mean he
loved being cocky. Matt Dridge is one savvy character. He
(17:29):
studied the process and how it works, and he I
don't know where, I don't know what his goal was,
but he did make a difference and got in people's
heads and irritated them and exposed some of the things
that they just said not have exposed, and so he mattered.
I doubt if there's ever been anybody in the media
(17:51):
world that has done more, had more influence as a
single person than this guy. Maybe with the accept Thomas Payne.
But if you just think about how much he captivated
everybody in the last twenty five years, I think you
can conclude that he's had an impact.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Another show where he appeared as a guest was Crossfire,
a CNN talk show that discussed news of the day
from a liberal and a conservative perspective. Bill Press co
hosted the show during Drudge's heyday.
Speaker 8 (18:22):
The idea was half an hour live TV every night
with two co hosts, one on the left, one on
the right, and usually two guests, sometimes just one guest
debating the hottest issue.
Speaker 12 (18:35):
Of the day.
Speaker 8 (18:35):
And that's what we always tried to do. Bring on
a couple of guests, debate the high issue of the day,
and then move on. And certainly the hot issue at
the time was Monica Lewinsky, and we did probably a
year's worth of Monica Lewinsky shows. And Matt Drudge was
one of the key figures in that, of course, because
he's the one who broke the story after a newsweek
(18:59):
had refused used to run it, and this mysterious person
we were able to book in studio in Washington for
a Crossfire segment. I just remember the excitement right of
getting again this mysterious figure Matt Drudge, getting him actually
on the set. And the other thing I remember about
Matt Drudge is he was kind of shy. He just
(19:22):
did his job, and he was very confident that what
he reported was he sources for it. He was accurate.
He defended his site. A lot of people were attacking
it as they didn't use the phrase then as fake news.
But this was a new form of journalism. This guy
from out of nowhere really turned the media world upside down.
(19:46):
It was a whole new thing that took the traditional
media world by storm. It was new and nothing short
of revolutionary. He was very much a player at the time.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
That player status got him invited to two events like
the annual White House Correspondence Dinner in Washington, a night
with the press and politicos including the President of the
United States mingle and gowns and tuxedo over dinner and cocktails.
At one of the after parties, a slightly inebriated Sean Spicer,
many years before he became Donald Trump's White House Press secretary,
(20:19):
spotted Drudge and decided to play a prank on him.
I caught up with Spicer while he was selling books
in a crowded conference center in Washington.
Speaker 15 (20:28):
There was an after party at the White House correspondence dinner.
It went out to the patio was on the first floor,
and Drudge showed up at the party. After the dinner.
I think a few people had probably had a few drinks,
and Drudge had this Fedora type hat that he wore.
I believe, and the reason I bring this up is
that I believe I grabbed the hat. I went up,
(20:48):
introduced myself, and then I think just thought it was
kind of funny to maybe borrow Matt's hat. I don't
know that he took it with as much humor as
I did at the time, but I think I'd probably
had a couple drinks in me at that hour.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Ed Henry, who was a reporter for the Roll Call
newspaper at the time, recorded the event in the paper's
gossip column.
Speaker 16 (21:09):
Spicer being Spicer, he's an irishman who likes to tease people,
tweak people took the hat, maybe put it on, and
someone called me and said, you won't believe what John spicery.
Because Matt Drudge doesn't like when people touch his hat.
I would get like phone calls like, Hey, you didn't
hear it from me, but Spicer's in some hot water
because he pissed off Matt Drudge.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Despite the popularity or maybe he was just curiosity, reporters
remained skeptical of Drudge. He was, after all, still an outsider.
He wasn't one of them, and he was embarrassing them regularly.
Here's Mike Iakoff.
Speaker 10 (21:46):
There was condescension towards him because.
Speaker 11 (21:49):
He was viewed as this gossip guy who just threw
things out there right without doing real reporting or you know,
all verifying corroboratings. Yeah, it looked very much like this
interloper who didn't really play by the standard rules of journalism.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
At the time, you told The New York Times about Drudge,
he's a menace to honest, responsible journalism.
Speaker 11 (22:19):
Yeah, I did say that.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Do you still feel that way?
Speaker 11 (22:26):
Look, we've come so far today from where we were
then that there are.
