American Politics Journal -- On the Radar: Paula and Rudy



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Drudge's Latest Debacle
Why his latest weekend "scoop" may prove the undoing of the Internet gossip
by Dave "Doctor" Gonzo

Monday, May 15, 2000 -- NEW YORK (AmpolNS) -- The Doc is laughing out loud at seedy cybergossip Matt Drudge's latest "scoop."

Yesterday afternoon, Drudge "broke" the non-news that a mass mailing to the Hillary Clinton Senate campaign's e-mail list revealed a partial roster of recipients' names and email addresses. His story included the names and email addresses of these people -- but not the message itself.

Now, the fact that someone (or some software package) screwed up an emailing hardly qualifies as "news." Anyone who has administered an online mailing list will tell you that these sort of glitches and mistakes crop up occasionally. And The Doc knows of at least one case where the manager of a very high profile GOPer's email list made a similar mistake -- one that went "mysteriously" unreported by Drudge.

The fact of the matter is that most people who receive mailings with addresses erroneously "To:'ed" or "CC:'ed" instead of "blind copied" don't even take notice of the address list. Of those who do, very few will work themselves into a high dudgeon about their "privacy" being violated.

If anyone violated the privacy of the recipients of Hillary's email list, it is Matt Drudge himself -- and whoever decided to inform him of the glitch (probably one of the recipients or someone who "screens" one of the recipient's mailboxes). Obviously the idiot thought they were feeding Drudge a "big, juicy, embarrassing story" about that "awful witch" Hillary.

And Drudge, predictably, went for it.

The Doc wished to congratulate Drudge -- on setting himself up for a precipitous fall.

Drudge has, in effect, broadcast the private email addresses of many of Hillary's supporters (along with a large number of journalists) to thousands upon thousands of people by email and through his high-traffic Web site in what may be the most egregious and high-profile email privacy violation in the history of the Net. You can count on many of the people on the "hit list" having to spend much time and money setting up new addresses, informing their friends and relatives of same, and dealing with all sorts of "love letters" from the hatemongering Neo-Nazi element of Drudge Report site frequenters and subscribers.

Well, all of the people named in the Drudge Report have each other's email addresses. And they're smart enough to track the time and expense they are now taking to deal with this breach of privacy.

Heck, it would not surprise The Doc in the least if a large number of these targets of Drudge's zeal trade a few emails themselves, pool their energy and resources, and file a lawsuit against The Fedora'd One for harassment and invasion of privacy.

And why not? It would at last provide Drudge with something to spend all that "Legal Defense Fund" money on -- at least the portion he hasn't flushed down the toilet fending off Sid Blumenthal's fully justified civil suit.

'Nuff said.