Matt Drudge Making Shit Up?

“We’re not going to have a war,” political strategist Stanley Motts says in the 1997 film Wag the Dog. “We’re going to have the appearance of a war.”

You might say the same thing of conservative online news aggregator Matt Drudge, who has often been accused of putting a spin on news stories to increase traffic to his site.

In this morning’s edition of The Drudge Report, the following story runs:

FALSE COURTNEY LOVE SUICIDE RUMORS FILL INTERNET: LAPD Officer Kathi Simpson of the Media Relations office says detectives report that the suicide in the 8500 block of Mulholland Drive in the Mount Olympus area does not involve a celebrity, and there are no plans for a briefing to discuss the investigation…

There’s a problem here. First of all, Drudge links to no credible news report or LAPD press statement. Secondly, a Technorati search reveals that the only “Courtney Love suicide rumors” filling the internet are trackbacks to Drudge’s own story.

SLUDGE … I MEAN, DRUDGE OFFERS THIS MID-AFTERNOON UPDATE:

Off duty police officer reportedly killed self early in morning in secluded area off famous drive…

Off duty police officer. Courtney Love. Yeah, same difference. C’mon, Drudge, what was this really all about? An excuse for putting up on the internet the block where Courtney Love lives? How Luke Ford of you.

I’m also sorry to see that Juice E News Daily is running with the Drudge story as if it were true.

Nothing on the news wires or the LAPD News Room about an off-duty police officer eating his gun either so we’ll call this one a developing story.

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