Speaker 10 (22:32):
Many many menaces to.
Speaker 11 (22:36):
Honest, independent journalism these days. I don't know that i'd
put him at the top of the list.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
How have you felt about Matt Drudge if and when
you ever think of him or someone mentions him.
Speaker 11 (22:48):
Look, I don't think about him a lot these days.
He's a factor. You know, he was a factor in
the evolution of American journalism. To give him his due,
I mean, he was a pioneer who did bring a
lot of the you know, the ethos and sensibilities of
(23:12):
tabloid journalism to the Internet. He had sort of old
fashioned news instincts that were as good as any I've
come across. I mean it was when to jump on
a story. He knows how to play it up. He
knows how to frame things in a way that are
(23:34):
going to get people's attention, and so you know, that's
off doing for that. That's what's made him as successful
as he's been.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Obviously, a lot has changed in the media landscape since
the nineteen nineties. In a few short years, a lot
more would change for Matt Drudge too. He would quickly
transition from a pariah in the DC media world to
someone everyone sought after. In the next episode of Finding Drudge,
I'll travel to Washington, d C. To talk to journalists
(24:10):
about Matt Drudge, what he means to them, and how
far they've gone to get his attention. Join us next
time for Finding Matt Drudge. Remember to call us at
(24:40):
three zero one two zero zero two four one four.
If you have a great tip or a great Matt
Drudge story, we'll track down the tips for the final
episodes of the show.
I'm having lunch at the Palm restaurant in Washington, DC
with our producer Jamie Weinstein. The Palm is power lunch
central in Washington. It's full of politicians, journalists, and famous
for DC celebrities, and it's where Matt Drudge tucked himself
into the corner of the bar alone and we just
missed him by a few minutes. Here's Jamie, who came
(00:26):
here when we first started the project and almost ran
into Drudge.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
We went to the Palm, where we often come in DC.
We sit down on our table and the matre D,
the longtime major D, comes up to us. Michael excitedly
never really has done this before and goes goes, You're
never gonna guess who was just in here? I go
know who?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Matt Drudge? You what? Michael Malure is the restaurant's general
manager who told us about the rare sighting.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
We noticed a gentleman sitting all by himself in the
bar with a hat on, and we didn't check him in,
so we thought that was interesting, and then one of
my waiters noticed that he looked familiar, so we googled
him and realized it was Matt Drudge and then about
a half an hour later, we looked at the bar
and he was gone. He was here, nobody saw him arrive,
(01:18):
and then he was gone, and nobody saw him exit.
When the word got out in the dining.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
When it was a bit of a buzz, did you
ever see Drudge here before?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Never? And never since. He just showed up and then disappeared.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
That pretty well sums up Matt Drudge's relationship with Washington.
He just shows up and then disappears. He pops in,
makes a splash, but never stays long enough to really
remain plugged in. We heard similar stories from people who
encountered him over the years. He just showed up and
then disappeared. I've started my search for Matt Drudge here
(01:54):
in Washington, DC. This is where he grew up. It's
the city where the biggest story of his life riche.
Drudge spent a lot of time here also in the
late nineties and early two thousands, but he never settled
back in. Everyone I've spoken to here, though, has the
same kind of story that Drudge would appear and then
just sort of vanish. Let's go back to the nineteen
(02:16):
nineties to learn how this all began. It's January twenty sixth,
nineteen ninety eight. President Bill Clinton walks into a room
in the White House alongside his wife Hillary and Vice
President Al Gore. The press and supporters are waiting for them.
(02:39):
The Clintons are there to talk about a childcare initiative,
but the press could hardly care less. They and the
rest of the country want to know just one thing
about a scandal surrounding the president and his alleged sexual
relationship with a young intern named Monica Lewinsky. After remarks
from Hillary Clinton and Gore, President Clinton stands at the
(03:03):
lectern to address the elephant in the room.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
But I want to say one thing to the American people.
