Drop Drudge

Join the movement: Drop Drudge

Thanks to Venomous Kate for the graphic above. If you want the HTML to put it on your site, click here.

UPDATE: The latest on this story

As most of you have probably heard by now, Matt Drudge broke the story yesterday that Prince Harry had been serving in Afghanistan since December. A media agreement with UK media had been in place to keep the news under wraps to until the prince had returned to England. The prince has since left the combat zone.

Laughing Wolf at Blackfive has the following reaction (which mirrors the reaction of a few people I’ve talked to in the past 15 hours or so):

The news that Prince Harry, third in line to the throne, is fighting on the front lines (as he wanted/insisted) is very good news. He is to be commended for his determination to do what’s right and to be a real soldier. The media agreement in place to protect him and those serving with him and/or under his command was an excellent idea and kudos to those who made it happen. A raised finger salute to the people who leaked it to Drudge, and to Matt Drudge for willfully endangering the Prince and those with him. May you and those who leaked it to you soon find yourself in an enclosed space with SAS and others who care to express their opinion in a very, very personal manner.

James Joyner reacts a bit differently:

Presumably, Matt Drudge was not a signatory to said agreement and had no duty to abide by it. And, contrary to what John Aravosis, Logan Murphy, and Keith Olbermann are saying, it’s not as if he was revealing secret troop movements; the existence of British patrols in Helmand province was well known.

Still, one longs for the old days when gentlemen’s agreements like this were honored for their own sake. Indeed, it’s somewhat surprising that the news blackout on this story was as successful as it has been. Allowing Harry to do his duty outside the spotlight and without creating a high profile target for the Taliban is a noble gesture and far outweighs whatever “public right to know” that would have justified breaking the embargo.

[…]

One suspects that his services as a forward air controller can be easily replaced. His especial value was the symbolism of having a prince in harm’s way. To some extent, it could be argued, the publicity value is heightened now that the secret’s out of the bag and that’s not entirely a bad thing as NATO is scrambling to support the Afghanistan mission. But one would have preferred that he be permitted to finish his tour as just another lieutenant.

Drudge has been controversial from the beginning (even pre-Lewinsky) but the main reason I used to read his site was for the news links instead of the “exclusives.” There are much better sources of news aggregation now with blogs, RSS readers, Technorati, Memeorandum, etc. now so that takes away that need. I still ocasionally read his site but just when the news cycle is slow at other sources.

This isn’t the first time Drudge has had ethical questions raised. Aside from the obvious ones that the media has covered, I had my own brush with Drudge’s ethics during the 2000 primary campaigns. In a previous life I was even referred to as “South Carolina’s Matt Drudge” in media reports as well as in a book inscription my good friend Michael Graham made in my copy of his book Clinton & Me.

It’s true, Drudge has, to a large extent, jumped the shark because of blogs and other Web 2.0 developments in how the news cycle works. He keeps becoming more and more like the mainstream media that he started out competing with. His antagonism towards blogs has been well-documented.

If Drudge will post a story that potentially could have endangered Prince Harry and his mates in the British military, is it too far of a stretch to think he would not publish a story that could endanger American troops?

Since Drudge really isn’t that necessary anymore for news, and his scoops are few and far between anymore, why not drop Drudge? Remove his link from your website, de-link him from your blog and don’t link to him. If you care about letting him know that you’ve done it and why, send a message to drudge@drudgereport.com, otherwise just pull any links to him. Let us know if you’ve gone along with this plan in the comments below.

Be sure to Digg this post.

Other blogging on this subject:
Crooks and Liars
Below the Beltway
Danger Room
Connecting the Dots
Think Progress
Brilliant at Breakfast
AMERICAblog
VodkaPundit
PoliGazette
Hot Air
Jammie Wearing Fool
Flopping Aces
My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
Michelle Malkin
The Thomas Chronicles
Alex Massie
Richard Dows
The Baltimore Reporter
Gawker
Lean Left
BAGnewsNotes
Bark Bark Woof Woof
The Newshoggers
The Moderate Voice
Pajamas Media
The Lede
The Editors
Mark’s Soap Box
The Dan Lee Report
The Agonist
The Other McCain
Andrew Sullivan
Samizdata
Instapundit
Little Miss Attila
Down with Tyranny!
Politikly.com
Gateway Pundit
girlfriday
Venomous Kate

Media coverage:
Reuters
The Independent
The Guardian
BBC
Sky News
Daily Mail
Guardian
Guardian Unlimited*2
The Independent
NY Times

UPDATE: The latest on this story