Who Is Matt Drudge?

Matt Drudge is to plugged-in Internet news junkies what John Galt is to Ayn Rand acolytes: an anti-establishment renegade of mythical proportions who is defying a world in decline.

The 30-year-old, self-made snoop runs an e-mail service and accompanying web site called the "Drudge Report." He has taken the world of journalism and politics by storm. While TV news ratings sink and newspaper circulation stalls, Drudge's site has exploded to 40,000 hits a day. Subscribers are alerted throughout the day to breaking world events, inside-the-Beltway scuffles, entertainment news and media spats.

With no formal training, no high-powered patrons, and a bare-bones home office in a cheap Los Angeles apartment, Drudge's admirers (myself included) consider him a scrappy symbol of free speech, independence and bootstrap journalism. His prose style won't win Pulitzer plaudits. But the conservative-leaning Drudge's moxie impressed left-leaning pundit Michael Kinsley so much that he offered him a job at Microsoft's online magazine, Slate. Drudge turned him down.

Considering the high-powered legal defense team that would have accompanied the Microsoft job, Drudge may now regret saying no to Kinsley. In an unprecedented display of government interference in private litigation, the Clinton White House has expressed its support of a $30 million libel lawsuit against dirt-poor Drudge by former journalist and recently appointed White House Communications aide Sidney Blumenthal.

Blumenthal says Drudge defamed him when he repeated an old - and ugly - GOP-spread rumor about Blumenthal. Within 24 hours, Drudge broadcast a global retraction. There's no question that publishing unverified gossip is irresponsible, but Blumenthal will have a tough time proving malice.

What's truly appalling is Blumenthal's enlistment of his boss in the legal battle. Last week, White House Deputy Press Secretary Joe Lockhart phoned the editorial page editor of USA Today to complain about a columnist who came to Drudge's defense. Susan Estrich, a liberal Democrat, raised grave First Amendment concerns about a top White House official pursuing a private libel suit while dealing with the press on behalf of the President. "If this is a private lawsuit pursued in a private capacity," Estrich asked in a follow-up commentary, "why is the White House calling to complain?"

Amen. And why aren't more mainstream journalists and First Amendment advocates outraged by this Goliath-like exploitation of public office and the courts?

- Michelle Malkin