Matt Drudge knocked on the door of talk show host Alex Jones‘s studio in Austin, Texas Tuesday, a drop-in that turned into a rare, 45-minute interview in which Drudge, whose eponymous website is the largest traffic referrer for many news outlets, opened up about the mainstream media (they are “trying to put us to sleep,”) on social media (“This is ghetto. This is corporate. They’re taking your energy and you’re getting nothing in return”) and on so-called YouTube stars (“That’s ridiculous. You’re playing in Google’s hellpit”).
Jones’s InfoWars radio show is equipped for streaming, but Drudge chose to stay off camera. “He’s right over there in the dark with a hand-held microphone,” said Jones. Drudge said he hasn’t been photographed in eight years.
Drudge said he is “obsessed” with Apple Beats, but hates Google News. “The idiots reading that crap think there’s actually a human there. You are being programmed to be automated for your news! What’s the difference between a Slate, or a Salon, or a BuzzFeed or a HuffPost? There isn’t any. It’s almost like a weird conglomerate of group think in an era that should be vibrating and controversial.”
Drudge says what he created with the Drudge Report 20 years ago, can’t be replicated today. “You cannot have a website with news headlines linking across the board. That will end for me. Fine. I’ve had a hell of a run. I couldn’t have gone any farther. I have gone as far out of the galaxy as I can. I still want to stay out here. But I’ve gone pretty damn far for what one individual can do in this culture.”
Drudge spent a good chunk of time discussing his concern about Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. “She’s old and she’s sick. She’s not a contender. She is not a viable candidate.” Drudge said he was “shaking” after NBC News gave Clinton “endless hours of airtime over the past 72 hours.” Between Saturday and Monday, Clinton was on SNL, Al Sharpton‘s new show on MSNBC, “and then on the Today show with [Savannah] Guthrie…”
“I have a long history with these people,” said Drudge about the Clintons. “They’re ugly, they play dirty, they sued me for $30 million last time around.”
“Snowden, I’ll switch places with you,” said Drudge. “You can come over here and rot in hell, cause that’s what it’s going to be.”
And back to the media malaise: “I just wish there was more media that was more trailblazing and independent. And this to me is a big danger right now. You’ve got these big corporations, the New York Times and Amazon with the Washington Post and Time Warner and all of them seem to be the same. This is what’s frightening.
Jones, so stunned by his special guest, passed on taking his first commercial break. “Skip the break. Skip the break,” he said. “Matt Drudge is sort of co-hosting the Alex Jones show now. This is crazy,” said an excited Jones.