I want you to listen to me. I'm going to
say this again. I did not have sexual relations with
that woman, miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie
in not a single time never. These allegations are false,
(03:28):
and I need to go back to work for the
American people.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Well. You know what happens next. The American people learn
all those sordid details of the ken Starr investigation. There's
the stained dress and the cigar.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
If Manico Lewinsky says that you used a cigar as
a sexual aid with her. The Ogel office garriot with
Juvi Bulani, Yes no, or or won't? I will revert
to my forward statement.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
The White House, in turn becomes a national punchline.
Speaker 6 (04:09):
Happy Monica Day.
Speaker 7 (04:10):
Everybody today is Monica Day across the United States?
Speaker 8 (04:14):
Is it a federal holiday? All zippers and half masks?
Speaker 1 (04:18):
I don't know about that one. The Clintons try to
brush it off.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
As this vast right wing conspiracy.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
That was against them. The House impeaches Clinton, but he
evades being kicked out of.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Office on both of the accusations against him. The President
is found not guilty, and that's the storyline of the hour,
the effort to remove president Blip boom, offices and chargers.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
All right, let's rewind that tape even more. To understand
how we got to this monumental moment, we have to
go back to the beginning. Everything that happens next, the
public details of the scandal. The first impeachment of a
sitting president in a century is set in motion by
(05:06):
one man with a dial up Internet connection in Hollywood, California,
Matt Drudge. How could the most powerful man in media
basically just vanish from public Life from JMW Productions in iHeartMedia.
This is finding Matt Drudge at this time in his life.
(05:33):
Drudge is not a household name. He's had some scoops
on his low rent website, The Drudge Report, but most
were about entertainment. He was written off as a gossip monger,
but now he was about to hit the jackpot that
would forever change his life. On January seventeenth, nineteen ninety eight,
Matt Drudge posted a story on his website that said
(05:54):
Newsweek magazine was sitting on a story about an alleged
affair between the president and an in. Michael Izikov was
the Newsweek reporter who was working on the story. According
to Drudge biographer Matt Lee Shak, Lucy Anne Goldberg, who
was trying to feed the story to the press, found
Matt Drudge after Newsweek was dragging its feet. Here's Lee Shak.
Speaker 9 (06:17):
After it's a cough left and said that they weren't
going to run his story and called her said you know,
I have this friend and he'll publish it.
Speaker 10 (06:26):
And Lucy Anne told me she.
Speaker 9 (06:29):
Called Matt up on a phone and gave Matt Drudge
the entire story and when she woke up the next
morning and saw it on the internet, she said that
she knew everything had changed.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Here's Iakov, who first met Drudge when Drudge visited the
Newsweek office in the summer of nineteen ninety seven, before
the story broke. What was your first impression of him
when he walked in the room and you saw him.
Speaker 10 (06:51):
I mean, you know, he was clearly a character, a type.
Speaker 11 (06:56):
You know, he wore that hat, he sort of gave
area of somebody in the know, and well, he was.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
A character. Later ezy Cuff started working on the Clinton.
Speaker 11 (07:11):
Story, it did not become a story as far as
I was concerned until I learned that Star had entered
the fray. That's what made this a story. And that's
when I really started to aggressively put everything together because
(07:35):
I knew then that this was going to be explosive.
It had become officially sanctioned secret Justice Department investigation of
the president.
Speaker 10 (07:48):
Drudge didn't have any of that. Everybody thinks Drudge broke
the story. You're looking what he wrote on his website
that night when Newsweek, you know, in its infinite wisdom,
decided to hold my story.
Speaker 11 (08:04):
Sarcastic by the way.
Speaker 12 (08:07):
Uh dressing nad that didn't say anything about Star didn't
say anything about the sting. He didn't say anything about that,
which was the most explosive part of the story.
Speaker 10 (08:18):
It just like you know, shouting matching Newsweek about weather
report that Clinton had in an extra roo affair with
Monica Lewinsky.
Speaker 11 (08:26):
That's not what the story was. I knew that once
he put that out there, that, you know, my scoop
was doomed. But there was nothing I could do about it.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
You had this scoop and why was it not run?
Why was it delayed?
Speaker 10 (08:44):
Basically they were nervous.
Speaker 11 (08:47):
I mean the editors, you know, this was.
Speaker 7 (08:50):
Like they wanted to know everything, but like, well wain second, like,
you know, can we really report that Clinton well has
been having an affair with an intern?
