Five Years Ago Tomorrow...

[The Mad Monk]

A little web site rocked the media and political establishments...

5 YEARS AGO: INTERNET ROCKS U.S. PRESIDENCY, MEDIA

Five years is hardly a long time in God's wild and wonderful world, unless you're in jail, if you're starving or lonely, or if you're Harvey Weinstein making GANGS OF NEW YORK.

But it is the time between yesterday and tomorrow when the internet rocked Washington, DC, and beyond, like it has never been rocked before, or since!

What began exclusively in this space on January 17, 1998, and continued exclusively for more than 72 hours, launched a million headlines and directly led to an impeachment count of a sitting United States president.

[After reading the DRUDGE REPORT, Clinton called in his secretary Currie to match stories, igniting an obstruction charge.]

While the mainpress legacy media will continue to mark the moment when the WASHINGTON POST printed their version of the story on January 21 as the 'start' of the Lewinsky news cycles, those who were on the internet, and President Clinton himself, know and lived a different truth.

In fact, the mainpress continuing to ignore the internet timeline of those yesteryear events is proof of their inability to reflect a reality that is not of their own making.

The intern, the investigation, the tapes, the dress, the cigar; nearly every aspect of the drama was first introduced to those who wanted to know in this space.

Speed beat the spin. Computer beat the newspaper. The magazine. The TV show. The staticy radio broadcast, and all the ships at sea.

The AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, the world's oldest newswire, and should be noted not owned by American corporate media concerns, thus free from American anchor/editor personality-bias, would later name the night of January 17, 1998 one of the top ten dates in 20th Century media.

(AFP)December 12, 1901: Guglielmo Marconi sends the first radio waves across the Atlantic, paving the way for worldwide broadcasting.

November 2, 1920: First commercial broadcast program airs.

1926: John Logie Baird invents television.

1936: The BBC kicks off high-definition public television in Britain.

November 18, 1951: Ed R. Murrow "See it Now" series launches nationwide television programming in the United States.

Late 1960's: A US defense department project to link computers lays the foundation for the internet.

1980: Ted Turner launches CNN, world's first all-news network.

August 1, 1981: The all-music channel MTV goes on the air.

1992: The browser Mosaic brings the internet to non-technical computer users.

1998: Matt Drudge airs Monicagate on the internet.

"From Marconi to Murrow to -- Drudge?" the COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW later mocked on its cover with a byline from a former president of NBC News and PBS.

But the intellectuals at The Review may have been right that time, oddly enough.

The dispatches of 5 years ago were much less about any person, or website, or president, or garment stains.

It was about the power of any individual working outside of the system with new technology.

And freedom as the only safety net!

Matt Drudge
January 2003
Miami Beach, FL

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Web Posted: 01/17/98 21:32:02 PST -- NEWSWEEK KILLS STORY ON WHITE HOUSE INTERN X X X X X BLOCKBUSTER REPORT: 23-YEAR OLD, FORMER WHITE HOUSE INTERN, SEX RELATIONSHIP WITH PRESIDENT




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Web Posted: 01/17/98 23:32:47 PST -- NEWSWEEK KILLS STORY ON WHITE HOUSE INTERN

BLOCKBUSTER REPORT: 23-YEAR OLD, FORMER WHITE HOUSE INTERN, SEX RELATIONSHIP WITH PRESIDENT

**World Exclusive**
**Must Credit the DRUDGE REPORT**

At the last minute, at 6 p.m. on Saturday evening, NEWSWEEK magazine killed a story that was destined to shake official Washington to its foundation: A White House intern carried on a sexual affair with the President of the United States!

The DRUDGE REPORT has learned that reporter Michael Isikoff developed the story of his career, only to have it spiked by top NEWSWEEK suits hours before publication. A young woman, 23, sexually involved with the love of her life, the President of the United States, since she was a 21-year-old intern at the White House. She was a frequent visitor to a small study just off the Oval Office where she claims to have indulged the president's sexual preference. Reports of the relationship spread in White House quarters and she was moved to a job at the Pentagon, where she worked until last month.

The young intern wrote long love letters to President Clinton, which she delivered through a delivery service. She was a frequent visitor at the White House after midnight, where she checked in the WAVE logs as visiting a secretary named Betty Curry, 57.

The DRUDGE REPORT has learned that tapes of intimate phone conversations exist.

The relationship between the president and the young woman become strained when the president believed that the young woman was bragging about the affair to others.

NEWSWEEK and Isikoff were planning to name the woman. Word of the story's impeding release caused blind chaos in media circles; TIME magazine spent Saturday scrambling for its own version of the story, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. The NEW YORK POST on Sunday was set to front the young intern's affair, but was forced to fall back on the dated ABC NEWS Kathleen Willey break.

