The funny thing about Matt Drudge’s The Drudge Report is that it does have the power to cause journalists to react to his often misleading headlines. He is a world-class gossip with the most widely read, and entertaining, websites online. There have been many imitators but so far no one has come close to matching him, in terms of generating traffic and in making news stories appear out of thin air.
Such was the case this past week, on a slow news day, that conservative writer/hysteria monger Ann Coulter eked a few more minutes out of her drying up fifteen to use Drudge as a tool in order to shame NBC and the Today Show for canceling Coulter’s scheduled appearance to help sell her new “book,” about the liberal media and how they coddled Obama. Believe it or not, one of Coulter’s claims is actually that the only reason the public liked Obama was because they wanted to have sex with him. Can anyone blame NBC for not wanting to have Coulter on?
Just because a person is shrill and controversial enough to manage a publishing deal, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s real news or intelligent commentary. At this stage in the game, Coulter has very few tricks left, very few people she hasn’t insulted, and not much more controversy she can generate in order to sell more books. What’s a rattled crowing hen to do? Call up Matt Drudge.
Drudge gave it the appropriate emergency headline, as if anyone still cared a lick about the floundering Ms. Coulter, truly a parody of her former self. Once sort of sharp and fairly insightful, now just pointing fingers and yelling, finding the most vulnerable people to attack in hopes of generating any interest, Coulter had only the sad news that the Today Show canceled her appearance to try to lure more suckers to buy her new book.
Drudge managed to get enough people outlets (Fox News and a few others) to pick up the story and Coulter appeared on Sean Hannity’s show, where Coulter was given an opportunity to act baffled as to why NBC wouldn’t have her on. “Getting banned from NBC is like getting fired from Chrysler. If I sell enough books I could buy NBC,” she said.
Drudge had actually made the hysterical claim that Coulter was “banned for life” from NBC, which turns out to confirm all of the phony outrage Coulter writes about in the first place. This gives Coulter enough leverage to parlay the whole thing into a media whirlwind, flaccid and deflated though it may be.
Coulter went on to appear on CBS’s the Early Show to peddle more copies of her book and no doubt this NBC thing will be brought up again and again, and may even trump all of the other scandalous claims about her. Can’t you just see it now? “Ann Coulter, the woman banned from NBC for life.” It simultaneously puffs her up while putting NBC on the disadvantage with conservatives. You just can’t buy this kind of publicity.