Speaker 11 (09:03):
The story was going to come out, this question of
how and when right, but the fundamentals.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Were already there.
Speaker 11 (09:12):
It was just too explosive. They couldn't handle. It was
too big to report.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
And at that time, what was the perspective about people
like Matt Drudge, Folks who were not tied to a
publication that had their own website that they put up
themselves and were pumping out information.
Speaker 11 (09:32):
He kind of pioneered it right the knee. I mean,
there weren't a lot of people doing what he did,
but you know, he seemed he was in with this
crowd of you know, conservative activists and lawyers, political operatives,
(09:52):
and so he's picking up all this sort of anti
Clinton gossip and just throwing it out there. And it
got him an enormous audience, right And I mean, people
were fixated on this stuff, even if they weren't, you know,
anti even if they weren't Clinton bashers. I mean, I
think there was an appetite for gossip about the Clintons,
(10:16):
and Drudge was basically a gossip calumnist at that point.
Speaker 10 (10:21):
Now he was more.
Speaker 11 (10:22):
Than that because he had all these links and he
had a pretty good news sense. That was always what
I think was his greatest as set. He just had
an instinct for news and what is going to blow
up and what would get people's attention. So they had
sort of an old fashioned tabloid newspaper editors instinct for
(10:42):
what's going to play.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Tucker Carlson was a young reporter in Washington at the time.
He remembered how the Clinton scoop was what put Drudge
on the map.
Speaker 13 (10:52):
This guy was called Matt Drudge, and I remember thinking
that's like totally out of dickens. There can't believe someone
called Matt Drudge. But everybody in a hollyw would read
Matt Drudge. And then nineteen ninety eight, the monical Winskey
story breaks. It was being prepared in Newsweek by Mike Isakov,
who was later became kind of bitter and ridiculous, but
(11:14):
at the time was a very serious reporter and I
knew him well, and you know, he's a real reporter.
And he had the story that the President had been
having a sexu relationship with his intern, which at the
time was legitimately shocking, and for whatever reason, cowardice mostly
Newsweek didn't want to run it, and out of nowhere,
(11:34):
Matt Drudge scooped him on his own story on this
thing called the Drudge Report. I had read the Drudge
Report before, but that was the moment when he went
from internet blogger to fixture in the news universe, when
he scooped that story and basically reported the real story,
which was Yakov had this and his editors at Newsweek
(11:54):
were refusing to run it, so that was kind of
the big change for Drudge and for a in journalism.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Izakov was furious at his editors. He had the scoop
of the century, and some rando in California beat him
to it.
Speaker 11 (12:09):
I remember the New York Times asking me if I
felt suicidal when the Newsweek editors held the story. Yet
I said, I don't know about suicidal, that I wouldn't
deny that I might have had homicidal in sticks. That's
that time.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Newsweek realized that they would have to act fast. They
couldn't wait to post their story until the next print
edition hit news stands in several days. So they did
what they'd never really done before. Spurred by the speed
the Drudge and others were posting online, Newsweek posted an
original story on its website. In essence, Matt Drudge had
(12:48):
kicked internet journalism into life.
Speaker 11 (12:51):
This was the moment that internet journalism became a thing.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
It was also the moment that launched Matt Drudge as
a media superstar. With his newfound fame, Drudge became a
Washington fixture. He was invited on national television shows and
was invited to exclusive parties. He had finally made it
with drudges Clinton scandal scoop rocking Washington. He was asked
to appear on Meet the Press, one of the most
(13:18):
prestigious news shows in the nation, and the other guest
who was slated to peer with him, Mike is a cuff.
Speaker 11 (13:25):
I was asked to be on Meet the Press the
Sunday after the story broke with him on a panel
with him on it. And you know, Russer called me
up and asked her to be on, you know, to
come on, and you know, I said, who else? And
he told me he was gonna have Drudge And I said,
you know, you really have to have Drudge and no,
(13:48):
Russy said, well, he's part of the story. She was,
So I agreed to do it.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Here's Drudge on the show talking about Clinton's response to
his reporting.
Speaker 14 (13:58):
I think we're going to give him some more And
if this is how they're going to go out, if
this is going to be their attack, to not go quietly,
but to go out screaming and kicking. When you've got
a line of women who have testified under oath that
they've had relationships with this man that had been improper.