The story was set to break just hours after President Clinton testified in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case.

Ironically, several years ago, it was Isikoff that found himself in a shouting match with editors who were refusing to publish even a portion of his meticulously researched investigative report that was to break Paula Jones. Isikoff worked for the WASHINGTON POST at the time, and left shortly after the incident to build them for the paper's sister magazine, NEWSWEEK.

Michael Isikoff was not available for comment late Saturday. NEWSWEEK was on voice mail.

The White House was busy checking the DRUDGE REPORT for details.





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Web Posted: 01/18/98 22:33:48 PST -- FORMER WHITE HOUSE INTERN CALLED; NEW BACKGROUND DETAILS EMERGE


**World Exclusive**
**Must Credit the DRUDGE REPORT**

The DRUDGE REPORT has learned that former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, 23, has been subpoenaed to give a deposition in the Paula Jones case.

About the young woman, this is known:

WORK EXPERIENCE

*Summer of 1995 Intern, Office of Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, The White House.

*November 1995 Staff assistant, Office of Legislative Affairs, The White House. "Wrote drafts and correspondence for Staff Secretary's approval and ultimately the President's signature. Processed and vetted all incoming mail to the President from Congress."

*April 1996 Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, The Pentagon.

EDUCATION

May 95 Lewis and Clark College. Major: Psychology.

MISC.

Holds current TS-SCI clearance, allowing access to top secret and sensitive information. Proficient in Macintosh for Microsoft Word 6.0, WordPerfect for Windows, and Infosys.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------





Web Posted: 01/19/98 14:54:06 PST -- FORMER WHITE HOUSE INTERN DENIES SEX WITH PRESIDENT IN SWORN AFFIDAVIT


**World Exclusive**
**Must Credit the DRUDGE REPORT**

Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, 23, has denied having any "sexual relationship with President Clinton" in a sworn affidavit, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. Lewinsky's sworn written statement was executed last week after she was served with a subpoena in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case.

NBC was busy developing a story Tuesday afternoon on Lewinsky. Through a suspected leak, the network obtained a copy of Lewinsky's affidavit and was reading portions of it to sources to provoke comment.


---------


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Web Posted: 01/20/98 18:07:47 PST -- TONIGHT ON THE DRUDGE REPORT: CONTROVERSY SWIRLS AROUND TAPES OF FORMER WHITE HOUSE INTERN, AS STARR MOVES IN! ...





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Web Posted: 01/20/98 19:57:07 PST -- CONTROVERSY SWIRLS AROUND TAPES OF FORMER WHITE HOUSE INTERN, AS STARR MOVES IN!


**World Exclusive**
**Must Credit the DRUDGE REPORT**

Federal investigators are now in possession of intimate taped conversations of a former White House intern, age 23, discussing details of her alleged sexual relationship with President Clinton, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

The tapes were made by a federal employee who has been granted immunity. MORE

According to sources in and out of government, Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr became involved in the situation when he received intelligence that senior administration officials may have offered federal jobs to a young woman in an effort to prevent stories from going public -- stories involving sexual episodes that allegedly occurred in a room off the Oval Office.

"Starr is not on the bimbo beat," one source close to the situation told the DRUDGE REPORT late Tuesday. "He's looking at a potential for obstruction of justice charges."

A breakfast meeting that took place at The Watergate Hotel has attracted the attention of investigators.

The development has completely consumed high-level Washington, with Starr's investigators working past midnight in recent days.

Developing...





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Web Posted: 01/20/98 22:09:23 PST -- WASH POST SCREAMS INTERN STORY!





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Web Posted: 01/21/98 11:32:53 PST -- ~~LEWINSKY NIGHTMARE CONTINUES~~ U.N. AMBASSADOR RICHARDSON OFFERED ME A JOB DURING BREAKFAST MEETING AT WATERGATE HOTEL, SHE SAID; INVESTIGATORS PROBE POSSIBILITY OF CLINTON DNA... MOVING SOON ON THE DRUDGE REPORT X X X X





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Web Posted: 01/21/98 12:56:27 PST -- WATERGATE 1998

**WORLD EXCLUSIVE**
**MUST CREDIT THE DRUDGE REPORT**
**CONTAINS GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS**

REPORT: LEWINSKY OFFERED U.N. JOB; INVESTIGATORS: DNA TRAIL MAY EXIST

U.N. AMBASSADOR RICHARDSON OFFERED ME A JOB DURING A BREAKFAST MEETING AT THE WATERGATE HOTEL -- WORDS WHITE HOUSE INTERN MONICA LEWINSKY, 24, ALLEGEDLY TOLD PENTAGON WORKER LINDA TRIPP LATE IN DECEMBER 1997.

