Obviously Newt isn’t the insider candidate—a nugget is buried in this video

In my lifetime I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a mobilization of bias like what I am seeing now in the 2012 Republican Primary. One by one, candidates have fallen either because of their debate performance or negative attacks.

I watched as one of the nation’s most accomplished governors, Rick Perry (Texas), was eviscerated not just because of his debate skills, but because of some of the most foolish smear stories I’ve ever read.

Herman Cain dealt with the attacks too and then he suspended his campaign.

Now former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is the target.

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Old media vs. new in Drudge-bashing by NBC’s Chuck Todd

Criticizing established media brands like The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as long-time TV networks, is in full swing these days. So turnabout is fair play.  Chuck Todd, head White House correspondent for NBC News, had a few things to say about new media, with particular emphasis on Matt Drudge’s go-to website where many of us pop in throughout the day to see what’s interesting in the world around us.

Matt Drudge has carved a place for himself in media history whether old branded media likes it or not.In an interview with Tommy Christopher at Mediaite, Todd bemoaned ‘Drudge-driven’ journalism. He criticized stories based on “an opinion article allegation, not even a factually based story, that suddenly draws a question because Drudge linked to it.”

Drudge will certainly do the trick when a story runs around frantically looking for legs. For Todd, that is not a good thing. He said, “There’s no worse crime in journalism these days than simply deciding something’s a story because Drudge linked to it.”

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What does Matt Drudge have in common with ancient Roman poet Horace?

Today Matt Drudge posted a thank you on his Website The Drudge Report. Drudge said August, 2008,  was the most-visited month in his site’s 13-year history. The figures he cited would make any publisher drool—the page loaded 614,577,960 times, with 14,163,025 uniques. This smashed his previous high set in March. Drudge saw something early on that many in media didn't see; he was sort of like the ancient Roman poet Horace in that regard.

I confess an intellectual crush on Drudge.

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