The Dirty Little Secret About Matt Drudge

You may have noted the recent LA Times piece on how news organizations scramble for notice by über-gossipmeister Matt Drudge.

Every day, journalists and media executives in newsrooms across the land hope they'll have something that catches Drudge's fancy — or, as he has put it, "raises my whiskers." Most keep their fingers crossed that he'll discover their articles on his own and link to them. Others are more proactive, sending anonymous e-mails or placing calls to him or his behind-the-scenes assistant.

As Greg Sargent comments at TPM Election Central, it's a reminder of the pathetic state of journalism in these United States - though not a surprise. That story that came to mind today as I skimmed a piece at the website of my hometown paper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I saw that the P-D had jumped on the social networking bandwagon, providing "Save & Share" links at the end of its stories. "Save & Share" is old news for such online papers as the Washington Post; the usual options for sharing stories include such venues as del.icio.us, Digg, reddit, Facebook, and the like.