THE OFFER CAME AS LEWINSKY WAS ASKING TO RETURN TO THE WHITE HOUSE, THE DRUDGE REPORT HAS LEARNED, UNHAPPY IN THE PENTAGON JOB SHE HELD -- A JOB THAT SHE STARTED IN APRIL 1996 AFTER BEING RELEASED FROM A WHITE HOUSE POSITION.

"THEY WANTED HER OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE DURING THE ELECTION," A SOURCE CLOSE TO THE INVESTIGATION TELLS THE DRUDGE REPORT.

AMBASSADOR RICHARDSON WAS NOT AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT.

WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY MIKE MCCURRY OFFERED NOTHING WHEN ASKED ABOUT THE ALLEGED RICHARDSON JOB OFFER DURING WEDNESDAY'S PRESS BRIEFING.

SEPARATELY, THE DRUDGE REPORT HAS LEARNED, INVESTIGATORS HAVE BECOME CONVINCED THAT THERE MAY BE A DNA TRAIL THAT COULD CONFIRM PRESIDENT CLINTON'S SEXUAL INVOLVEMENT WITH LEWINSKY, A RELATIONSHIP THAT WAS CAPTURED IN LEWINSKY'S OWN VOICE ON AUDIO TAPE.

TRIPP HAS SHARED WITH INVESTIGATORS A CONVERSATION WHERE LEWINSKY ALLEGEDLY CONFIDED THAT SHE KEPT A GARMENT WITH CLINTON'S DRIED SEMEN ON IT -- A GARMENT SHE SAID SHE WOULD NEVER WASH!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT EXCLUSIVE XXXXX SAT AUGUST 22, 1998 13:50:01 ET XXXXX

SHE HAD SEX WITH CIGAR: MEDIA STRUGGLES WITH SHOCKING NEW DETAILS OF WHITE HOUSE AFFAIR

**Warning: Contains Graphic Description**

In a bizarre daytime sex session, that occurred just off the Oval Office in the White House, President Clinton watched as intern Monica Lewinsky allegedly masturbated with his cigar.

It has been learned that several major news organizations have confirmed the shocking episode and are now struggling to find ways to report the full Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton grossout.

Media Bigfeet are trying to reconstruct one sex session that reportedly took place as Yasser Arafat waited in the Rose Garden for his scheduled meeting with the president!

According to multiple sources close to the case, President Clinton allegedly masturbated as Lewinsky performed the sex show with his cigar in a small room off the Oval Office. It is not clear if Clinton or Lewinsky kept the cigar, or if Lewinsky testified on the specifics of the encounter before a federal grand jury this week. Lewinsky's testimony has been described as graphic, and included unusual practices.

The DRUDGE REPORT has now been briefed on these shocking details that have stunned all those who have heard them and investigated them -- details that now threaten to completely disgust and stun the American electorate.

The White House refuses to comment on any DRUDGE REPORT.

Here's to Matt Drudge, and the new media!

[Dis]

you can't post sex here at Apolyton!

[Asher]

Wow, so we can blame Drudge for wasting everyone's time with the Lewinsky bullshit?

Not something I'd be bragging about.

[Shi Huangdi]

Drudge

[Stefu]

Matt Drudge? That's -so- 90s!

[Chris 62]

Yes, that accomplished so much...Clinton served his full term, his wife is in the senate, and he may soon become the First man....very useful.

[Dis]

It gave late night talk shows a lot of material to work with.

[The Mad Monk]

It also made the major news outlets less likely to let things slip under the radar, as they now knew that someone, somewhere would dig it up and call them on it.

True, Clinton finished his term and Hillary is a senator...

...and not a VP to President Gore...

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Chris 62
Yes, that accomplished so much...Clinton served his full term, his wife is in the senate, and he may soon become the First man....very useful.

Now, be fair.
The Drudge Report led to the impeachment...which led to the popular backlash against the impeachment...which led to the president's party picking up seats in the House during a midterm election for the first time since 1934...which led to the resignation of a humiliated Newt Gingrich...which led to the elevation of Bob Livingston as speaker...which led to the revelation (in Hustler!) that Livingston was an adulterer...which led to his resignation, too.

God bless you, Drudge!

[Chris 62]

Yes, the political equivalent of Jerry Springer.

[Lancer]

'Stankier than Bill Clinton's humidor'

...and THAT'S worth it.

[The Mad Monk]

You can't have Jerry without the trailer trash...