He thought last week was bad, this upcoming week is
going to be one of the worst weeks in the
(14:19):
history of this country if they're going to take a
attack that this is all made up.
Speaker 11 (14:25):
Sitting opposite Drudge bothered me. Why are you going to
have him on? I had complained to rust In a
few days before. He's a reckless gossip merchant. He's part
of the story too, Russell replied, I wrote, he was right,
So I realized that there was no way to exclude
him and his role in the way that's played out.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Outside the studio, a gaggle of reporters stood waiting for
Drudge like he was some kind of celebrity. They set
up a microphone for him to speak, and when he
stepped outside, he was happy to indulge them and bask
in the glow of his You found fame.
Speaker 14 (15:01):
I intend no mercy. I'm working on it hard, got
a few leads, and it's up to the Washington Press
Corps if they keep the heat applied.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Do you know where Matt Drudge is? If you have
a great Matt Drudge story, they can shed insight into
the mysterious mogul and help us on our search. Call
us at three zero one two zero zero two four
one four and tell us about it. We may even
air your message in the final episodes of the show.
If you want us to credit you, please say so
and leave your name. Drudge relished in his status as
(15:41):
a media bad boy when his book Drudge Manifesto made
the New York Times bestseller List. He couldn't help but gloat.
Speaker 14 (15:49):
I'm not supposed to be in the New York Times
Bestsellers list because I'm not even a reporter, and I'm
not even a journalist. According to them, I'm just a troublemaker.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
That was on CSP with Brian Lamb, where Matt Drudge
became a regular guest. Brian Lamb, the founder of c SPAN,
embraced Drudge early. You know c SPAN. It's that cable
channel that broadcasts live from the Capitol Building and other
political events with little commentary. But se SPAN also hosts
public affairs talk shows in Washington in the mornings, and
Brian Lamb insisted on bringing Drudge on the show whenever
(16:22):
he could.
Speaker 6 (16:23):
The guy has had a tremendous amount of impact, if
nothing else, on the news business, because you know, those
of us in the news business are as thin skinned
as anybody in the world. And when he would scoop stuff.
It would drive people crazy. When it comes to Matt Drudge,
he was people were intrigued by it. Who is that guy?
(16:45):
And how can he get away with this? Where was
he educated? It's all in typical stuff. There is a
community of journalists in this town that have set their
own rules and if you break their rules, and you're
a bad guy. And I think it's easy to say
that he broke rules. You know how much he a
(17:06):
guy like that drives people in this town crazy. It's
it's the unknown, It's the sticking his finger in other
people's eyes. It's that, it's you know, where did this
guy come from? Attitude? He was cocky. I mean he
loved being cocky. Matt Dridge is one savvy character. He
(17:29):
studied the process and how it works, and he I
don't know where, I don't know what his goal was,
but he did make a difference and got in people's
heads and irritated them and exposed some of the things
that they just said not have exposed, and so he mattered.
I doubt if there's ever been anybody in the media
(17:51):
world that has done more, had more influence as a
single person than this guy. Maybe with the accept Thomas Payne.
But if you just think about how much he captivated
everybody in the last twenty five years, I think you
can conclude that he's had an impact.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Another show where he appeared as a guest was Crossfire,
a CNN talk show that discussed news of the day
from a liberal and a conservative perspective. Bill Press co
hosted the show during Drudge's heyday.
Speaker 8 (18:22):
The idea was half an hour live TV every night
with two co hosts, one on the left, one on
the right, and usually two guests, sometimes just one guest
debating the hottest issue.
Speaker 12 (18:35):
Of the day.
Speaker 8 (18:35):
And that's what we always tried to do. Bring on
a couple of guests, debate the high issue of the day,
and then move on. And certainly the hot issue at
the time was Monica Lewinsky, and we did probably a
year's worth of Monica Lewinsky shows. And Matt Drudge was
one of the key figures in that, of course, because
he's the one who broke the story after a newsweek
(18:59):
had refused used to run it, and this mysterious person
we were able to book in studio in Washington for
a Crossfire segment. I just remember the excitement right of
getting again this mysterious figure Matt Drudge, getting him actually
on the set. And the other thing I remember about
Matt Drudge is he was kind of shy. He just
(19:22):
did his job, and he was very confident that what
he reported was he sources for it. He was accurate.
