Politics & Power Quote by Matt Drudge

Drudge’s line is a neat inversion with a sharpened edge: he’s not a reporter covering the powerful; he’s a reporter treating reporters as the powerful. The verb “cover” does double work. It invokes beat reporting, but it also hints at exposure, surveillance, even ambush. In one stroke, he reframes the press from neutral referee to political actor worth monitoring, blaming, and strategically pressuring.

The intent is partly defensive and partly insurgent. Drudge emerged in the 1990s as an outsider who thrived on scoops, gossip, and a growing conservative suspicion that mainstream outlets weren’t just biased but self-protecting institutions. “The way they cover politicians” suggests he’s adopting their own methods: skepticism, adversarial framing, digging for contradictions, highlighting hypocrisy, and treating public statements as performances. It’s a promise to puncture the aura of media professionalism by applying the same scrutiny the press reserves for officeholders.

The subtext is more provocative: journalists should lose their special pleading. If they can interrogate motives, demand transparency, and weaponize context against a senator, they should expect it back. It’s also a power claim. Drudge isn’t merely commenting on media culture; he’s asserting a parallel authority structure where editors and anchors are fair game as agenda-setters.

As a piece of cultural rhetoric, it works because it rides a populist thrill: the idea that someone is finally “holding the gatekeepers accountable.” It’s grievance turned into a reporting stance, and it helped normalize a media ecosystem where the meta-story - who’s lying, who’s biased, who’s protecting whom - becomes the main event.