[The Mad Monk]

http://www.newsday.com/news/columnis...7181393.column

James P. Pinkerton
Matt Drudge Finds His Own Place in History

January 16, 2003


Five years ago tomorrow, Matt Drudge changed the course of a presidency and helped popularize a new technology, the Internet. Yet today, the avatar of the latest techno-trend is still attached to the oldest form of communication technology - the written word.

On Jan. 17, 1998, Drudge ushered in the new era with this headline on his Web page, the Drudge Report: "BLOCKBUSTER REPORT: 23- YEAR-OLD FORMER WHITE HOUSE INTERN, SEX RELATIONSHIP WITH PRESIDENT!!!"

Columnist Michael Kinsley, no great fan of Drudge's, subsequently declared that the 1998 Monica Lewinsky-Bill Clinton saga would establish the Internet as a "go to" technology in the same way that the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy cemented the central role of television in American life.

That may be overstated, but the Net - still growing in usage, even post-stock-market bubble - has undone decades of accumulated wisdom about the media. Pundits and professors, from both left and right, had filled bookshelves with portentous volumes, such as "Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media" and "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business"- all harping on the idea that the news was top-down and propagandistic. It was news administered by fat cats and corpocrats, delivered by high-cheekboned princes and princesses. And it was turning the minds of the American people, the critics concluded, into mush.

Yet just as such criticism was hitting critical mass, reality changed. Overtaken by sudden change was another book in this genre, "Remote & Controlled: Media Politics in a Cynical Age," published in 1995 by Matthew Kerbel, professor at Villanova University. Lamenting the rise of celebrity newsgathering, the author argued that journalists were indulging themselves in "a sort of stardom that was unthinkable a generation ago." One might wonder if that was really true - was Larry King really a bigger star in the '90s than Walter Cronkite in the '60s? - but Kerbel was reflecting the received wisdom of just eight years ago.

That same year, 1995, Drudge, a self-described "nobody" - no grand resumé, no glam looks - started up the Drudge Report. At first, it was just himself gathering gossip for the amusement of friends. Yet the Drudge Report was different, because it was universally accessible, through the World Wide Web. Its author could get to anybody, and anybody could instant-message him. And so the nature of news and newsgathering changed. No longer did it take a battalion of producers and editors and lawyers to put together a news product. It took just one man, working by himself in his one-bedroom apartment in Hollywood.

Indeed, Drudge was something of a news-guerrilla. He scooped the Lewinsky story out from under Newsweek, which was still deliberating whether to run the story when he posted it on his Web site. Media establishmentarians cried foul. But in the spirit of cyberspace, information wants to be free, and he freed it.

To Drudge's dismay, Clinton was not removed from office, but that's another lesson of the new media environment. As soon as Drudge made the Internet a player, others started playing, too. Pro-Clinton activists started up Web sites of their own, such as Moveon.org, and their impact was soon felt.

And so the "press wars" rage on in a new venue. The difference is two-fold. First, anybody can join in the fray and, second, personalities have been radically de-emphasized. Webheads get no star turns, no million-dollar contracts.

Indeed, despite getting 5 million "hits" a day, Drudge himself is mostly anonymous. His picture does not appear on the site; he eschews fancy graphics, video, music. Reached for an interview - by phone - Drudge, now relocated to Miami Beach, expresses an almost old-fashioned faith in that most ancient of communications tools: print.

"I still like black on white - black font on a white background," he says. "The drama of letters and words is the greatest drama." Thus the irony: Drudge is the newest, but clings to the oldest. And while his page will someday be history, his place in history's pages has already been marked.

[asleepathewheel]

Five years ago tomorrow, Matt Drudge changed the course of a presidency and helped popularize a new technology, the Internet.

The Internet wasn't new in 1998. Does anyone know anybody that got the Internet only after and because of Drudge? Certainly not anyone I know. I go to the website, even though I'm liberal, because it is a good accumulation of news links and breaking stories, but to claim that he popularized the Internet is a bit ridiculous. Changed news content on the net, ok, but jesus, give me a break.

[The Mad Monk]

It was new to me, and Drudge did cause the mainstream to take internet resources a lot more seriously.

[Dis]

before 1998 the internet only had porn on it.

[BustaMike]

...and now... the internet only has porn on it

[The Mad Monk]

Careful, Tass might hear you...

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
It was new to me, and Drudge did cause the mainstream to take internet resources a lot more seriously.

I stand corrected. My highschool was connected to the internet in 1995. I can see how, if you weren't, that you wouldn't know what it was.

And, during the scandal I was living in Moscow and surfing the net and emailing at the time. And Russia is certainly not the US technologically.

But I agree that the mainstream takes internet resources a lot more seriously, I just find the idea that Drudge popularized the internet to be amusing.