The Drudge Report is one of the most influential news aggregators around. However, Matt Drudge’s headlines, shortened to achieve maximum lean to the Right, do tend to ruffle some feathers. One such ruffle-victim appears to be Janet Napolitano who spoke out to Politico about the way the site depicts her, calling Drudge “just wrong” about her privacy policies.

According to Politico White House press pooler Carrie Budoff Brown, the 6.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Virgina minutes ago was felt on the Martha’s Vineyard golf course where President Obama was playing when it hit. Meanwhile, Media Matters‘ Oliver Willis observes that the conservative media are already pointlessly pointing out that the President was on vacation when the quake hit, tweeting “Conservatives Can’t Decide If Obama Was Too Busy Golfing Or Biking To Stop The #Earthquake.”

“Oh my God, you guys! Did you hear? Marvel Comics killed Spider-Man and they made him some black, gay guy!”

Yes, chances are good that you’ve heard or read something similar to that in the past 24 hours. And, you know what? It’s complete spider sh*t. Peter Parker is not dead and there’s no gay Spider-Man running around taking his relationship with Harry Osborn to the next level. However, that’s not stopping some Conservative media figures from completely distorting the truth to gin up outrage. Why don’t we actually go over the facts?

The parade of TSA horror stories continued this weekend, as a YouTube video featuring a young boy being patted down has gone viral, hitting the top spot on mega-aggregator The Drudge Report. In the cellphone clip, posted by college student Luke Tait, a shirtless young boy is being patted down by TSA agents, prompting Drudge to dub the video “Hands on Boy.”

The TSA has responded to the clip on their blog, and offered some facts that differed from the account posted on Tait’s YouTube account. After the jump, check out the video, and decide if TSA’s explanation really helps at all.

The Drudge Report is running the headline “MADAM: Spitzer as boring on TV as he was in bed…,” which links to a Radar post that has Kristin Davis (no, not that Kristin Davis) comparing Eliot Spitzer‘s new show to his alleged prowess with Davis’ stable of prostitutes (no, not that stable of prostitutes). Davis is [...]

When I first saw Lloyd Grove‘s version of the now-annual effort to autopsy the White House press corps, I rolled my eyes in agreement with Glynnis MacNicol.

Then, I noticed that not one of the 3 C-Spans, nor any other news outlet, carried yesterday’s briefing. Heh, neat coincidence. No biggie. The timing’s a little weird, but these things happen.

Still, before this gains any more traction, allow me to make the case for the press corps to the writer of next year’s “Press Corpse” piece, and anyone else who’s interested.

One of the reasons I started the “Inside the White House Press Corps” series was so that people could see a different side of the people who play a large part in guiding the American political narrative. In this preview of my interview with NBC Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd, we see a more animated figure than we’re used to, discussing the “Drudge Effect” (my phrase) in journalism.

Yesterday, the New York Observer took their turn in the age-old tradition of reporting on Matt Drudge‘s demise. Every so often some editor or reporter notices a new sliver of damning evidence, surely marking the end for the Drudge Report, and decides that this time it might just be enough to squash the seminal ring-wing news aggregator once and for all. But as a notable wordsmith once said, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”