Note: This diary has nothing to do with the Anthony Wiener #twitterhoax story. But please, read on!
I make it a habit to check up on the Drudge Report daily. I have to know what news RWer's are following. On good days, which have become exceedingly rare for him, Drudge is able to coalesce the major headlines and a few other interesting stories. On every other day, Drudge is heavily slanting his readers toward RW friendly stories and other tabloid fare.
Despite Drudge's prodigious page views, Drudge does not write any of his own news stories. He may post a bulletin from time to time, but he's just living off the work of the rest of the media. His real "contribution" is in selecting what news stories to link to, positioning them on his page, and finally, rewriting the actual headline.
That's right, Drudge rewrites the headline for his viewers and that is where he really adds his editorial spin. For instance, any story about the TSA or Homeland Security is likely to include "Big Sis." This is a reference to Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano. Big Sis is a play off of Big Brother. We had two male secretaries of Homeland Security before Janet Napolitano who did not earn the label Big Brother from Drudge. But being a fucking sexist asshole seems to fit rather nicely with Matt's other qualities.
Drudge gets a lot of eye rolls from me for his headlines. I know he's trying to play up some point that is barely alluded to in the article he's linking to. When I click through, often I'm surprised about how much more favorable the article might be to whatever Democrats are in it as opposed to his RW spin headline. I've surmised that most people are like me. We scan Drudge's rewritten headlines and click on a small fraction of them. So much of the news, then, is taken in glancing the headlines, like judging a book by it's cover. But it's not even the cover! It's Drudge's re-do of the cover! With these respun headlines, Drudge can influence the reader without having to do any of the heavy lifting of journalism or writing an informed op-ed piece.
I mention my eyes roll a lot when reading the headline. But this recent one made my stomach turn:
FACEBOOK ABORTS PAGE OF UNBORN BABY
The actual story's headline is Facebook Pulls Unborn Baby's Page. From various other reporting I've seen, an expecting couple set up a whole new account for their unborn child. Facebook removed the account under a terms of service violation. Whatever the parents' reasoning, the violation of Facebook's terms of service seems clear. No one can create a fake account. No one who is under the age of thirteen can create an account.
These terms of service seem like really common sense provisions that the immensely popular social networking site should have. If anyone could argue, you would think that a conservative would argue that one should maybe be a little older than thirteen to have their own account on the immensely popular social networking site. After all, there are bad people out there and you just never know. But nowadays a conservative will argue that thirteen is too old! How about six! Nay! Three! And we're not talking YEARS, we're taking MONTHS!
Remember, anytime someone says NO to any wish that some expecting parents might have, an unborn baby is murdered its womb. The very people who try to uphold basic standards of conduct are wanton baby killers if the people violating those standards are expecting.
This is the logic of conservatism now. IOKIYAP -- It's ok if you are pregnant. The logical extension of this is that every small child should be able to have maximum exposure on the internet. Facebook, Myspace, blogs, email, Skype, Twitter accounts, EVERYTHING -- NO AGE IS TOO YOUNG!
This is why Drudge is a sick man. The parents are going to have the kid, no abortion is taking place. Facebook is going to uphold its minimum standards, something I think most parents would agree is a good idea. Yet through Drudge's sick twisted mind, all he can see is that an abortion happened. And he wants everyone under thirteen years of age, born or unborn, to have the biggest internet profile possible. Disgusting.
Epilogue -- Read Stonedoubt's recent diary about Drudge, Drudge Report: right wing hate machine. In it the diarist shows how Drudge can link to an obscure story in a local paper and viola! a host of hateful wingnuttery ensues in the comment section of the article. The same thing might have happened to the story Drudge linked to here. The comments are mind boggling.