He defended his site. A lot of people were attacking
it as they didn't use the phrase then as fake news.
But this was a new form of journalism. This guy
from out of nowhere really turned the media world upside down.
(19:46):
It was a whole new thing that took the traditional
media world by storm. It was new and nothing short
of revolutionary. He was very much a player at the time.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
That player status got him invited to two events like
the annual White House Correspondence Dinner in Washington, a night
with the press and politicos including the President of the
United States mingle and gowns and tuxedo over dinner and cocktails.
At one of the after parties, a slightly inebriated Sean Spicer,
many years before he became Donald Trump's White House Press secretary,
(20:19):
spotted Drudge and decided to play a prank on him.
I caught up with Spicer while he was selling books
in a crowded conference center in Washington.
Speaker 15 (20:28):
There was an after party at the White House correspondence dinner.
It went out to the patio was on the first floor,
and Drudge showed up at the party. After the dinner.
I think a few people had probably had a few drinks,
and Drudge had this Fedora type hat that he wore.
I believe, and the reason I bring this up is
that I believe I grabbed the hat. I went up,
(20:48):
introduced myself, and then I think just thought it was
kind of funny to maybe borrow Matt's hat. I don't
know that he took it with as much humor as
I did at the time, but I think I'd probably
had a couple drinks in me at that hour.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Ed Henry, who was a reporter for the Roll Call
newspaper at the time, recorded the event in the paper's
gossip column.
Speaker 16 (21:09):
Spicer being Spicer, he's an irishman who likes to tease people,
tweak people took the hat, maybe put it on, and
someone called me and said, you won't believe what John spicery.
Because Matt Drudge doesn't like when people touch his hat.
I would get like phone calls like, Hey, you didn't
hear it from me, but Spicer's in some hot water
because he pissed off Matt Drudge.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Despite the popularity or maybe he was just curiosity, reporters
remained skeptical of Drudge. He was, after all, still an outsider.
He wasn't one of them, and he was embarrassing them regularly.
Here's Mike Iakoff.
Speaker 10 (21:46):
There was condescension towards him because.
Speaker 11 (21:49):
He was viewed as this gossip guy who just threw
things out there right without doing real reporting or you know,
all verifying corroboratings. Yeah, it looked very much like this
interloper who didn't really play by the standard rules of journalism.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
At the time, you told The New York Times about Drudge,
he's a menace to honest, responsible journalism.
Speaker 11 (22:19):
Yeah, I did say that.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Do you still feel that way?
Speaker 11 (22:26):
Look, we've come so far today from where we were
then that there are.
Speaker 10 (22:32):
Many many menaces to.
Speaker 11 (22:36):
Honest, independent journalism these days. I don't know that i'd
put him at the top of the list.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
How have you felt about Matt Drudge if and when
you ever think of him or someone mentions him.
Speaker 11 (22:48):
Look, I don't think about him a lot these days.
He's a factor. You know, he was a factor in
the evolution of American journalism. To give him his due,
I mean, he was a pioneer who did bring a
lot of the you know, the ethos and sensibilities of
(23:12):
tabloid journalism to the Internet. He had sort of old
fashioned news instincts that were as good as any I've
come across. I mean it was when to jump on
a story. He knows how to play it up. He
knows how to frame things in a way that are
(23:34):
going to get people's attention, and so you know, that's
off doing for that. That's what's made him as successful
as he's been.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Obviously, a lot has changed in the media landscape since
the nineteen nineties. In a few short years, a lot
more would change for Matt Drudge too. He would quickly
transition from a pariah in the DC media world to
someone everyone sought after. In the next episode of Finding Drudge,
I'll travel to Washington, d C. To talk to journalists
(24:10):
about Matt Drudge, what he means to them, and how
far they've gone to get his attention. Join us next
time for Finding Matt Drudge. Remember to call us at
(24:40):
three zero one two zero zero two four one four.
If you have a great tip or a great Matt
Drudge story, we'll track down the tips for the final
episodes of the show.
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