Is the Drudge Report Low Balling Hurricane Irene?

I've been watching coverage of Hurricane Irene. Being a resident of Tampa, Florida, I have been through Hurricane Frances and Jean and the close call of Charley. So, like all Floridians I'm personally aware of what a hurricane or tropical storm can do. As I'm typing this I'm listening to reports that Irene is outperforming its category.

I've also been perusing websites and that includes Drudge Report. I've had other concerns of late with Mr. Drudge's site recently, but I am alarmed with links that are downplaying expectations. There are a wide variety of links,but this link to Dr. Simon Atkins reads on Drudge like this: Forecaster: 'Hype over Hurricane Irene overblown'...

Additionally, another link to Real Science reads like this: Scientist Mocks: Phony 'Hurricane' Coming On Shore With 33 MPH Winds. The rest of the links deal with the preparation for the storm, but do not contradict directly the absurdity of these two links.

Storms like Irene always draw out the idiots who are intrigued by its power. These people put their lives, the lives of family and friends at risk. It also risks first responders who feel a sense of responsibility even among these conditions to provide assistance.

If Matt Drudge wants to be a skeptic that's his prerogative, but as well trafficked as his site is he should feel a greater sense of responsibility at the very least. There are plenty of fools under these conditions, Matt Drudge must stop encouraging them.

Why Is Drudge Linking To Alex Jones's "Info Wars" Site?

As I normally do on a daily basis I visited the Drudge Report. On the left hand column there are three links regarding Texas Governor Rick Perry.

The first link is this: National Journal: Perry Road Tests Stump Speech

The second link is this: NBC NEWS:Perry: Stand Up and Stop Apolgizing
The third link? Infowars.com.: Bilderberg Approved Perry Set To Become GOP Frontrunner

This is apparently not the first time Drudge has linked to that charlatan Alex Jones, but this piece is absolutely ridiculous. Drudge loses credibility by linking such crap on his site.

First there's the title. Rick Perry if he gets in will be formidable,but does anyone really think he becomes the automatic front runner? He's well known with conservatives and in Texas, but relatively unknown to most Americans. Most polls that include Perry have him in single digits.

The lead paragraph:

"Every indication suggests that Bilderberg-approved Texas Governor Rick Perry is set to become the front runner in the Republican race to challenge Barack Obama for the presidency, illustrating once again how a shady, secretive and undemocratic global elite holds the reigns of true power while Americans are distracted by the delusional notion that they have a genuine choice in 2012."

 Isn't it great to know that the world's most trafficked website (?) is perpetuating Alex Jones's absurdities that our Republic is a sham?

 There's more:

"Texas Governor Perry, a protégé of Karl Rove, is very good at acting like a down-home populist, but that’s all it is – an act. Perry is George W. Bush 2.0."

 I may not be an expert on Texas politics but I have a clear impression that the Perry's and the Bush's don't care for each other. Have we ever heard Karl Rove's name mentioned in connection with Perry's tenure as Lt. Governor and now Governor? In point of fact, Karl Rove actively supported Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison in her primary effort to defeat Rick Perry's bid for a third term just last year. Perry crushed her and Rove and his Bush supporters went down to ignominious defeat at the hands of Perry in the GOP primary. I'm quite certain G.W., Rove and Senator Hutchison (who's retiring) would not categorize Perry as Bush 2.0.
 
The rest of the article goes on with Jones's usual conspiracy nonsense even suggesting that Perry's participation in an Istanbul conference violated the "Logan Act".
 
Oh and of course the conspiracy to nominate Rick Perry is to stop Ron Paul's momentum.

Matt Drudge does yeoman's work sifting through items for our perusal, but someone needs to call him on this crap. It's embarrassing to intelligent and thoughtful discourse.What a waste.

Matt Drudge: An American Pioneer

From: American Thinker

If there were a crystal ball, like the one in the fairytale where one could see into the future, it probably would be an iPad with the Drudge Report.

It is amazing how one man can have such an ability to know what is news, and how to make it headline news, instantaneous and world-wide, creating a domino-effect that in itself becomes news. Matt Drudge has the ability to spot a diamond in the rough, and mostly it is hidden under the feet of a corporate journalist.

The Drudge Report headlines alone are the best in the business and outwit all of its competitors, not to mention the selected pictures that accompany the story. And when there is breaking news, Drudge turns on the siren. Unlike CNN and Fox News, Drudge uses his "breaking news" type of alerts very sparingly. Fox News, on the other hand, seems to have an alert every 10 minutes. But when Drudge does turn on the siren, it lights up all over the world, awakening especially those in the offices of The New York Times, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc -- the ones that went to those prestigious journalism schools and who lecture a lot about credentials, credibility, and societal responsibility. And usually their commencement speeches -- which they are so fond of delivering -- are as sluggish, boring, and outdated as the organizations they work for.

Thankfully, in contrast, the Drudge Report is original, refreshing, fast, bold, and exciting. There is no other news organization that comes close to the Drudge Report.

Pat Buchanan once said that Matt Drudge is the most powerful journalist in America today -- and that was several years ago. But this might be an understatement. (By, the way, Matt Drudge dislikes the word "journalist," and once referred to it as the "J-word.") Matt Drudge might well be the most powerful reporter in the English speaking world if not the entire world. For years now he continues to run circles around the US news establishment, whose only hope is to keep checking what he is posting next.

Today it is difficult to imagine that there once was a world where one could not wake-up to the Drudge Report and Starbucks coffee. Yet that was the world many of us still can remember as not too long ago. There was a time when one had to actually retrieve a wrinkled, stained newspaper from one's driveway or from a dirty news box. By the time one read it, one's fingertips were black, and the news was as old and stale as canned coffee.