Media Matters Smears Matt Drudge As Putin Puppet For Linking .4% of Time To Russian News Outlets

On Wednesday, left-wing hit machine Media Matters published perhaps one of its most erroneous “reports” yet — “How Matt Drudge became the pipeline for Russian propaganda

Matt Gertz, a Senior Fellow at Media Matters, purports media titan Matt Drudge is a puppet for Russian president Vladimir Putin because the Drudge Report has linked to Kremlin-linked news publications 400 times since 2012. Now, 400 links may appear like a large number, yet a simple analysis reveals it’s a drop in the ocean compared to the massive volume of links published in the past four years. One doesn’t have to read the Drudge Report avidly to know the website publishes anywhere between 70-100 links daily. Such is a conservative estimate.

(Very) conservatively speaking, let’s assume the Drudge Report has published 60 links daily for the past four years.

The Gateway Pundit estimates The Drudge Report publishes 21900 links annually. Multiplying 21900 by four equals 87,600 links since 2012. Now we’ll add the 261 days that have past in 2017, bringing our total link average from 2012 to the present day to 101,460.

400 / 101,460 x 100 = .394%  

It is more likely the number is closer to .2% because of The Drudge Report’s prolific link volume.

Media Matters shamelessly published a graphic detailing the volume of Kremlin-connected news outlets linked on the Drudge Report.

Keep in mind the news aggregator may link on average of 20,000 stories per year and yet, Gertz is ringing the alarm on the number of “Russian propaganda websites,” which barely receive 50 links in some years. If the premise of Gertz’s report is correct, the Drudge Report is far from being the pipeline for Russian propaganda.

One glaring item the Media Matters report fails to include is an analysis of Russian propaganda sites linked as the main headline story. As someone who has received multiple stories linked on the Drudge Report, there is a strong correlation between link placement and traffic. Stories placed closer to the top of the Drudge Report usually receive more traffic than those linked at the bottom.

Media Matters’ report is yet another desperate attempt to rehash a narrative that the political class and mainstream media use to nullify the 2016 presidential election and distract from the Democrats’ lacking policy agenda.

Dear Reader - The enemies of freedom are choking off the Gateway Pundit from the resources we need to bring you the truth. Since many asked for it, we now have a way for you to support The Gateway Pundit directly - and get ad-reduced access. Plus, there are goodies like a special Gateway Pundit coffee mug for supporters at a higher level. You can see all the options by clicking here - thank you for your support!

 

Thanks for sharing!