Say It Ain't So, Matt!

Russ Smith, aka "Mugger" has been only fitfully entertaining since he sold his New York Press to some editorial deadbeats and hi-tailed it off to Baltimore where he still writes a weekly column that lacks the spice it used to have when Smitty lived in NYC, near or in Tribeca as we recall. (The current owners did, however, to have had the perspicacity to get rid of their predictably foul-minded and foul-mouthed "Dategirl" column.)

But Mugger had an interesting comment on one of our old faves buried in his most recent rant:

It’s undeniable that Matt Drudge has slowed down in the past year, whether it’s from tedium, complacency, a taste of the high life or the refusal to invest in the future of his seminal Web site by hiring a few more staffers. The result has been stale posts left untouched for days at a time, even if ongoing events—available at other Internet destinations—have rendered his original headlines obsolete.

It could be that in a year’s time, Drudge’s long reign of online dominance will be over, unless he can muster the energy to work on more than just fumes and press notices. Maybe Drudge considered his work done when the Times’ Frank Rich (unlike Matt, a victim of declining readership) stopped referring to the self-made millionaire as a “cyber gossip.”

Now, Smith may still be in a bit of a snit over the elimination of his link a few seasons ago on Drudge's website when he accused Matt of maybe, perhaps, possibly being gay. But many others, including Wonker's pal Luther, have recently noted that Matt's pages are not as hot as they once were, nor do they contain the kind of juicy flashes from anonymous media insiders that raise the hackles of the bigwigs.

Drudge has operated at a high level for any number of years now. Getting his start when AOL was totally proprietary and one of few user-friendly web portals out there, he eventually escaped from the online giant's decaying clutches to go independent, and won fame for eventually overcoming a costly nuisance lawsuit from hard-left Clintonista noodge Sidney Blumenthal. This was a breakthrough moment, one that can arguably be credited with giving birth to what eventually became the blogosphere.

We'd be disappointed if Matt was using his success to evolve into the usual well-paid "personality" that has given American culture its lack of vitality for the last 30 years or so. You know, the kind of person who always shows up at the right place and at the right parties, but doesn't actually do anything anymore. On the other hand, for his pioneering work on the net, we're hard-pressed to begrudge Drudge.